David Bowie’s Book Recommendations

Last Updated on April 20, 2021

Wired For Youth is supported by readers. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission at no extra cost to you. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. This does not affect who we choose to review or what we recommend. Learn more

David Bowie was born David Robert Jones on January 8, 1947, in Brixton, London. He was an English singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer, arranger, painter, and actor. Bowie was a leading figure in the music industry and is considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century. He was a prolific artist, but his work was always met with critical acclaim. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996. Bowie died on January 10, 2016, two days after his 69th birthday.

David Bowie was a man of many talents. He was a singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer, arranger, painter, and actor. He was a leading figure in the music industry and is considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century. He was a prolific artist, but his work was always met with critical acclaim. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996. Bowie died on January 10, 2016, two days after his 69th birthday.

Book recommendations:

Contents

1.The Age of American Unreason by Susan Jacoby

2.The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz

3.The Coast of Utopia (trilogy) by Tom Stoppard

4.The Creation of Youth 1875-1945 by Jon Savage

5.Fingersmith by Sarah Waters

6.The Trial of Henry Kissinger by Christopher Hitchens

7.Mr Wilson’s Cabinet of Wonder by Lawrence Weschler

8.The Russian Revolution 1890-1924 by Orlando Figes

9.The Insult by Rupert Thomson

10.Wonder Boys by Michael Chabon

11.The Bird Artist by Howard Norman

12.A Greenwich Village Memoir by Anatole Broyard

13.The Visual Arts in Post-Historical Perspective by Arthur C Danto

14. Art and Decadence from Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson by Camille Paglia 

15.David Bomberg by Richard Cork

16.Sweet Soul Music: Rhythm and Blues and the Southern Dream of Freedom by Peter Guralnick

17.The Songlines by Bruce Chatwin

18.Hawksmoor by Peter Ackroyd

19.The Story of Soul Music by Gerri Hirshey

20.Nights at the Circus by Angela Carter

21.Money by Martin Amis

22.White Noise by Don DeLillo

23.Flaubert’s Parrot by Julian Barnes

24.The Life and Times of Little Richard by Charles White 

25.A People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn

26.A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole

27.Interviews with Francis Bacon by David Sylvester

28.Darkness at Noon by Arthur Koestler

29.Earthly Powers by Anthony Burgess

30.The Gnostic Gospels by Elaine Pagels

31.Metropolitan Life by Fran Lebowitz 

32.In Between the Sheets by Ian McEwan

33.The Paris Review Interviews by ed Malcolm Cowley

34.The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind by Julian Jaynes

35.Tales of Beatnik Glory by Ed Saunders

36.Mystery Train by Greil Marcus

37.Selected Poems by Frank O’Hara 

38.A Portrait of Berlin in the 1920s by Otto Friedrich

39.Some Notes Towards the Re-definition of Culture by George Steiner

40.The Rise of Rock and Roll by Charlie Gillett

41.The Quest for Christa T by Christa Wolf

42.The Golden Age of Rock by Nik Cohn

43.The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov

44.Journey into the Whirlwind by Eugenia Ginzburg

45.Last Exit to Brooklyn by Hubert Selby Jr

46.In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

47.City of Night by John Rechy

48.Herzog by Saul Bellow

49.Puckoon by Spike Milligan 

50.The American Way of Death by Jessica Mitford

51.The Sailor Who Fell from Grace With the Sea by Yukio Mishima

52.The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin

53.A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess

54.Inside the Whale and Other Essays by George Orwell

55.The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark

56.Zen and the Rediscovery of the Obvious by Douglas Harding 

57.Lectures and Writing by John Cage 

58.Strange People by Frank Edwards

59.The Divided Self by RD Laing 

60.All the Emperor’s Horses by David Kidd

61.Billy Liar by Keith Waterhouse

62.The Leopard by Giuseppe di Lampedusa

63.On the Road by Jack Kerouac 

64.The Hidden Persuaders by Vance Packard

65.Room at the Top by John Braine

66.A Grave for a Dolphin by Alberto Denti di Pirajno

67.The Outsider by Colin Wilson

68.Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov

69.Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell 

70.The Street by Ann Petry

71.Black Boy by Richard Wright

Conclusion:

David Bowie was a man of many talents. He was a singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer, arranger, painter, and actor. He was a leading figure in the music industry and is considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century. He was a prolific artist, but his work was always met with critical acclaim. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996. Bowie died on January 10, 2016, two days after his 69th birthday.

Recommended Posts:

Book summaries, notes, interviews, and more!

Get Bite-sized Lessons straight to your inbox

No spam, all value — we deliver the best bite-sized tips right to your inbox.