Bowie Book Club Podcast

Two friends have had a book club for a very very long time. It was mostly an excuse to drink and gossip. In January of 2016, they found renewed purpose in their sadness over the death of David Bowie. They decided to stop mucking around and actually get some reading done - from the list of books that he loved.

The Medium is the Massage by Marshall McLuhan

Welcome to another episode of the **Bowie Book Club**, where wild speculation and grasping for straws about Bowie’s favorite books has reigned supreme since 2016. This time we read Medium is the Massage by Marchall McLuhan, a stew of images, aphorisms and (maybe unfounded?) optimism that will loosen up those tired media muscles.

11-24
51:45

Diary of a Drug Fiend by Aleister Crowley

Welcome to another episode of the Bowie Book Club, where wild speculation and grasping for straws about Bowie’s favorite books has reigned supreme since 2016. This time we read Diary of a Drug Fiend by Aleister Crowley, which (much to our surprise) is not Chronicles of Narnia fan-fic despite the appearance of a Big Lion who solves everything. Also features drugs that are fiended after throughout.

10-20
47:08

The Spear of Destiny by Trevor Ravenscroft

Welcome to another episode of the Bowie Book Club, where wild speculation and grasping for straws about Bowie’s favorite books has reigned supreme since 2016. This time we read (or maybe just encountered on the Astral Plane?) The Spear of Destiny, Trevor Ravenscroft's minimally factual tale of the occult and its hallucinatory hold on Adolf Hilter.

09-22
46:41

Backstage Passes by Angela Bowie

Welcome to another episode of the Bowie Book Club, where wild speculation and grasping for straws about Bowie’s favorite books hasreigned supreme since 2016. This time we read Backstage Passes by Angie Bowie, a tell-all that includes flying saucers, devil-haunted pools, and John Bonham's breakfast. Oh, and David Bowie too.

08-18
56:58

Egon Schiele - The Paintings

Welcome to another episode of the Bowie Book Club, where wild speculation and grasping for straws about Bowie’s favorite books has reigned supreme since 2016. This time we read Egon Schiele - The Paintings, a collection of works by a very proflic narcissist who packed a lot of splayed figures and elongated fingers into his brief life!

07-21
51:19

The Man Who Fell to Earth by Walter Tevis

Welcome to another episode of the Bowie Book Club, where wild speculation and grasping for straws about Bowie’s favorite books has reigned supreme since 2016. This time we read The Man Who Fell to Earth by Walter Tevis, a story of large glasses of gin, otherworldly chemistry and, why not, fake eyebrows too.

06-30
47:54

The Gift by Vladimir Nabokov

Welcome to another episode of the Bowie Book Club, where wild speculation and grasping for straws about Bowie’s favorite books has reigned supreme since 2016. This time we read The Gift by Vladimir Nabokov, a multi-level marketing scheme to get you into an emigre's state of mind.

05-26
40:50

Nova Express by William Burroughs

Welcome to another episode of the Bowie Book Club, where wild speculation and grasping for straws about Bowie’s favorite books hasreigned supreme since 2016. This time we read Nova Express (https://bookshop.org/a/105/9780802122087) by William Burroughs - maybe it's science fiction? Maybe it's a spell to thwart mind control ? Maybe it's just not meant to be read?

04-21
45:28

Dancing in the Streets by Barbara Ehrenreich

Welcome to another episode of the Bowie Book Club, where wild speculation and grasping for straws about Bowie’s favorite books has reigned supreme since 2016. This time we read Dancing in the Streets by Barbara Ehrenreich, a survey about how people have collectively let their hair down over the past few centuries.

03-24
49:50

Strangers on a Train by Patricia Highsmith

Welcome to another episode of the Bowie Book Club, where wild speculation and grasping for straws about Bowie’s favorite books has reigned supreme since 2016. This time we read Strangers on a Train by Patricia Highsmith, which is about how awful it was to travel before you could use noise-canceling headphones to eliminate any possibility of getting into a conversation with someone about murder.

02-17
45:57

The Flamethrowers by Rachel Kushner

Welcome to another episode of the Bowie Book Club, where wild speculation and grasping for straws about Bowie’s favorite books has reigned supreme since 2016. This time we read The Flamethrowers by Rachel Kushner, which turns out to be about much more than Iggy Pop's satin pants.

01-27
42:20

The Idiot by Fydor Dostoevksy

Welcome to another episode of the Bowie Book Club, where wild speculation and grasping for straws about Bowie’s favorite books has reigned supreme since 2016. This time we read The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoevsky, which suprisingly ISN'T about Iggy Pop!

12-30
50:08

The Buddha of Suburbia by Hanif Kureishi

Welcome to another episode of the Bowie Book Club, where wild speculation and grasping for straws about Bowie’s favorite books has reigned supreme since 2016. This time we read The Buddha of Suburbia by Hanif Kureishi, which might be the most Bowie of the Bowie books we've read so far, in some ways.

11-25
37:13

Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol

Welcome to another episode of the Bowie Book Club, where wild speculation and grasping for straws about Bowie’s favorite books has reigned supreme since 2016. This time we read Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol a picaresque novel of a grifter being grifty in Old Russia.

10-21
43:38

Hollywood Babylon by Kenneth Anger

Welcome to another episode of the Bowie Book Club, where wild speculation and grasping for straws about Bowie’s favorite books has reigned supreme since 2016. This time we read Hollywood Babylon a cruel and carnal compilation of old Hollywood tragedies written by Kenneth Anger, who apparantly shares our disdain for thorough research!

09-30
48:41

Roadside Picnic by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky

Welcome to another episode of the Bowie Book Club, where wild speculation and grasping for straws about Bowie’s favorite books has reigned supreme since 2016. This time we read Roadside Picnic by Boris and Arkady Strugatsky, a hard-boiled story of mysterious realms, stiff drinks and super-powered artifacts. Apologies for the jingling sounds in the background - we had a very active feline collaborator on this one.

08-26
37:50

Psychic Self-Defense by Dion Fortune

Welcome to another episode of the **Bowie Book Club**, where wild speculation and grasping for straws about Bowie’s favorite books has reigned supreme since 2016. This time we read a book mostly about conferences on the astral plane, Psychic Self-Defense by Dion Fortune.

07-22
41:50

Orlando by Virginia Woolf

Welcome to another episode of the Bowie Book Club, where wild speculation and grasping for straws about Bowie’s favorite books has reigned supreme since 2016. This time we read Orlando by Virginia Woolf, a book that essentially proves that David Bowie and Tilda Swinton are one person.

06-17
39:13

A Grave for a Dolphin by Alberto Denti (and the end of Season One!)

Welcome to another episode of the Bowie Book Club, where wild speculation and grasping for straws about Bowie’s favorite books has reigned supreme since 2016. This time we read (sort of) A Grave for a Dolphin by Ally Teeth (or Alberto Denti, Duke of Pirajno, if you must), a story about a manic pixie dream fish and the marine biologist (at least that's what AI thinks) who loved her.

05-20
56:37

Zanoni by Edward Bulwer-Lytton

Welcome to another episode of the Bowie Book Club, where wild speculation and grasping for straws about Bowie’s favorite books has reigned supreme since 2016. This time we read Zanoni by Edward Bulwer-Lytton, an overheated occult pot-boiler that manages to keep the hot esoteric gobbletygook flying for over 400 pages! Spoiler alert: Greg wrote this description and it may (does) not reflect the views of the other half of this podcast.

04-22
47:24

Chantal Nanning

What a coincidence, so glad I found this Bowie Book Club on Podcast. Been searching for Bowie's favorite booklist in audio a long time. Thanks so much for it.

03-04 Reply

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