
From an article in Far Out Magazine -out of the UK–
Bob Dylan’s 40 FAVORITE BOOKS
- ‘The Life and Times of Sonny Barger and the Hell’s Angels Motorcycle Club’ by Sonny Barger
- ‘War and Peace’ by Leo Tolstoy
- ‘Parting the Waters: America in the King Years 1954-63’ by Taylor Branch
- ‘Tropic of Cancer’ by Henry Miller
- ‘Stories’ by Anton Chekhov
- ‘On War’ by Carl von Clausewitz
- ‘Victory’ by Joseph Conrad
- ‘The Complete Poetry and Prose’ by John Donne
- ‘The Anchor Anthology of French Poetry’ by Angel Flores
- ‘Jerry Garcia: The Collected Artwork’ by Jerry Garcia
- ‘One Hundred Dollar Misunderstanding’ by Robert Gover
- ‘The White Goddess’ by Robert Graves
- ‘Ringolevio: A Life Played for Keeps’ by Emmett Grogan
- ‘Last Train to Memphis: The Rise of Elvis Presley’ by Peter Guralnick
- ‘Bound for Glory’ by Woody Guthrie
- ‘The Odyssey’ by Homer
- ‘Mexico City Blues’ by Jack Kerouac
- ‘On The Road’ by Jack Kerouac
- ‘Backstage Passes and Backstabbing Bastards’ by Al Kooper
- ‘The Land Where the Blues Began’ by Alan Lomax
- ‘Mister Jelly Roll: The Fortunes of Jelly Roll Morton, New Orleans Creole and “Inventor of Jazz”’ by Alan Lomax
- ‘Girl from the North Country’ by Conor McPherson
- ‘Moby Dick’ by Herman Melville
- ‘The Blues Line: A Collection of Blues Lyrics’ by Eric Sackheim
- ‘Naked Lunch’ by William S. Burroughs
- ‘Woody Guthrie: Radical American Patriot’ by Bill Nowlin
- ‘Deep Blues: A Musical and Cultural History of the Mississippi Delta’ by Robert Palmer
- ‘All Access: The Rock ‘n’ Roll Photography of Ken Regan’ by Ken Regan
- ‘All Quiet on the Western Front’ by Erich Maria Remarque
- ‘The Oxford Book of English Verse’ by Christopher Ricks
- ‘A Season in Hell & The Drunken Boat’ by Arthur Rimbaud
- ‘Howl, Kaddish and Other Poems’ by Allen Ginsberg
- ‘Confessions of a Yakuza’ by Junichi Saga
- ‘The American Songbag & Selected Poems’ by Carl Sandburg
- ‘Honkers and Shouters: The Golden Years of Rhythm and Blues’ by Arnold Shaw
- ‘The Grapes of Wrath’ by John Steinbeck
- ‘The Dave Stewart Songbook: The Stories Behind The Songs’ by Dave Stewart
- ‘Thucydides: The War of the Peloponnesians and the Athenians’ by Thucydides
- ‘Poems’ by Henry Timrod
- ‘The Conscience of the Folk Revival: The Writings of Israel “Izzy” Young’ by Scott Barrett
a nice slice.
thanks!
I’ve read a few of those but not many.
I read War and Peace last year- I am going to read it again this year- I read an article on it and it was the author’s favorite book- he points out there are like 330 fairly short chapters and he reads it one chapter a day- and you can cover it in a year.
Good for you, Hans. Books like that really pull you into the story. Some books you don’t want to end. Last year I read 1Q84 by Murakami with is 3 fair-sized volumes and didn’t want it to end.
I remember you mentioning that one- meant to look into it but sometimes i have the attention span of a gnat.
You seem to get a lot accomplished for no attention span! You’re a human dynamo. I’m trying to organize my poems for submission for a chapbook and need to get some index cards for it. I’ve pared 650 poems down to 85 but they want a max of 40.
sounds like you are getting there- 650 to 85– you are on your way!
Cool list Hans. I always threatened to do a book take. I did do one. Of the books that Bob liked I read.
Grapes
On The Road
Sonny Barger
Lunch
Woody
Odyssey
Moby
Last Train
Did I like them all? Most of them.
I need to study that list closer- On The Road I loved as a young man. The Elvis book he lists is awesome- part of a 2 part bio…
The thing about the Barger book I remember was him and the boys going on a weekend run, piss up. Someone made a big pot of stew on the campfire and some joker threw in some road kill (dead coon or badger) on the sly. Needles to say a few sick bikers.
I haven’t read that book but have read Hunter Thompson’s Hell’s Angels. which was a great read.
Didnt they beat Hunter up? Cant believe that a bunch of nice guys would do that.
That is kind of hard to believe- Hunter must have exaggerated the story!
Booze woulnt have played a part if true.