Reading Copy Book Blog

Louis “Studs” Terkel died in 2008, but today would have been his 100th birthday. Born to Russian-Jewish parents in the Bronx, Terkel spent the bulk of his life in Chicago. He married his wife, Ida in 1939, and the couple remained together until her death in 1999. Terkel was interested in oral history, and jazz, [...]

Dick Clark has died at age 8t of a heart attack.

My colleague Beth offers this review of R. Crumb’s Heroes of Blues, Jazz & Country. Robert Crumb, better known as R. Crumb, is an American cartoonist, well-known for being outspoken, critical and subversive, for his highly recognizable illustrative style, and for his friendship and collaborations with Charles Bukowski. But many people don’t realize that Crumb [...]

If you believe that life should have a soundtrack, Love is a Mix Tape is the book for you.

Jarvis Cocker, frontman of Pulp and the man who invaded the stage while Michael Jackson performed because Jackson was attempting to be some “kind of Christ-like figure with the power of healing”, is the latest celebrity to move into publishing. He is following Pete Townsend, Henry Rollins and Anthony Bourdain. The Guardian interviews him and [...]

It’s 20 years since the release of Nevermind by Nirvana and the mainstream media have been all over this anniversary. Last week I listened to NPR interviewing the album’s producer at length and today the Daily Telegraph reviews a book called Everybody Loves Our Town: A History of Grunge by Mark Yarm. This entertaining book…. [...]

Peter Gent, a one-time football player for the Dallas Cowboys who wrote North Dallas Forty, died on Friday at the age of 69. The NY Times had an obituary. I love the film and the novel. Nick Nolte’s opening scene of the movie where he can barely move following a game but hauls his beaten-up [...]

Is New York’s Chelsea Hotel doomed? NPR asks this question as the famous haunt of writers, artists and musicians has been bought a property developer who doesn’t say much. The Chelsea Hotel has a literary past like no other. Arthur C. Clarke wrote 2001 while staying there, Jack Kerouac wrote parts of On the Road [...]

My colleague Julie loves the White Stripes, and Jack and Meg and all that. I only know one song by them but then again the Beatles were still together when I was born. This photo-book documents the White Stripes’ Under Great White Northern Lights tour across Canada. Photographer Autumn de Wilde travelled with the band [...]

Technology marches on. Ebooks are going to have soundtracks. The days of a quiet read are over. Last week, the first so-called “enhanced ebook” was released in the UK – it was The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: The Adventure of the Speckled Band and it came complete with driving rain, thunderclaps and blood-curdling screams. It [...]