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David Bowie - The Man Who Loved Books
David Bowie - The Man Who Loved Books
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DAVID BOWIE IN 1995, READING A BOOK ABOUT FRANCIS BACON CREDIT: REX FEATURES
or a man who left Bromley Technical High School with just one 'O' level (in
art), David
Bowie ended up a remarkably well-read man.
Bowie, who died aged 69 on January 10 2016, said that "when I'm relaxed what I
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do is read" and described a good week as one in which he pored through "three or
four books".
Bowie was witty and knowing about his own acquisitiveness for books and first
editions. He paid tribute to his parents for passing on a love of literature. One of
the turning points of his life was reading Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac;
hesaidthat reading On The Road at 15 was an epiphanous moment, giving him
the urge to get out of Bromley.
Bowie took 400 books with him to Mexico to the shoot of 1976 film The Man Who
To Earth. He told Mr Showbiz in 1997: "I was dead scared of leaving them in New
York, because I was knocking around with some dodgy people and I didn't want
them nicking any of my books."
That set a pattern of taking a travelling library on tour and Bowie said: "I had these
cabinets it was a travelling library and they were rather like the boxes that
amplifiers get packed up in. . . because of that period, I have an extraordinarily
good collection of books."
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David Bowie at the Beckenham Arts Lab in 1969 reading the 1964 book Bicyclists Dismount by Mason Williams
CREDIT: REX FEATURES
During his career, Bowie talked about the books and writers he liked, everything
from Allan Ginsberg and William Burroughs, to Stephen King ("I love Stephen
King, scares the s--- out of me"). He retained an interest in British authors: Martin
Amis ("funny"); Peter Ackroyd ("there's a great mysticism in his work. I've read
everything he's ever written. That disquieting underbelly that he sees in London,
that's how I perceive it too."); Julian Barnes ("I really like him, it's another world")
but said he had problems with Thomas Hardy. "There's a resonance in Thomas
Hardy that I appreciate but I still find it hard work," said Bowie.
David Bowie in pictures
One of the few times he expressed a negative opinion was about Anita Brookner's
Hotel du Lac, telling Ikon in 1995 that the1984Booker Prize-winning novel was
"something I just can't use, it doesn't apply".
Bowie's tastes were eclectic but impressive. He was also a fan of the cult comic
novel A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole and Spike Milligan's
Puckoon.
And thanks to an exhibition of Bowie at the Running at the Art Gallery in Toronto,
Ontario, we have a list from co-curator Geoffrey Marsh of Bowie's 100 favourite
books.
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