Here's the books we're going to be randomly choosing from over the next few years (????!!!) - the list is a mix of books that we know (or strongly suspect) that Bowie read, and books that we would've recommended to him, given the chance. We'll publish our first batch of choices in May 2024!
The Man Who Fell to Earth - Walter Tevis
The Buddha of Suburbia - Hanif Kureishi
Last Temptation of Christ - Nikos Kazantzakis
The Hunger - Whitley Streiber
The Notebooks - Basquiat (ISBN 9780691167893)
Egon Schiele the Paintings. 40th Ed. - Tobias G. Natter Ed. (cited as interest of Bowie's both by Ken Pitt + Lodger cover photographer Brian Duffy's son Chris. Specifically self portrait as st. Sebastian)
Baal - Bertolt Brecht
2001: A Space Odyssey - Arthur C. Clarke
The Diary of a Drug Fiend - Aleister Crowley
The Spear of Destiny - Trevor Ravenscroft
Psychic Self Defense - Dion Fortune
Nova Express - William S. Burroughs
Hollywood Babylon - Kenneth Anger
Backstage Passes - Angie Bowie
Rock Dreams - Guy Peelaert and Nik Cohn (creepy paintings of rock stars by the guy who did the Diamond Dogs cover) OOP but available used
James Dean: The Mutant King - David Dalton (discusses in Cameron Crowe '76 Playboy interview "Dean was probably very much like me...Elizabeth Taylor told me that once...”) available, but not on BOOKSHOP 9781556523984
Dancing in the Streets : A History of Collective Joy - Barbara Ehrenreich (pub. 2007- Eno's list of favorite books/books for a better world)
The Dumb Waiter – Harold Pinter (mentioned interview Rolling Stone 1987)
The Rampa Story - T. Lobsang Rampa (according to Lion's Roar Bowie read this age 13 = Buddhism interest & song Silly Boy Blue tribute to Lama Chime Rinpoche)
Seven Years in Tibet - Henrich Harrer (Northeast Reg. Lib. sites this as the book that drew Bowie to Buddhism and notes Earthling album)
Thus Spoke Zarathustra - Fredrick Nietzsche (he says he only read the dustjacket, but 'All the Madmen,' 'The Supermen,' 'Ashes to Ashes,' etc. disagree)
Cat's Cradle - Kurt Vonnegut (in 'Starman' a Bowie-Bolan conflict scene following which Bowie is super chatty and recommends books to people.)
The Idiot – Dostoyevsky (b/c READ poster)
The Gift - Vladimir Nabokov (B/C of a Pushing Ahead of the Dame entry on "I'd Rather Be High")
The God that Failed (writers who rejected Communism, including Richard Wright)
Lanark: A Life in Four Books - Alasdair Gray (From ipenjelly on Instagram)
Grendel - John Gardner (From Kevin vincentvanstop on Instagram ... "Mr. Jones, this book is sort of Apollonian and Dionysian, but pre- that. It’s a funny way of looking at heroes. We could be heroes, we could be nice to Grendel and give them livestock for their belly and a hug.”)
Strangers on a Train - Patricia Highsmith
The Flamethrowers - Rachel Kushner
The Intuitionist - Colson Whitehead
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell - Susanna Clarke
The Hearing Trumpet - Leonora Carrington
Left Hand of Darkness - Ursula K. LeGuin
The Dispossessed - Ursula K. LeGuin
Parable of the Sower - Octavia E. Butler
Tzar of Love and Techno - Anthony Marra
From Hell - Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell
Frankenstein - Mary Shelley
The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde
V - Thomas Pynchon
Third Reich - Roberto Bolaño
Dead Souls - Nikolai Gogol
City of Thieves - David Benioff
Roadside Picnic - Arkady and Boris Strugatsky
Almanac of the Dead - Leslie Marmon Silko
Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
Wolf Hall - Hilary Mantel
The Loved One - Evelyn Waugh
Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
Travels with My Aunt - Graham Greene
Horse's Mouth - Joyce Cary
Cheap Novelties - Ben Katchor
Class - Paul Fussell
The Medium Is the Message: An Inventory of Effects - Marshall McLuhan
Lipstick Traces - Greil Marcus