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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.

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Basquiat - The Notebooks

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 Basquiat - The Notebooks edited by Larry Warsh - just like the ones you used in grade school, but probably worth a lot more!

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Cheap Novelties by Ben Katchor

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 Cheap Novelties by Ben Katchor about one man's eternal search for Herbert Water, or a Grape Bosphorus, at least. All you have is cans?

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The Immoralist by Andre Gide

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 Immoralist by Andre Gide, about a guy who spends a lot of time telling his friends how immoral he is. Almost as good as Maldoror!

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The Last Temptation of Christ by Nikos Kazantzakis

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 Last Temptation of Christ by Nikos Kazantzakis, which turns out to be more than just a vehicle for the majestic acting of Harry Dean Stanton!

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Grendel by John Gardner

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 about a muppet (?) monster and his tour of the philosophical hot spots, Grendel by John Gardner.

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The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolano

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 Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolano - a far-ranging tome about poets who never seem to write any poetry, but do a lot of other crazy stuff.

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Wolf Hall by Hillary Mantel

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 Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel, which tells the tale of arch-fixer Thomas Cromwell without a mention of turkey legs.

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The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. LeGuin

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 Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. LeGuin, a story of hot beer and cold nights (and many, many other more important themes and ideas!)

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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 has reigned 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.

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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!

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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.

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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.

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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 has reigned 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?

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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!

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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.

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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.

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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!

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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…

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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…

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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.

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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.

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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.

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The Hidden Persuaders by Vance Packard

The Hidden Persuaders by Vance Packard The Bowie Book Club Podcast Download 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 |…

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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.

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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.

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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…

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Last Exit to Brooklyn by Hubert Selby, Jr

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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…

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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.

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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.

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Infants of the Spring by Wallace Thurman

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 Infants of the Spring by Wallace Thurman - if you're a fan of gin n' ginger ale or of extremely stylized dialog, you're going to love this one.

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Fingersmith by Sarah Waters

Fingersmith by Sarah Waters Bowie Book Club Podcast Download 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 * Fingersmith by Sarah Waters, a novel of deception, doublecross, and people being absolute fucksters to each other. Subscribe! iTunes | RSS | Stitcher Follow…

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White Noise by Don DeLillo

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 White Noise Don DeLillo, a very funny, very timely book about death, among other concerns.

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A People's Tragedy by Orlando Figes

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 doorstop of a history of the Russian Revolution: Orlando Figes' "A People's Tragedy".

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Mr. Wilson's Cabinet of Wonders by Lawrence Weschler

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 Mr. Wilson's Cabinet O' Wonders by Lawrence Weschler, a short, sharp treatise on a weird, weird museum.

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In Bluebeard's Castle by George Steiner

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 In Bluebeard's Castle by George Steiner - an eccentric polymath, kind of like a certain David Jones we all know. Plus, T.S. Eliot impersonations!

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Room at the Top by John Braine

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 Room at the Top by John Braine, about an angry young man in a dirty old town.

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On the Road by Jack Kerouac

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 On the Road by everyone's high school boyfriend, Jack Kerouac. We also talk about the new Bowie documentary Moonage Daydream, which we just saw IN A MOVIE THEATRE *shudder*!

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The Leopard by Giuseppe di Lampedusa

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 Leopard by Giuseppe di Lampedusa, a slow, stately book about a very hot island a long time ago.

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The Coast of Utopia by Tom Stoppard

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 Coast of Utopia by Tom Stoppard - a play where a lot happens just off stage and there's a lot of talking about thinking.

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In Between the Sheets by Ian McEwan

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 In Between the Sheets, a kind-of-sort-of creepy book of short stories by Ian Mcewan.

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