{Review #1} Why do I care about Bowie's literary taste?

Folks, I'm a literary gossip fiend. But this is not that at all.

From best books of the decade, to a new literary canon, to literal books of lists, bookish lists have become all the rage nowadays. And as with any fad, with the rise in popularity comes a dip in quality, as book after book and article after article are churned out by unclearly qualified compilers.

That said, what makes this book (or any of the same breed) GREAT? 

It's the commentary. In proper hands, any simple booklist with a half-decent connective thread can become an opportunity to examine the relevance of the texts in their own context, of the ideas that birthed them and the ideas they would later originate, as well as their lasting effect on readers. Bowie's Bookshelf is filled with sociocultural observations, of connections between the literary, the artistic, the musical, the personal, and the public. It's all I could've hoped from such a book, with snappy cartoon illustrations to go along!

Of course, it doesn't hurt if you (like me) are very into David Bowie (in whatever capacity). In 2013, Bowie created this 100-book list of what he believed to be the most important, for a Bowie exhibit (surreal much?) at the Victoria & Albert museum in London. O'Connell takes the list as a starting point to analyze the works themselves, as well as their influence on Bowie's artistic output. He believes the list reflects the trajectory of Bowie's life, of his development as an artist and a human. 

So if you're a bookworm interested in David Bowie, this is definitely a must! But even if you aren't a  Bowie fan, this book might make you consider him, and the books themselves, differently. The list is a delightful mixture of the expected (On the Road, The Great Gatsby), with the more obscure but logical (Berlin Alexanderplatz, The Sailor who Fell from Grace with the Sea) and the absolutely  academic and esoteric (Sexual Personae, The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind). From intro to bibliography, this book is an absolute delight. 

I'm a big believer in the micro as a way of accessing the macro. I read biographies not only because I admire the subject, but because good biographies reflect on the times the subject lived, and connect  their experiences to larger world history (case in point, I got so much out of The Strangest Man in spite of not knowing anything about theoretical physics before going into it). Similarly, these mini-essays can do more than just shed light onto one rockstar (though that they definitely do), especially when the author has done his research, as O'Connell has clearly done. As an added bonus, he suggests a song to go with each book and a fitting "if you like this, try that" section at the end of each chapter. 

So if you're tempted, check out Bowie's Bookshelf by John O'Connell (also published as Bowie's Books).