BOWIE'S BOOKSHELF: The Hundred Books That Changed David Bowie's Life

"David Bowie was a voracious reader: no surprise there. But what did he really rate? We learnt something of his tastes in March 2013. Keen eyes at the opening of the exhibition David Bowie Is at the Victoria and Albert Museum sought out his list of key texts. John O’Connell was one such fan and in the introduction here he is careful to underline this was not Bowie’s ‘favourite’ books as such but those he regarded as the most important and influential to his life and work.

What we are presented with here is thus both an extended bibliography that provides clues to the meanings of some of Bowie’s songs and a set of recommendations, a handy starter for the autodidact, an escape route, as O’Connell puts it, “into other people, other perspectives, other consciousnesses”. And if tackled these books will, he promises, take you “out of yourself, only to put you back there infinitely enriched.”...

...There are plenty of surprises here such as his love for true crime classics like Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood and travel narratives such as Bruce Chatwin’s The Songlines. We learn more about Bowie’s friendships with writers like Hanif Kureishi and William Boyd. It’s also good to be reminded that Bowie loved a laugh and rated Keith Waterhouse. Humour features strongly with Viz, Private Eye, and Spike Milligan’s Puckoon all making the cut...

...To the books themselves: O’Connell does a fine job in summarising plots and arguments whilst doubling up with explanations linking the titles to key Bowie reference points. Take Lolita for example where Nabokov’s comment that an author’s best audience “is the person he sees in his shaving mirror every morning” reflecting back Bowie’s rueful observation about the Tonight album: “all my big mistakes are when I try to second-guess or please an audience”.

This book celebrates the fact that, in O’Connell’s words, “Bowie’s work might have been inauthentic … but only rarely, in moments of personal or professional crisis, was it insincere”. This book is sincere, a work of love. O’Connell and Bowie signpost you to other great books and as such these tips seem ideal for the young. Teachers should lobby to get this on the National Curriculum." - The Quietus

Our selection from Bowie's bookshelf (with more on the way):