Reading Copy Book Blog

Some of the literary world’s big hitters acclaim Salman Rushdie in today’s The Guardian. The author of The Satanic Verses will be receiving an OBE.

I’ve only been to Luton twice but I think it’s going to take a lot more than poetry to transform its image as Britain’s worst town, although it’s great place to start as long its rapidly followed by better housing, schools, employment opportunities, and vast tracts of new architecture.

When I say Ukulele books I don’t mean books about ukuleles, rather ukuleles made from books!  I’ve seen other creative ways that people have combined their interests but I think this is the most interesting way I’ve seen! 

There’s the uke made from a Hawaiian travel guide, one where the neck was altered to fit a book inside, and one with a bookself to hold minature books.  That’s only a small sampling of what has been done.  You can see them all here.

The LA Times takes a look at 50 Cent’s success in publishing. The premise of the article is “Wow, a rapper can do this????”

Last weekend, I had run out of books to read. A couple of days beforehand, I borrowed a book from the AbeBooks office called Where Men Hide, which should have been excellent. It was a insight into all the places where men hang out - sanctuaries from their wives and children. We’re talking dens, the garage, hunting lodges, workshops etc. However, it was a major disappointment and mostly stated the bleedin’ obvious.

On my bookshelf was a copy of Sharon Osbourne’s autobiography Extreme. It had been there since October when I picked it up at the Frankfurt Book Fair. I had deliberately not touched the book because I thought it would be too trashy. On MTV, The Osbournes had been mildly entertaining at first but no more than that.

Anyway, I was desperate so I picked up the book and started reading it. Shocker - it’s a good read. It’s not really about Sharon Osbourne. It’s about the music business in the 1960s, 1970s and early 1980s, which is where I’m up to now in the book. It’s interesting to see how the industry was run on bullyboy tactics and cash stuffed into cases.

As a child, Ozzy Osbourne had a cottage in the Staffordshire countryside about two miles from where I lived. When I stood at the bus-stop waiting to go to school, I sometimes saw him drive past in a Range Rover. This was at the height of his infamy for biting the head off a bat while on stage in Des Moines, Iowa. An act that didn’t go down too well in the American Midwest. In those days, I didn’t know anything about his wife - I don’t think anyone outside the music business did. She was probably in that Range Rover.

I’m annoyed at myself for being so snobby about Extreme. I know it’s been a big hit in the UK but I don’t know what it’s done in North America. Last night, I stopped reading just at the point where Sharon and Ozzy buy the cottage near me - it’s not often my childhood haunts crop up in an autobiography of major reality TV star. I’m looking forward to seeing how Sharon weans Ozzy off the drink and drugs.

Today is Harper Lee’s birthday (thank you Rare Book Room)… and everyone has read the high school required To Kill A Mockingbird. The details of the book slowly faded from memory, except for the names of the main characters, specifically Boo Radley. The reason it stayed with me for so long was in part due to the musical band The Boo Radleys.

It’s fascinating (and telling) how many musical groups take their names from books or elements of literature. A quick look at some:

• Moloko - from A Clockwork Orange
• Grapes of Wrath - after the book
• Our Lady Peace - named after a Civil War poem
• Veruca Salt - a character in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
• Sixpence None The Richer - after a line in the CS Lewis book Mere Christianity
• The Velvet Underground - after a book of the same name
• Steppenwolf - after a book of the same name
• Père Ubu - is the main character in Alfred Jarry’s play, Ubu Roi
• Deadeye Dick - after Kurt Vonnegut’s book of the same name
• Love and Rockets - apparently after a graphic novel of the same name
• Supertramp - after the book The Autobiography of a Super Tramp
• The Doors - after Aldous Huxley’s The Doors of Perception

More? Your favourites?