So, here's a thing...I was looking at David Bowie's top 100 books. I've always liked David Bowie. Not necessarily as a musician...I haven't listened to much music in the last 20 years and certainly haven't listened to much new music. I tend to, if left to my own devices, like really bad music. So, I mostly just listen to Pearl Jam and whatever folk music my Other One is listening to (Glenn Hansard, Damien Rice, The Tallest Man on Earth). I like music, but I find that I can't follow movies, music, and books. I have to pick two. So, it's movies and books!
But, Bowie was more than music. Bowie was art, reinvention. Bowie was an actor, a musician, a fashion icon. Just because I haven't really listened to his music post 1985 doesn't mean that I don't think he was a hell of a smart guy and an artist to be respected. And anyone who compiles a list of 100 books THIS GOOD? Well....that's someone to emulate!
In any case, I was looking at his list of books and found that while I hadn't read a great many of them, the ones I had read, I liked a great deal. They were:
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner (not my favorite Faulkner but the first Faulkner I really "got" so it's special to my heart)
Passing by Nella Larsen
The Stranger by Albert Camus
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Wasteland by T.S. Elliot
McTeague by Frank Norris (I loved loved loved this book when I read it in college! It's an underrated classic!)
1984 by George Orwell
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote (one of the best nonfiction books I've ever read)
These would all make my top 100 as well-- except perhaps the Burgess book which...I don't know, I would re-read but I don't remember loving it like I loved some of these other books. All the other books are books that make me want to jump up and down.
So, I thought, what sounds interesting on his list? And I settled upon a book called The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With the Sea by Yukio Mishima. It took me looking at about 4 different libraries before I found it at the University of Memphis library. I was headed that way last night for my Other One's class (I like to go with and hang out while she's in class) and figured I'd get it. It's 182 page book and I'm on page 75 now. And I keep thinking, what if I did the whole list? How long would that take? How hard would that be? I figure in taking on projects you can pick two from the "cheap, fast, and good" and have to go with those two because you can't accomplish all three simultaneously, I would pick cheap and good. So, this a project without an end date. I'm going to read the books on Bowie's top 100 list because, well, because there are probably worse things I could do.
I'll find this books as cheaply as possible, read them, blog about them. I don't say what regularity I will do this because I don't know what can be found. Some things on the list, it won't happen...for example the listing for Beano says it's a comic from the 1950's. I don't think I can find that, but I will look, see what I see. There are a couple of comics and magazines that I don't think I'd have any way to read, but again, I'll hunt down the books, read them, write about them.
I figure this should be something I can complete in 10 years or so! Wish me luck!
In case you want to check out the list, you can read it here. Which ones have you read? And which ones do you want to read now?
Good to "see" you, Tonya! Hope all is well. We should get together sometime and catch up!
Laura
Posted by: Laura Perry | 05/07/2016 at 01:47 AM