Smashbomb

"Still the essential biography of the music industry. Dannen is pretty ruthless in describing a time in the music business when hustle was the name of the game — although that’s pretty much the same today, to be honest. I joke that I used to have hair before I started working in the music business, but thankfully the staggering levels of corruption that Dannen describes no longer exist."

Source

Kudos

Tilda Swinton recommended Orlando in Books (curated)

Orlando

Virginia Woolf | 2017 | Fiction & Poetry

3.0

(1 Ratings)

Book Favorite

"Like Orlando, I wrote poetry. In my adolescent fantasy I read this book and believed it was a hallucinogenic, interactive biography of my own life and future. For me, this trifle of phantasmagoria has always been a practical manual. A tourist guide to human experience, the best of wise companions. At least, it was my first: a message in a bottle from an imaginary friend."

Source

Kudos

Emily Mortimer recommended Limonov in Books (curated)

Limonov

Emmanuel Carrere | 2015 | Biography, History & Politics

(0 Ratings)

Book Favorite

"This book is the best insight into unknowable Russia, a country I’ve been fascinated by since I studied its language and literature at school and university. It’s the pretend biography of a real-life Russian contrarian, poet, politician, anti hero and punk, Edward Limonov, whose life has shadowed Putin’s and who is now one of Putin’s biggest apologists. It’s a totally brilliant, badass book."

Source

Kudos

Oliver Sacks recommended The Devil's Doctor in Books (curated)

The Devil's Doctor

Philip Ball | 2007 | Biography, History & Politics, Philosophy, Psychology & Social Sciences

(0 Ratings)

Book Favorite

"I am just starting this magnificent new biography of Paracelsus. Ball, who is almost as much a polymath as his subject, brings out not only the extraordinary intellect and character of the man, but all the intellectual and social and political currents of the 16th century. Even before finishing it, I can tell that this book will take its place among my favorite half-dozen science biographies."

Source

Kudos