Books

Of course. I just finished a great book about how Uber and Airbnb were created and spread around the world along with Steve Young's autobio and a great book about the Occupy Wall Street movement of a few years ago. But since this is a music-focused message board, I limited my talk to books about music.

As for the time thing, these are a couple factors that I'm pulling out of my ass as I type them.

I don't watch much tv apart from sports, so if there isn't a good game on and I'm home, my activity options are few. If I'm home with the kids that night, once they go to bed I have to occupy my next few hours in some way, and usually that's with a drink and a book

I also am reading several books at once, and they're stashed around the house so wherever I am, there's probably a book within reach. So I have my bathroom book, bedside table book, kitchen book, and living room book.

And also, I read books on subjects that I'm really interested in, which consists of music, sports, business, politics, culture, etc., so the prospect of, say, spending the night sipping scotch and reading a critical look at Putin's life sounds great.

Relaxer wrote:
And also, I read books on subjects that I'm really interested in,

Chlamydia: An Oral History

BOOM!

Yada wrote:
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 read on the train. 35 mins each way, five times a week.

If I weren't such a Netflix junkie, I'd have late night as well.

That said, I've been stuck on that Replacements book for quite a while.

music is my favorite thing.. so i go through periods where I read a lot of music bios but i have to say the industry has changed.. now they seem to be publishing a lot more of these books..its become a huge market (rock star memoirs)….

i think it has been said that most of them aren't that great…the worst one EVER is the Eric Crapton one… dude, he is one horrible man and I did not need to know that… of course i think he is the most overrated musician ever but his book is all about his drug use and alcoholism sobriety with a lot of stuff about how he screwed everybody over..

anthony kiedis' book is also a lot about his battle for sobriety but that one i liked.. i had no idea what an interesting childhood he had.. slash's was also interesting (his mom knew bowie really well!)…

i also liked to get the signed editions of course.. i have the bernard sumner and david j signed ones!

dean wareham's is also good…

I've flipped through the Kiedis one a dozen times over the years but just never pulled the trigger on buying it. I'd def read it if it was on the free shelf, but only brand new titles show up there.

Slash's was good but you know what, Duff's "It's So Easy" was GREAT. I was really impressed with it and liked it a lot. Adler's is just depressing. A pretty good about Axl is "W.A.R." by Mick Wall. Actually I"m not sure if that's the right author, I'm lazy and drinking right now so I can't be arsed.

There's a new biography on Paul Simon that is awesome too. Lots of detail on what he did before hooking up with Garfunkel, and the whole chaos of his marriage to Carrie Fisher is really entertaining. Also fun to read about a short man's struggles with hair loss  ;)

Dave Stewart's was surprisingly good. I didn't give too much of a rip about the Eurythmics, but it was fun reading about how they came together as a couple, broke up, then started a world-famous band. PLus, dude has made records with everyone, so there's a lot of good rock and roll stories from over the decades.

Tonight, I am very sadly going to finish this. Just started it Sunday night but its such a compulsive read. So good and fun, I never want it to end. I could read a 2,000 page account of this era of the NFL.

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

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

He really puts the auto in autobiography.

Yada wrote:
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 wrote:
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.

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

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

Relaxer wrote:
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.

hutch wrote: 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

wishfulHatch wrote:

hutch wrote: 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…

hutch wrote:
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."

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…