Books

[grateful]

I'm reading James Brown's autobiography.. very good so far...it really is his voice...

He really puts the auto in autobiography.

[K8teebug]

One of my resolutions that I'm currently failing at was trying to read more books in 2017... When do you all find the majority of your time to read?

Do you have children?

What time do you go to bed?

If I'm lucky I have one, maybe two free hours a day and unfortunately reading typically falls down the priority list during that free time.

I don't have kids. I carve out time to read. Turn off the tv and go to bed at 8:15/8:30 and read until 9:30/10 or so.

[Relaxer]

Just pulled these too off of the free book shelf. I'll definitely get into the Steve Jones one soon.

Follow-up having finished these.

The Woody book was fun to read, gives a cool inside account of Bowie post-Space Oddity when he was seen as a novelty and one-hit wonder. It's a shame that the Bowie focus fades once he kills off the Spiders, but it's pretty interesting to read about he navigated the music industry after Bowie.

The Steve Jones book is a hoot. One thing I liked about Peter Hook's book is when he'd throw in the occasional British-ism. It wasn't that often and you could always figure it out in context. Holy shit, the Jones book has several per page that I have no idea what they mean. I've seen this element criticized but I think it's great, I loved reading all these turns of phrase that I'd never heard of and trying to figure out what they meant. Anglophiles will dig this.

The Washington Football Team book was great, by the way. I moved to DC in 1992, so I missed all of those glory years and it was great to get the details on them.

Also pinched out a book dedicated to Amy Winehouse's Back in Black. It was pretty boring and was basically just a 200 page love letter to the record. But it was interesting enough to finish as a toilet book.

[hutch]

god I finally finished the Peter Hook autobiography on New Order....it really made me want to cry...

[Relaxer]

How so?
In the end, I liked it but damn it got to be a slog the last few hundred pages.

[hutch]

How so?
In the end, I liked it but damn it got to be a slog the last few hundred pages.

cause i ended up really disliking Peter Hook and just to know how much he loathed the rest of the band... man I felt sad my favorite band ended up like that..

I lost a lot of respect for Peter Hook...if it was all so terrible he should have walked away from it decades ago! Also, why is he so obsessed with money.. every other page he is talking about how much he lost on this or that.. and how he's "skint"..its like, dude how the fuck can you be so poor? Don't you save anything? Even in the 2000s he's talking about doing stuff cause it gave him like 500 pounds and he needed the money! WTF??? He's such an asshole..so much of the stuff he talks about the rest of the band he really should not have... and then a lot of the stuff he says just seems like total bullshit or some he is making up maybe to use in the court trial (Does he really have to wail on Gillian so much?? I get it he hates Barney with a passion and yet stayed in the band for decades while hating him- talk about pathetic)

reading the book it just confirmed that since about 1985 Bernard Sumner has basically done way more than Peter Hook who has hardly lifted a finger..

Lovely by the way how Peter Hook calls himself the producer along with the engineer Michael Johnson......I have seen zero evidence of that anywhere..

The weird thing is that to me in person he's been a really nice guy but the book makes him look like a total asshole who has accomplished next to nothing during the past 30 plus years.

[Dejecty-hatch lııllı|̲̅̅●̲̅̅|̲̅̅=̲̅̅|̲̅̅●̲̅̅|llıl]

makes him look like a total asshole who has accomplished next to nothing during the past 30 plus years.

my only wish in life is to not have this epitath

with that said, saw hooky twice in the last decade and those were some of the best shows I've seen durring that time

[hutch]

makes him look like a total asshole who has accomplished next to nothing during the past 30 plus years.

my only wish in life is to not have this epitath

with that said, saw hooky twice in the last decade and those were some of the best shows I've seen durring that time

well that is interesting to think about.. one's epitaph...

I'd lend you the book but I'd never get it back!

you might read it and have a different opinion but i doubt it...

[Julian, Bespoke SEXPERT]

well that is interesting to think about.. one's epitaph...

"This 9.27sq ft plot of Earth contains (insert Hutch's real name). Please don't pee here."

[hutch]

I found the 2001 Quincy Jones autobiography used.. he signed and dedicated it to "Shani".. I guess the book came out October 2001.. he dated it 10/20/01.. must have been the book tour as that is when it came out...

In some ways life did go on after 9-11 but it sure was a punch to the gut...

Quincy Jones for whatever reason seems to have worked with just about everyone I love from Billy Eckstine to Ray Charles, Miles Davis, Frank Sinatra.. even New Order! Of course he engineered Michael Jackson's huge success putting together everything a lot of Off the Wall and Thriller...I am rather wary of the book but will read it and report back..I guess Shani did not think as highly of Q as I do..


I also picked up Murakami's 1Q84.. it looks positively ginourmous coming in at 925 pages.. good lord.. I have to say I am not optimistic about finishing it...I can't remember the last book of that length I read...

[Dejecty-hatch lııllı|̲̅̅●̲̅̅|̲̅̅=̲̅̅|̲̅̅●̲̅̅|llıl]

Hutch...did you know about this one
Who Killed Mister Moonlight?

I did just enjoy this book
Sellout by Paul Beatty

[hutch]

The david j bauhaus focused autobiography?  Yah read it last year.

[Julian, Bespoke SEXPERT]

I did just enjoy this book
Sellout by Paul Beatty

Its rare a book make you laugh out loud repeatedly but that one did. Really enjoyed it.

This summer I've read:
Thomas Pynchon - Gravity's Rainbow : my second time through this one (last time was ten+ years ago). Holds up well.
Chuck Klosterman - X : good essay collection
Donna Tartt - The Little Friend : probably her weakest of her three novels but still pretty good.
Edif Batuman - The Idiot: I loved this book. A bravura work, and very funny.
Haruki Murakami - Sputnik Sweetheart: a run of the mill book by him. Not his best but not his worst.
Han King - The Vegetarian: very good, short novel. I think it was originally three short stories.

Currently reading: Adam Johnson's Orphan Master's Son. I hope to finish this and get through Colson Whitehead's The Underground Railroad before September when College Football starts up and all my productivity goes out the window.

[martinrob]

Has anyone read the Johnny Marr autobiography Set the Boy Free?

[Bagley]

Really enjoyed Paul Auster's 4 3 2 1.  Four bildungsromans in one, as you're taken on four distinctly separate life journeys with the main character (Archie).  It reads like historical fiction, at times, especially when Archie encounters Mark Rudd and the campus unrest at Columbia University in 1968...  Somewhat verbose but very well done.

Emma Cline- the Girls is another good recent contemporary fiction choice. It deals with a Charlie Manson like cult and the main character's decision to hang with them or not.


Drew Magary's The Hike (2016).  He's a local Maryland writer.  This was a fun alternate reality type novel.  The protagonist begins a normal hike and winds up in a wacky fantasy world.