Entertainment For Lively Minds
Sympathy and book suggestions please
Posted by mutikonka on 21 September 2011 - 2:40pm.
I'm sitting in the A&E dept of Sydneys Royal North Shore Hospital. I've just been told I've broken me ankle and leg (came off my bike on the way home) and I now face three days I bed after I have screws put in. Can anyone suggest any decent non fiction or biographies to while away the hours? I've just finished memoirs by Ian Maclagen, Jah Wobble and Alexei Sayle so they're out. Thanks, Massive.
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Ouch.
Sorry to hear that - poor you. Have you read "You Never Give Me Your Money" yet? It's totally absorbing.
seconded
I saw your post and then that Bob had beaten me to it. I'm only a quarter way through it, but thus far it's a great read, and (going by the opinions of those that have finished it) it's not going to flag at any point.
Oh, and get better soon, there's a good chap!
Three Days
in bed to fix a broken ankle and leg? What's your real name? Clark Kent?
Yeah...
... I did my ankle ligaments playing footie - took me about 4 months to get back to normal. 3 days?
Me too
I came off my bike yesterday and hurt my back. So I am watching the World At War box set and reading the Nick Kent autobiography that I picked up at the London Mingle on Friday.
Sorry to hear that Twang
May I wish you both a speedly recovery.
Unless of course you are looking forward to taking a long easy convalescence with plenty of catching up on your fav' music books and a bit of peace and tlc!
Cheers Luna
Missed you the other night. I'm mixing box set action with infinitely less fun "looking for work" activity!
Re the meet up
Sorry I've been trying to get to a meet up for a while now. I said I'd be there and unfortunately couldn't. Sorry - I owe Retro a couple of pints now! I hope to see you all soon.
Shaun Ryder
His recently-released biography makes for a reassuringly surreal read. On a more sentimental note, it's great how he's turned his life around.
.
Recommend:
Michael Caine
James Hunt
Lemmy
Keith Richards
Phill Jupitus - Good Morning Nantwich
Arthur Smith - My Name Is Daphne Fairfax
Avoid:
Rik Mayall - Bigger than Hitler, Better than Christ
Andrew Loog Oldham - Stoned & 2 Stoned
Anything that is a collection of an "authors" recent newspaper columns
Rik Mayall
Bigger than Hitler, Better than Christ - that is the worst book I've ever tried to read. I think I managed a chapter before I threw it in the bin.
Normally I send "non-keepers" to the charity shop but I couldn't inflict that dross onto anyone else.
Thanks
The Sean Ryder one sounds promising. I'm now languishing in an appropriately opiate cotton wool haze. Just occurred to me that I would love to read the autobiography of Oliver Postgate. No Clark Kent. Up to four days as an inpatient and six weeks on crutches.
Sympathy duly tended!
I really enjoyed A Cure For Gravity by Joe Jackson - it's a good account of being slightly odd and clever and musical.
It starts with ankle screws
and ends with Robocop.
Can I recommend Heavier Than Heaven about a certain K Cobain? Thoroughly researched and unsentimental account of a rather muddled and often unpleasant man?
Also, Rip It Up And Start Again. An absorbing account of the bands that filled the space between Punk and Stock, Aitken and Waterman.
Get well soon!
If you haven't read it before
try Jon Savage's England's Dreaming. Two decades on still one of the best pop'n'roll books I've ever read.
seconded
I read and enjoyed England's Dreaming and Rip It Up but ED was the one that really grabbed me
Try this
'Retromania : Pop Culture's Addiction to it's own past'
a lot more fun than it sounds..begs the question if we're constantly sampling, archiving and re-hashing the past and having reunion tours and so forth..what happens when we run out 'past'? But also a fascinating look back of the history of 'Retro' which is nothing new..going back to the days of Trad Jazz. It's meaty and engrossing stuff that you can get lost in.....which sounds like what you need!
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Retromania-Pop-Cultures-Addiction-Past/dp/057123...
You're just down the road!
I'm sitting in an office in St Leonards...
We're going to have to have a Massive Down Under meet at some point...
Ps..sympathy duly extended. Re memoirs, if you've not read the John Peel one, it's well worth it. I'd lend you my copy but it's back in the UK..
Another vote for -
- Andrew Loog Oldham's autobio. I haven't read a better-written, funnier, more honest, more moving, more entertaining book about the business we're calling music. Unforgettable. In a good way.
'Diary of a Rock'n'Roll Star' - Ian Hunter
Essential.
PS
Get well soon!