
Bowie's Bookshelf
The Hundred Books That Changed David Bowie's Life
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Buy for $21.49
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Simon Vance
-
By:
-
John O'Connell
About this listen
Three 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.
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.
©2019 John O'Connell (P)2020 TantorListeners also enjoyed...
-
Hero
- David Bowie
- By: Lesley-Ann Jones
- Narrated by: Gina Murray, Lesley-Ann Jones
- Length: 12 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
His music thrilled the generation it was written for and has entertained and inspired every generation since. Hero: David Bowie is an exploration of the man behind the myths and the makeup told from the very beginning. Respected music journalist and biographer Lesley-Ann Jones knew David Jones from the days before fame, when he was a young musician starting out, frustrated by an industry that wouldn't give him a break and determined to succeed at whatever cost.
-
-
Gossipy and disappointing.
- By WhoGirl17 on 12-11-17
By: Lesley-Ann Jones
-
In Pieces
- By: Sally Field
- Narrated by: Sally Field
- Length: 10 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this intimate, haunting, literary memoir read by the author, an American icon tells her story for the first time, in her own gorgeous words - about a challenging and lonely childhood, the craft that helped her find her voice, and a powerful emotional legacy that shaped her journey as a daughter and a mother.
-
-
Riveting Life Story of Sally Field's
- By DAW on 09-20-18
By: Sally Field
-
Doppelganger
- A Trip into the Mirror World
- By: Naomi Klein
- Narrated by: Naomi Klein
- Length: 14 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
What if you woke up one morning and found you’d acquired another self—a double who was almost you and yet not you at all? What if that double shared many of your preoccupations but, in a twisted, upside-down way, furthered the very causes you’d devoted your life to fighting against? Not long ago, the celebrated activist and public intellectual Naomi Klein had just such an experience—she was confronted with a doppelganger whose views she found abhorrent but whose name and public persona were sufficiently similar to her own that many people got confused about who was who.
-
-
Elite Psychobabble
- By A Reviewer on 09-30-23
By: Naomi Klein
-
The Philosophy of Modern Song
- By: Bob Dylan
- Narrated by: Bob Dylan, Jeff Bridges, Steve Buscemi, and others
- Length: 6 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Dylan, who began working on the book in 2010, offers his insight into the nature of popular music. He writes over sixty essays focusing on songs by other artists, spanning from Stephen Foster to Elvis Costello, and in between ranging from Hank Williams to Nina Simone. He analyzes what he calls the trap of easy rhymes, breaks down how the addition of a single syllable can diminish a song, and even explains how bluegrass relates to heavy metal. These essays are written in Dylan’s unique prose. And while ostensibly about music, they are really meditations on the human condition.
-
-
Needs chapter headings
- By kaon on 12-22-22
By: Bob Dylan
-
Me
- Elton John Official Autobiography
- By: Elton John
- Narrated by: Elton John, Taron Egerton
- Length: 12 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In his first and only official autobiography, music icon Elton John reveals the truth about his extraordinary life, from his roller-coaster lifestyle as shown in the film Rocketman, to becoming a living legend.
-
-
A Book as Extraordinary as Elton
- By Tracey Brown on 10-17-19
By: Elton John
-
The Creative Act
- A Way of Being
- By: Rick Rubin
- Narrated by: Rick Rubin
- Length: 5 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Many famed music producers are known for a particular sound that has its day. Rick Rubin is known for something else: creating a space where artists of all different genres and traditions can home in on who they really are and what they really offer. He has made a practice of helping people transcend their self-imposed expectations in order to reconnect with a state of innocence from which the surprising becomes inevitable. Over the years, he has learned that being an artist isn’t about your specific output, it’s about your relationship to the world.
-
-
Rick is Art
- By Ira Henke on 01-17-23
By: Rick Rubin
-
Hero
- David Bowie
- By: Lesley-Ann Jones
- Narrated by: Gina Murray, Lesley-Ann Jones
- Length: 12 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
His music thrilled the generation it was written for and has entertained and inspired every generation since. Hero: David Bowie is an exploration of the man behind the myths and the makeup told from the very beginning. Respected music journalist and biographer Lesley-Ann Jones knew David Jones from the days before fame, when he was a young musician starting out, frustrated by an industry that wouldn't give him a break and determined to succeed at whatever cost.
-
-
Gossipy and disappointing.
- By WhoGirl17 on 12-11-17
By: Lesley-Ann Jones
-
In Pieces
- By: Sally Field
- Narrated by: Sally Field
- Length: 10 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this intimate, haunting, literary memoir read by the author, an American icon tells her story for the first time, in her own gorgeous words - about a challenging and lonely childhood, the craft that helped her find her voice, and a powerful emotional legacy that shaped her journey as a daughter and a mother.
-
-
Riveting Life Story of Sally Field's
- By DAW on 09-20-18
By: Sally Field
-
Doppelganger
- A Trip into the Mirror World
- By: Naomi Klein
- Narrated by: Naomi Klein
- Length: 14 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
What if you woke up one morning and found you’d acquired another self—a double who was almost you and yet not you at all? What if that double shared many of your preoccupations but, in a twisted, upside-down way, furthered the very causes you’d devoted your life to fighting against? Not long ago, the celebrated activist and public intellectual Naomi Klein had just such an experience—she was confronted with a doppelganger whose views she found abhorrent but whose name and public persona were sufficiently similar to her own that many people got confused about who was who.
-
-
Elite Psychobabble
- By A Reviewer on 09-30-23
By: Naomi Klein
-
The Philosophy of Modern Song
- By: Bob Dylan
- Narrated by: Bob Dylan, Jeff Bridges, Steve Buscemi, and others
- Length: 6 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Dylan, who began working on the book in 2010, offers his insight into the nature of popular music. He writes over sixty essays focusing on songs by other artists, spanning from Stephen Foster to Elvis Costello, and in between ranging from Hank Williams to Nina Simone. He analyzes what he calls the trap of easy rhymes, breaks down how the addition of a single syllable can diminish a song, and even explains how bluegrass relates to heavy metal. These essays are written in Dylan’s unique prose. And while ostensibly about music, they are really meditations on the human condition.
-
-
Needs chapter headings
- By kaon on 12-22-22
By: Bob Dylan
-
Me
- Elton John Official Autobiography
- By: Elton John
- Narrated by: Elton John, Taron Egerton
- Length: 12 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In his first and only official autobiography, music icon Elton John reveals the truth about his extraordinary life, from his roller-coaster lifestyle as shown in the film Rocketman, to becoming a living legend.
-
-
A Book as Extraordinary as Elton
- By Tracey Brown on 10-17-19
By: Elton John
-
The Creative Act
- A Way of Being
- By: Rick Rubin
- Narrated by: Rick Rubin
- Length: 5 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Many famed music producers are known for a particular sound that has its day. Rick Rubin is known for something else: creating a space where artists of all different genres and traditions can home in on who they really are and what they really offer. He has made a practice of helping people transcend their self-imposed expectations in order to reconnect with a state of innocence from which the surprising becomes inevitable. Over the years, he has learned that being an artist isn’t about your specific output, it’s about your relationship to the world.
-
-
Rick is Art
- By Ira Henke on 01-17-23
By: Rick Rubin
-
Surrender
- 40 Songs, One Story
- By: Bono
- Narrated by: Bono
- Length: 20 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As one of the music world’s most iconic artists and the cofounder of the organizations ONE and (RED), Bono’s career has been written about extensively. But in Surrender, it’s Bono who picks up the pen, writing for the first time about his remarkable life and those he has shared it with. In his unique voice, Bono takes us from his early days growing up in Dublin, including the sudden loss of his mother when he was fourteen, to U2’s unlikely journey to become one of the world’s most influential rock bands, to his more than twenty years of activism.
-
-
Fantastic!
- By Josh on 11-04-22
By: Bono
-
Under the Big Black Sun
- A Personal History of L.A. Punk
- By: John Doe, Tom Desavia
- Narrated by: Exene Cervenka, Henry Rollins, full cast
- Length: 7 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Under the Big Black Sun explores the nascent Los Angeles punk rock movement and its evolution to hardcore punk as it's never been told before. Authors John Doe and Tom DeSavia have woven together an enthralling story of the legendary West Coast scene from 1977 to 1982 by enlisting the voices of people who were there. The book shares chapter-length tales from the authors along with personal essays from famous (and infamous) players in the scene.
-
-
A love song to the early punk days in LA.
- By Brenda on 07-09-16
By: John Doe, and others
-
Art Is Life
- Icons and Iconoclasts, Visionaries and Vigilantes, and Flashes of Hope in the Night
- By: Jerry Saltz
- Narrated by: Jerry Saltz, Mark Bramhall
- Length: 16 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Jerry Saltz is one of our most-watched writers about art and artists and a passionate champion of the importance of art in our shared cultural life. Since the 1990s he has been an indispensable cultural voice: Witty and provocative, he has attracted contemporary listeners to fine art as few critics have.
-
-
WRONG for audio program
- By Karen Lehrer on 11-07-22
By: Jerry Saltz
-
Lou Reed
- The King of New York
- By: Will Hermes
- Narrated by: Will Hermes
- Length: 20 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Since his death ten years ago, Lou Reed’s living presence has only grown. The great rock-poet presided over the marriage of Brill Building pop and the European avant-garde, and left American culture transfigured. In Lou Reed: The King of New York, Will Hermes offers the definitive narrative of Reed’s life and legacy, dramatizing his long, brilliant, and contentious dialogue with fans, critics, fellow artists, and assorted habitués of the demimonde.
-
-
Best Biography I’ve Ever Read
- By Sammy Criscitello on 11-21-24
By: Will Hermes
-
Rememberings
- By: Sinéad O'Connor
- Narrated by: Sinéad O'Connor
- Length: 7 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the acclaimed, controversial singer-songwriter Sinéad O’Connor comes a revelatory memoir of her fraught childhood, musical triumphs, fearless activism, and of the enduring power of song.
-
-
Brilliant
- By Lora on 06-05-21
By: Sinéad O'Connor
-
How to Think Like David Bowie
- Habits of Mind for Leading a More Creative and Successful Life
- By: Jonathan Tindale
- Narrated by: Jack Jacobs
- Length: 4 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
How to Think Like David Bowie offers an entertaining guide to the habits, techniques, and personal qualities that Bowie nurtured to defy convention and stimulate his creativity. You will also find plenty of helpful tips and suggestions so that you can stretch your own potential, lead a more creative life, and nurture your mind.
By: Jonathan Tindale
-
Mobituaries
- By: Mo Rocca
- Narrated by: Mo Rocca
- Length: 11 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Mo Rocca has always loved obituaries - reading about the remarkable lives of global leaders, Hollywood heavyweights, and innovators who changed the world. But not every notable life has gotten the send-off it deserves. His quest to right that wrong inspired Mobituaries, his number one hit podcast. Now with Mobituaries, the audiobook, he has gone much further, with all new essays on artists, entertainers, sports stars, political pioneers, founding fathers, and more. Even if you know the names, you’ve never understood why they matter...until now.
-
-
Very good, but.....
- By Christopher on 11-15-19
By: Mo Rocca
-
Goth
- A History
- By: Lol Tolhurst
- Narrated by: Lol Tolhurst, Budgie
- Length: 7 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
GOTH is an entertaining and engaging historical memoir, and a journey through Goth music and culture, exploring creative giants like The Cure, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Bauhaus, Joy Division, and many more great bands that offered a place of refuge for the misfits of the ‘80s and ever since. Written by Lol Tolhurst, co-founder of The Cure, this book offers a riveting retrospective of the genre’s iconic movers and shakers, infused with stories from Tolhurst’s personal trove of memories.
-
-
Lol’s life experiences and literary skills come together for this exquisite perspective on the subject
- By Marshall K. on 11-08-24
By: Lol Tolhurst
-
A Confederacy of Dunces
- By: John Kennedy Toole
- Narrated by: Barrett Whitener
- Length: 13 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The hero of John Kennedy Toole's incomparable, Pultizer Prize–winning comic classic is one Ignatius J. Reilly, an obese, self-absorbed, hapless Don Quixote of the French Quarter, whose half-hearted attempts at employment lead to a series of wacky adventures among the lower denizens of New Orleans.
-
-
Well Done
- By Jon on 09-18-05
-
A Clockwork Orange
- By: Anthony Burgess
- Narrated by: Tom Hollander
- Length: 7 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A vicious 15-year-old droog is the central character of this 1963 classic, a frightening fable about good and evil, and the meaning of human freedom. In Anthony Burgess' nightmare vision of the future, where the criminals take over after dark, the story is told by the central character, Alex, who talks in a brutal invented slang that brilliantly renders his and his friends' social pathology.
-
-
Great book, great narration, but not for everyone
- By Steve on 06-28-09
By: Anthony Burgess
-
Tom Stoppard
- A Life
- By: Hermione Lee
- Narrated by: Stephen Crossley
- Length: 37 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Tom Stoppard is a towering and beloved literary figure. Known for his dizzying narrative inventiveness and intense attention to language, he deftly deploys art, science, history, politics, and philosophy in works that span a remarkable spectrum of literary genres: theater, radio, film, TV, journalism, and fiction. His most acclaimed creations - Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, The Real Thing, Arcadia, The Coast of Utopia, Shakespeare in Love - remain as fresh and moving as when they entranced their first audiences.
-
-
great biography
- By Aidan O'Reilly on 03-11-21
By: Hermione Lee
-
The Big Reveal
- By: Sasha Velour
- Narrated by: Sasha Velour
- Length: 6 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This book is a quilt, piecing together memoir, history, and theory into a living portrait of an artist and an art. Sasha Velour illuminates drag as a unique form of expression with a rich history and a revolutionary spirit. Each chapter strips off a new layer, removing one tantalizing glove and then another, to reveal all the twists and turns in the life of a queen. As Sasha recalls her own journey, from the women who raised her, to learning the craft of an artist, to success, disaster, and more, she also uncovers the history of queer life around the world that made it all possible.
-
-
Much more than expected
- By Anonymous User on 05-22-23
By: Sasha Velour
What listeners say about Bowie's Bookshelf
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Buretto
- 01-29-20
Oddly unsatisfying
I was reminded of the joke that opens the film "Annie Hall", where one woman complains "The food in this restaurant is terrible." To which her friend replies, "Yeah, and such small portions."
That describes this book in a nutshell. As might be expected as a fan of David Bowie, I was intrigued by the insight into what works influenced him. Unfortunately, what we are given is the author's second hand pseudo-intellectual artistic pomposity, that Bowie himself, and his public personae, gloriously and thankfully rose above.
Out of the 100, there are a dozen or so entries that are worth the effort, and might have invited a deeper dive, including Saul Bellow's "Herzog", John Kennedy Toole's "A Confederacy of Dunces", Albert Camus' "The Stanger", and Anthony Burgess' "A Clockwork Orange" . But virtually all of the entries are treated with the same clipped mini-report style, leaving the resulting takeaway a mile wide and an inch deep. I suspect the purpose of this book was as much for the author to show his erudition on literature, as it was a showcase for Bowie's reading interests. 3 stars out of respect for Bowie himself. Get it on a Daily Deal or 2-for-1 special.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
4 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Anthony G. Dispenza
- 06-24-20
mildly interesting
good narrator. the sexual debauchery was rife, even for a bowie book, and the left wing politics were more abundant that most material covering bowie. as sometimes happens with bowie, I'm left longing for more about his artistic brilliance, less about the perversion he escaped in his more mature years. still, there were some interesting insights into what Bowie found in these books. for a diehard fan, I'd say give it a try
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Chasseur
- 08-16-24
Speculative in some ways, but interesting
It has a nice introduction, then uses Bowie’s own book list as a basis for the author to provide some history, context, and actual links of the books to Bowie. Vance’s narration is as usual wonderful. I liked it much more than I anticipated.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!