Two friends have had a book club for a very very long time. It was mostly an excuse to drink and gossip. In January of 2016, they found renewed purpose in their sadness over the death of David Bowie. They decided to stop mucking around and actually get some reading done - from the list of books that he loved.
Reading the feed…
Welcome to another episode of the Bowie Book Club, where wild speculation and grasping for straws about Bowie’s favorite books has reigned supreme since 2016. This time, we read Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut, a book that has launched a thousand dorm room conversations.
Welcome to another episode of the Bowie Book Club, where wild speculation and grasping for straws about Bowie’s favorite books has reigned supreme since 2016. This time we read Basquiat - The Notebooks edited by Larry Warsh - just like the ones you used in grade school, but probably worth a lot more!
Welcome to another episode of the Bowie Book Club, where wild speculation and grasping for straws about Bowie’s favorite books has reigned supreme since 2016. This time we read Cheap Novelties by Ben Katchor about one man's eternal search for Herbert Water, or a Grape Bosphorus, at least. All you have is cans?
Welcome to another episode of the Bowie Book Club, where wild speculation and grasping for straws about Bowie’s favorite books has reigned supreme since 2016. This time we read The Immoralist by Andre Gide, about a guy who spends a lot of time telling his friends how immoral he is. Almost as good as Maldoror!
Welcome to another episode of the Bowie Book Club, where wild speculation and grasping for straws about Bowie’s favorite books has reigned supreme since 2016. This time we read The Last Temptation of Christ by Nikos Kazantzakis, which turns out to be more than just a vehicle for the majestic acting of Harry Dean Stanton!
Welcome to another episode of the Bowie Book Club, where wild speculation and grasping for straws about Bowie’s favorite books has reigned supreme since 2016. This time we read a book about a muppet (?) monster and his tour of the philosophical hot spots, Grendel by John Gardner.
Welcome to another episode of the **Bowie Book Club**, where wild speculation and grasping for straws about Bowie’s favorite books has reigned supreme since 2016. This time we read The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolano - a far-ranging tome about poets who never seem to write any poetry, but do a lot of other crazy stuff.
Welcome to another episode of the Bowie Book Club, where wild speculation and grasping for straws about Bowie’s favorite books has reigned supreme since 2016. This time we read Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel, which tells the tale of arch-fixer Thomas Cromwell without a mention of turkey legs.
Welcome to another episode of the Bowie Book Club, where wild speculation and grasping for straws about Bowie’s favorite books has reigned supreme since 2016. This time we read The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. LeGuin, a story of hot beer and cold nights (and many, many other more important themes and ideas!)
Welcome to another episode of the **Bowie Book Club**, where wild speculation and grasping for straws about Bowie’s favorite books has reigned supreme since 2016. This time we read Medium is the Massage by Marchall McLuhan, a stew of images, aphorisms and (maybe unfounded?) optimism that will loosen up those tired media muscles.
Welcome to another episode of the Bowie Book Club, where wild speculation and grasping for straws about Bowie’s favorite books has reigned supreme since 2016. This time we read Diary of a Drug Fiend by Aleister Crowley, which (much to our surprise) is not Chronicles of Narnia fan-fic despite the appearance of a Big Lion who solves everything. Also features drugs that are fiended after throughout.
Welcome to another episode of the Bowie Book Club, where wild speculation and grasping for straws about Bowie’s favorite books has reigned supreme since 2016. This time we read (or maybe just encountered on the Astral Plane?) The Spear of Destiny, Trevor Ravenscroft's minimally factual tale of the occult and its hallucinatory hold on Adolf Hilter.
Welcome to another episode of the Bowie Book Club, where wild speculation and grasping for straws about Bowie’s favorite books has reigned supreme since 2016. This time we read Backstage Passes by Angie Bowie, a tell-all that includes flying saucers, devil-haunted pools, and John Bonham's breakfast. Oh, and David Bowie too.
Welcome to another episode of the Bowie Book Club, where wild speculation and grasping for straws about Bowie’s favorite books has reigned supreme since 2016. This time we read Egon Schiele - The Paintings, a collection of works by a very proflic narcissist who packed a lot of splayed figures and elongated fingers into his brief life!
Welcome to another episode of the Bowie Book Club, where wild speculation and grasping for straws about Bowie’s favorite books has reigned supreme since 2016. This time we read The Man Who Fell to Earth by Walter Tevis, a story of large glasses of gin, otherworldly chemistry and, why not, fake eyebrows too.
Welcome to another episode of the Bowie Book Club, where wild speculation and grasping for straws about Bowie’s favorite books has reigned supreme since 2016. This time we read The Gift by Vladimir Nabokov, a multi-level marketing scheme to get you into an emigre's state of mind.
Welcome to another episode of the Bowie Book Club, where wild speculation and grasping for straws about Bowie’s favorite books has reigned supreme since 2016. This time we read Nova Express (https://bookshop.org/a/105/9780802122087) by William Burroughs - maybe it's science fiction? Maybe it's a spell to thwart mind control ? Maybe it's just not meant to be read?
Welcome to another episode of the Bowie Book Club, where wild speculation and grasping for straws about Bowie’s favorite books has reigned supreme since 2016. This time we read Dancing in the Streets by Barbara Ehrenreich, a survey about how people have collectively let their hair down over the past few centuries.
Welcome to another episode of the Bowie Book Club, where wild speculation and grasping for straws about Bowie’s favorite books has reigned supreme since 2016. This time we read Strangers on a Train by Patricia Highsmith, which is about how awful it was to travel before you could use noise-canceling headphones to eliminate any possibility of getting into a conversation with someone about murder.
Welcome to another episode of the Bowie Book Club, where wild speculation and grasping for straws about Bowie’s favorite books has reigned supreme since 2016. This time we read The Flamethrowers by Rachel Kushner, which turns out to be about much more than Iggy Pop's satin pants.
Welcome to another episode of the Bowie Book Club, where wild speculation and grasping for straws about Bowie’s favorite books has reigned supreme since 2016. This time we read The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoevsky, which suprisingly ISN'T about Iggy Pop!
Welcome to another episode of the Bowie Book Club, where wild speculation and grasping for straws about Bowie’s favorite books has reigned supreme since 2016. This time we read The Buddha of Suburbia by Hanif Kureishi, which might be the most Bowie of the Bowie books we've read so far, in some ways.
Welcome to another episode of the Bowie Book Club, where wild speculation and grasping for straws about Bowie’s favorite books has reigned supreme since 2016. This time we read Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol a picaresque novel of a grifter being grifty in Old Russia.
Welcome to another episode of the Bowie Book Club, where wild speculation and grasping for straws about Bowie’s favorite books has reigned supreme since 2016. This time we read Hollywood Babylon a cruel and carnal compilation of old Hollywood tragedies written by Kenneth Anger, who apparantly shares our disdain for thorough research!
Welcome to another episode of the **Bowie Book Club**, where wild speculation and grasping for straws about Bowie’s favorite books has reigned supreme since 2016. This time we read Roadside Picnic by Boris and Arkady Strugatsky, a hard-boiled story of mysterious realms, stiff drinks and super-powered artifacts. Apologies for the jingling sounds in the background - we had a very active feline collaborator on this one.
