... short and punchy essays ... O’Connell’s splendid book provides plenty of evidence of Bowie’s restless, rummaging intelligence, and his pleasure in the fact that books allow readers to slip into someone else’s skin and try it on for size.
O’Connell’s diligently documented book on the literary influences on David Bowie is a fantastic voyage into 100 books that inspired the artist’s prodigious output ... O’Connell’s introduction is informative and crucial in framing Bowie’s library; it’s also very entertaining. For Bowie enthusiasts, it fills in gaps of fandom knowledge with tales ... This exciting book chronicles the literary influences on a revered and visionary bibliophile artist.
I encourage any fan of Bowie or fine literature to pick up Bowie's Bookshelf ... At the end of each book's description, O'Connell adds two categories to enhance the experience: 'Read It While Listening To,' which offers various tunes by Bowie, and 'If You Like This Try,' which references another book that is similar within the same genre. This is very helpful and truly personalizes the entire reading effort ... I am quite thankful that John O'Connell took the time to put Bowie's Bookshelf together. Readers should be inspired to seek out the books on this list, along with the musical suggestions for pairing and even the links to other similar works ... It feels good knowing that a list like this exists and, in essence, keeps Bowie's spirit alive, allowing all those who miss him to have another shared experience with one of their heroes.
With illustrations and suggestions for read-alikes and Bowie songs to listen to while reading each book, this is a fun peek at what stirred and shaped a legend. For Bowie fans and devotees of offbeat reading guides.
O’Connell’s book goes through each of these titles one by one, offering up some general insights on the works while also delving into thoughts on just why they might have made it onto this list ... And make no mistake – it is a vast and varied selection. Bowie’s literary tastes clearly ranged toward the omnivorous, with works from all manner of genre making appearances. The list leans a bit toward fiction, but there’s plenty of nonfiction there as well. There’s a good deal of affection for American authors, but there are also a lot of writings from Bowie’s UK countrymen. He ventures farther afield as well ... O’Connell looks for ways to connect the dots, mining the books and Bowie’s life and career to find the places where the pieces lock together. Some of those connections are clearer with others; the subtler ones don’t always click in the same fashion as the more obvious choices. Regardless, it’s a wonderful and idiosyncratic way to get some insight into what made Bowie tick.
... O’Connell does an outstanding job of analyzing a disparate list ... O’Connell makes a solid case for how each book figures into the star’s career, sprinkling Bowie trivia throughout along with corresponding Bowie songs and suggested additional works by the highlighted author. O’Connell avoids the trap of getting too far into the weeds of lit-crit or pop-star fandom, carving out an artful and wildly enthralling path for Bowie fans in particular and book lovers in general.
O’Connell, a veteran music journalist, gamely delivers brief essays on each title, with context on what influence Bowie might have drawn from them. This is sometimes a tall order...many of Bowie’s selections don’t lend themselves to such cause-and-effect treatment ... That straining for meaning suggests that this project might better have been approached thematically rather than book by book. Exploring Bowie’s interest in transgressive literature by Hubert Selby, Mikhail Bulgakov, Jack Kerouac, and John Rechy needn’t require extensive plot summaries of each novel; numerous books on divided selves speak collectively to Bowie’s career-long shape-shifting (and his late schizophrenic half brother). Still, O’Connell’s approach does underscore the range and playfulness in Bowie’s reading, from hefty tomes on the Russian Revolution to laddish comic books like The Beano ... An enlightening if imperfectly conceived look at Bowie’s eclectic bookshelf.
