A list of pop icon David Bowie’s top 100 books has thrown up a surprise Dundee-bred entry the Beano.
The rundown of the Ziggy Stardust star’s top reads provides an insight into the intellect of one of Britain’s most creative and complex pop stars, and reveals some unlikely bedfellows.
Alongside high-brow tomes on psychology, theatre, history, autobiography, travel writing and poetry, the long-term New York resident reveals a love for a very British brand of humour Viz, Spike Milligan, Private Eye and DC Thomson’s own Beano are among his top reads.
The enduring icon must know that obsessive fans will pore over his choices as a way of getting closer to their hero, so directing them to seek out the tales of Dennis and Gnasher as well as Homer’s Iliad indicates he takes himself less seriously than many might imagine.
Bowie, who has released his first new recordings in years and was the subject of a much-feted V&A retrospective, includes a number of books that he has famously drawn inspiration from over the years notably A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess and George Orwell’s 1984.
Interviews with Francis Bacon by David Sylvester reflects his art school background and unsurprisingly many of the books are on music, including volumes on Little Richard, the golden age of rock and roll and soul music.
His very British upbringing is acknowledged by the angry young men of his formative years: Billy Liar by Keith Waterhouse and Room at the Top by John Braine.
Evelyn Waugh, DH Lawrence, Muriel Spark, Martin Amis and Peter Ackroyd are among other British authors to make his shortlist.
While classic American names like Jack Kerouac and Truman Capote are name checked, the voracious reader’s list also contains a number of names that will mean very little to even the most well-read.
The inclusion of Viz, Private Eye and the Beano must come as welcome relief to most Bowie fans at least they have read three of their hero’s most-loved books.
Maybe that sense of humour has even led to slipping in at least one imaginary book? Only the most dedicated will ever find out.
Many will have read the more conventional end of the spectrum but on the internet fans are being urged to follow their leader and seek out those books unfamiliar to them to gain an insight into the man.
While the list might expose some glaring gaps in the average member of the public’s literary appreciation, will they be driven to seek out a copy of Transcendental Magic, Its Doctrine and Ritual by Eliphas Levi?
Unlikely. Nice to think it may introduce a few more people to the delights of the Beano though.Bowie’s Top 100:1. The Age of American Unreason, Susan Jacoby, 2008 2. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Junot Diaz, 2007 3. The Coast of Utopia (trilogy), Tom Stoppard, 2007 4. Teenage: The Creation of Youth 1875-1945, Jon Savage, 2007 5. Fingersmith, Sarah Waters, 2002 6. The Trial of Henry Kissinger, Christopher Hitchens, 2001 7. Mr. Wilson’s Cabinet of Wonder, Lawrence Weschler, 1997 8. A People’s Tragedy: The Russian Revolution 1890-1924, Orlando Figes, 1997 9. The Insult, Rupert Thomson, 1996 10. Wonder Boys, Michael Chabon, 1995 11. The Bird Artist, Howard Norman, 1994 12. Kafka Was The Rage: A Greenwich Village Memoir, Anatole Broyard, 1993 13. Beyond the Brillo Box: The Visual Arts in Post-Historical Perspective, Arthur C. Danto, 1992 14. Sexual Personae: Art and Decadence from Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson, Camille Paglia, 1990 15. David Bomberg, Richard Cork, 1988 16. Sweet Soul Music: Rhythm and Blues and the Southern Dream of Freedom, Peter Guralnick, 1986 17. The Songlines, Bruce Chatwin, 1986 18. Hawksmoor, Peter Ackroyd, 1985 19. Nowhere To Run: The Story of Soul Music, Gerri Hirshey, 1984 20. Nights at the Circus, Angela Carter, 1984 21. Money, Martin Amis, 1984 22. White Noise, Don DeLillo, 1984 23. Flaubert’s Parrot, Julian Barnes, 1984 24. The Life and Times of Little Richard, Charles White, 1984 25. A People’s History of the United States, Howard Zinn, 1980 26. A Confederacy of Dunces, John Kennedy Toole, 1980 27. Interviews with Francis Bacon, David Sylvester, 1980 28. Darkness at Noon, Arthur Koestler, 1980 29. Earthly Powers, Anthony Burgess, 1980 30. Raw (a “graphix magazine”) 198091 31. Viz (magazine) 1979- 32. The Gnostic Gospels, Elaine Pagels, 1979 33. Metropolitan Life, Fran Lebowitz, 1978 34. In Between the Sheets, Ian McEwan, 1978 35. Writers at Work: The Paris Review Interviews, ed. Malcolm Cowley, 1977 36. The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind, Julian Jaynes, 1976 37. Tales of Beatnik Glory, Ed Saunders, 1975 38. Mystery Train, Greil Marcus, 1975 39. Selected Poems, Frank O’Hara, 1974 40. Before the Deluge: A Portrait of Berlin in the 1920s, Otto Friedrich, 1972 41. In Bluebeard’s Castle : Some Notes Towards the Re-definition of Culture, George Steiner, 1971 42. Octobriana and the Russian Underground, Peter Sadecky, 1971 43. The Sound of the City: The Rise of Rock and Roll, Charlie Gillete, 1970 44. The Quest For Christa T, Christa Wolf, 1968 45. Awopbopaloobop Alopbamboom: The Golden Age of Rock, Nik Cohn, 1968 46. The Master and Margarita, Mikhail Bulgakov, 1967 47. Journey into the Whirlwind, Eugenia Ginzburg, 1967 48. Last Exit to Brooklyn, Hubert Selby Jr., 1966 49. In Cold Blood, Truman Capote, 1965 50. City of Night, John Rechy, 1965 51. Herzog, Saul Bellow, 1964 52. Puckoon, Spike Milligan, 1963 53. The American Way of Death, Jessica Mitford, 1963 54. The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With The Sea, Yukio Mishima, 1963 55. The Fire Next Time, James Baldwin, 1963 56. A Clockwork Orange, Anthony Burgess, 1962 57. Inside the Whale and Other Essays, George Orwell, 1962 58. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Muriel Spark, 1961 59. Private Eye (magazine) 1961 60. On Having No Head: Zen and the Rediscovery of the Obvious, Douglas Harding, 1961 61. Silence: Lectures and Writing, John Cage, 1961 62. Strange People, Frank Edwards, 1961 63. The Divided Self, R.D. Laing, 1960 64. All the Emperor’s Horses, David Kidd,1960 65. Billy Liar, Keith Waterhouse, 1959 66. The Leopard, Giuseppe Di Lampedusa, 1958 67. On the Road, Jack Kerouac, 1957 68. The Hidden Persuaders, Vance Packard, 1957 69. Room at the Top, John Braine, 1957 70. A Grave for a Dolphin, Alberto Denti di Pirajno, 1956 71. The Outsider, Colin Wilson, 1956 72. Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov, 1955 73. Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell, 1949 74. The Street, Ann Petry, 1946 75. Black Boy, Richard Wright, 1945 76. The Portable Dorothy Parker, Dorothy Parker, 1944 77. The Outsider, Albert Camus, 1942 78. The Day of the Locust, Nathanael West, 1939 79. The Beano, (comic) 1938 80. The Road to Wigan Pier, George Orwell, 1937 81. Mr. Norris Changes Trains, Christopher Isherwood, 1935 82. English Journey, J.B. Priestley, 1934 83. Infants of the Spring, Wallace Thurman, 1932 84. The Bridge, Hart Crane, 1930 85. Vile Bodies, Evelyn Waugh, 1930 86. As I lay Dying, William Faulkner, 1930 87. The 42nd Parallel, John Dos Passos, 1930 88. Berlin Alexanderplatz, Alfred Dblin, 1929 89. Passing, Nella Larsen, 1929 90. Lady Chatterley’s Lover, D.H. Lawrence, 1928 91. The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald, 1925 92. The Waste Land, T.S. Eliot, 1922 93. BLAST, ed. Wyndham Lewis, 191415 94. McTeague, Frank Norris, 1899 95. Transcendental Magic, Its Doctrine and Ritual, Eliphas Lvi, 1896 96. Les Chants de Maldoror, Lautramont, 1869 97. Madame Bovary, Gustave Flaubert, 1856 98. Zanoni, Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1842 99. Inferno, from the Divine Comedy, Dante Alighieri, about 130821 100. The Iliad, Homer, about 800 B.C.