Chaos Reading discussion

You may have the moves like Jagger, but I'd rather read like Bowie...

From Open Book Toronto: David Bowie's Top 100 Books

There are a few of these sitting unread on my shelf. I might just have to up The Songlines, though. I've been putting it off for a long time.
At least we can say we've done one of them as a group read! (Last Exit To Brooklyn)

Hey Ruby! I don't think the link to David Bowie's Top 100 is working. Just a heads up. :-)

Cora wrote: "Hey Ruby! I don't think the link to David Bowie's Top 100 is working. Just a heads up. :-)"

Thanks Cora! I would've totally missed that. All fixed now.

Heehee! There's one book on there that nobody ever has read, and doesn't have a synopsis. Seems to be entirely shelved by people who have seen this list.

Ruby [Doesn't Like Being Censored] wrote: "Heehee! There's one book on there that nobody ever has read, and doesn't have a synopsis. Seems to be entirely shelved by people who have seen this list."

Oooo, awesome link. I didn't know Bowie could get any cooler!

P.S. What is the Australian take on The Songlines? Here, it was pretty much required to have a copy on your bookshelf in the late 80's. Then it fell out of favor with allegations / revelations that Chatwin had made a bunch of it up. Now it seems to occupy a middle ground somewhere, a classic of travel lit, but not the end-all-be-all it once was.

Whitney wrote: "Ruby [Doesn't Like Being Censored] wrote: "Heehee! There's one book on there that nobody ever has read, and doesn't have a synopsis. Seems to be entirely shelved by people who have seen this list."..."

That pretty much sums it up here too, at least as far as I'm aware. Chatwin isn't Indigenous, and that makes a big difference here. I've never read it, but I have a secondhand copy, since there are always plenty of those lying around.

Because I work in the field of Indigenous social policy, I have a bit of an aversion to reading fiction on the subject anyway -I always get caught up in trying to figure out who the author is and whether they have any right to be telling an Indigenous story, given the cultural protocols.

The blurbs all talk about Australian Indigenous people as if they're all one homogenous culture, which is generally a sure sign that the person doesn't really understand things - there are around 150 unique cultural groups left today, (from 400 originally). Actual songlines usually contain knowledge that is controlled by a particular group, intended to be passed on to certain people within that group (within very complex kinship & social systems). It's usually not okay to share cultural knowledge with just anyone or for outsiders to misappropriate without permission from Elders.

Oooh, love me some Bowie. I'm ashamed that I've only read a few of these, but I have quite a few more on my TBR list.

For some reason I was expecting... more. I dunno. There are a few good picks on here (and a lot that I haven't read), but I didn't find very many super, super exciting books on that list. Also, most of them seem to be books he read in the mid-60s...so.....

[BUMP] In honor of his passing.

Great taste! (Apart from Amis' Money. #AmisEugh)

Nicely done, Marc. I'd forgotten about this thread.

We've been doing some pretty serious grieving in this house. My partner and I have been on holidays together, playing old 70s Bowie and then thrashing the wonderful new album - it was going to be our, "Summer of Bowie". And then the worst thing possible happened...

Leo, is that universal Amis animus or just for Money?

Ruby, I'm taking some solace in the way the virtual world seems to be celebrating him around the globe.

It's still the summer of Bowie, it's just means a little more.

Marc wrote: "Ruby, I'm taking some solace in the way the virtual world seems to be celebrating him around the globe."
Yeah - there's certainly been an outpouring of Bowie love! I was online when news broke, and everyone wanted so badly for it to be a hoax!

The best tweet I saw was this, "Right. Fuck this. Get me a space shuttle, a priest of every denomination, a unicorn horn and some gaffer tape. We're going to fetch Bowie back."

Whitney wrote: "It's still the summer of Bowie, it's just means a little more."

Yes, that's true. There's a heavy note of sadness running through it now, though. It certainly changes the way I feel about the song, Lazarus. We were playing it for two solid days, and now it seems like a (deliberate) farewell. We're both still too raw to play Bowie again just yet.

Ruby wrote: " now it seems like a (deliberate) farewell."

I'm sure it was. Tony Visconti knew about his illness a year ago, so they knew they were working to a deadline.

He left with the message he wanted to leave. That is great and powerful.

I've just found out that he has already been cremated, and apparently there will not be a funeral of any kind (even for friends and family). That seems quite out of character.

Every time I listen to Lazarus it makes me cry. I am trying to avoid that song as much as I can, but there is something haunting about it and I end up playing that song again and again...

Mayank wrote: "Every time I listen to Lazarus it makes me cry. I am trying to avoid that song as much as I can, but there is something haunting about it and I end up playing that song again and again..."

That's the weirdest thing. We were thrashing that song and loving it, right until we found out the sad news and realised it was probably his farewell. Still getting teary, I have to admit.