Bowie's Bookshelf: The Hundred Books that Changed David Bowie's Life

ISBN: 1982112549

Author: O'Connell, John

Condition: Used

The only art Ill ever study is stuff that I can steal from. -David BowieThree years before David Bowie died, he shared a list of 100 books that changed his life. His choices span fiction and nonfiction, literary and irreverent, and include timeless classics alongside eyebrow-raising obscurities. Discover them all in this unconventional biography of an artist who helped define modern music and pop culture (Mental Floss).In 100 short essays, music journalist John OConnell studies each book on Bowies list and contextualizes it in the artists 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 Bowies own hazy personal cosmology? How did the poems of T.S. Eliot and Frank OHara, the fiction of Vladimir Nabokov and Anthony Burgess, the comics of The Beano and The Viz, and the groundbreaking politics of James Baldwin influence Bowies lyrics, his sound, his artistic outlook? How did the 100 books on this list influence one of the most influential artists of a generation?Totally original, entertaining, and informative (Vogue), Bowies Bookshelf is one part epic reading guide and one part biography of a music legend.