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 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

Nowhere to Run by Gerri Hirshey

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 Nowhere to Run by Gerri Hirshey - interviews with foundational artists of soul music asthey deal with aging, and (in the case of Screaming Jay Hawkins) serve drinks out of a skull or something.

03-25
40:29

Private Eye

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 Private Eye, a half-serious, half-silly British political magazine that is the ultimate i IYKYK.

02-26
49:42

Darkness at Noon by Arthur Koestler

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 Darkness at Noon by Arthur Koestler, a tale of human pyschology under duress that makes a fitting end to the Russian books that Bowie had on his list.

01-22
43:25

The Hidden Persuaders by Vance Packard

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 Hidden Persuaders by Vance Packard, a quaint little preview of the non-stop psychological prodding we endure now. Subscribe! iTunes | RSS | Stitcher Follow us! (Not in a creepy way) Mastadon Facebook Instagram Web Presence Our Bookshop Visit our lists on bookshop.org and help support the podcast (and independent bookstores too!) Stuff We Talked About Salon article on the book article on Bowie's brief spell as an ad man in The Drum our episode on A People's Tragedy What Are We Reading Greg: The Pickwick Papers (of course!) by Charles Dickens Rim of Morning by William Sloane Gone to the Wolves by John Wray Kristianne: The Sleeping Car Porter by Suzette Mayr Julia by Sandra Newman Our Best of 2023! Greg: Fingersmith in a 3-way split with White Noise and 42nd Parallel Dreaming as Delerium by J. Allen Hobson The House with a Clock In Its Walls by John Bellairs The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride Kristianne: also Fingersmith! How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu Thistlefoot by Gennarose Nethercott East of Eden by Johnny Steinbeck Small Fires by Rebecca May Johnson What Song Did We Choose? What's Up Next Darkness at Noon by Arthur Koestler

12-18
47:46

Beyond the Brillo Box by Arthur C. Danto

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 Beyond the Brillo Box by Arthur C. Danto - if you like art, philosophy and the philosophy of art, you might get through this a little easier than we did.

11-27
40:13

Strange People by Frank Edwards

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 Strange People by Frank Edwards, a rundown of all the freaks, geeks and mentalists you'll ever want to encounter.

10-30
35:06

Writers at Work by the Paris Review

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. 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 weread Writers at Work: The First Series, a compendium of interviews with writers that proves to be as dazzling as a round of George Plimpton's Video Falconry.

09-25
41:48

The Beano

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. 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 Beano, a British comic that has been teaching the fundamentals of anarchy to the youth of the UK decades before Johnny Rotten gave his first snarl.

07-24
43:03

The 42nd Parallel by John Dos Passos

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 we read The 42nd Parallel by John Dos Passos, a big sweeping tale of America at the turn of the 20th century, including getting chased by a farmer with a shotgun, which happened all the time back then.

06-26
40:15

Lady Chatterley's Lover by D.H. Lawrence

Welcome to another episode of the Bowie Book Club, where wild speculation and grasping for strawsabout Bowie’s favorite books has reigned supreme since 2016. This time we read Lady Chatterly's Lover by D.H. Lawrence, which has *all* the bowels and loins anyone could ask for.

05-22
39:43

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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