Bowie's Bookshelf
The Hundred Books That Changed David Bowie's Life
Gallery Books · Print & ebook · November 12, 2019
Named one of Entertainment Weekly’s 12 biggest music memoirs this fall. “An artful and wildly enthralling path for Bowie fans in particular and book lovers in general.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review) “The only art I’ll ever study is stuff that I can steal from.” ―David Bowie Three years before David Bowie died, he shared a list of 100 books that changed his life.
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- Who it’s for
- A hundred concise essays trace the books that shaped Bowie’s imagination, art, and outlook.
- Themes
- David Bowie’s literary influences, Artistic identity and transformation, Books and musical creativity
- Genres
- Musicians' Lives, Books & Reading, Music Writing
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Matched by what the books are about, then ordered by what their readers also loved.
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The StorytellerDave Grohl58% matchShares Musicians' Lives
PettyWarren Zanes47% matchShares Musicians' Lives
RobinDave Itzkoff46% match
For younger readers: Rock Legends Who Changed the World, Who Is Elton John?, Jay-z
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Start with this bookAbout this book
Named one of Entertainment Weekly’s 12 biggest music memoirs this fall. “An artful and wildly enthralling path for Bowie fans in particular and book lovers in general.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review) “The only art I’ll ever study is stuff that I can steal from.” ―David Bowie Three years before David Bowie died, he shared a list of 100 books that changed his life.
Continue reading
His choices span fiction and nonfiction, literary and irreverent, and include timeless classics alongside eyebrow-raising obscurities. In 100 short essays, music journalist John O’Connell studies each book on Bowie’s list and contextualizes it in the artist’s life and work. How did the power imbued in a single suit of armor in The Iliad impact a man who loved costumes, shifting identity, and the siren song of the alter-ego? How did The Gnostic Gospels inform Bowie’s own hazy personal cosmology? How did the poems of T.S. Eliot and Frank O’Hara, the fiction of Vladimir Nabokov and Anthony Burgess, the comics of The Beano and The Viz, and the groundbreaking politics of James Baldwin influence Bowie’s lyrics, his sound, his artistic outlook? How did the 100 books on this list influence one of the most influential artists of a generation? Heartfelt, analytical, and totally original, Bowie’s Bookshelf is one part epic reading guide and one part biography of a music legend.
Reading Bowie
A hundred concise essays trace the books that shaped Bowie’s imagination, art, and outlook.
Come here for
- Literary connections across classics, comics, poetry, and unexpected obscurities
- A fresh way to think about Bowie’s creative influences
Expect
- Short, analytical essays linking books with Bowie’s life and work
- A blend of reading guide and artist biography
Where it sits
| Books & Reading | 48% |
|---|---|
| Musicians' Lives | 38% |
| Music Writing | 30% |
Percentages are BookFrontier’s reading of the book.
Publisher categories
- Artist Essays
- Lives in Entertainment
- Books & Reading
- Authors
- John O'Connell
- Publisher
- Gallery Books
- Published
- November 12, 2019
- Format
- Print & ebook
- Theme
- David Bowie’s literary influences · Artistic identity and transformation · Books and musical creativity
- Reading lane
- Artist Essays