Our Books for 2018
If you’ve listened to the podcast you know something about our highly scientific method of choosing what books we’re going to read. The patented process involves having a drink or three and finding numbers around us in the pub - this year it was the lovely Six Arms on Seattle's Capitol Hill.
We plug the numbers into our working list of David Bowie’s 100 books and, ta da! The books are revealed. These aren’t in any order yet, since we’re waiting to line up some special guests, etc.
We'll also be keeping tags of Duncan Jones and what he and the #bowiebookclub are reading throughout the year!
Here's the list, and what random thing inspired each of them.
Hawksmoor by Peter Ackroyd** - No fooling, we randomly got this after we’d already decided to read it for Duncan Jones’ inaugural Bowie Book Club on Twitter. Fate agreed with us since this was how many chandeliers were in the pub. (We counted 3 times!)
Before the Deluge by Otto Friedrich - The book from our 2017 list that got bumped for Hawksmoor when we decided to read along with Duncan Jones for a month.
Earthly Powers by Anthony Burgess - On this page in Mojo magazine, Greg found a photo of Otis Redding that made him swoon.
Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert - Because of the points on a pickle spear.
Billy Liar by Keith Waterhouse - There were just that many people that resembled Aubrey Plaza smoking on the curb outside.
Gnostic Gospels by Elaine Pagels - Bibliomancy in the pub’s copy of Nathanial Hawthorne’s House of the Seven Gables: “Is he so very wicked?”
Raw Comics) - The number on a broken gauge (the Six Arms is lousy with broken gauges)
Mr. Norris Changes Trains by Christopher Isherwood - Having to do with time on the clock at the time.
Berlin Alexanderplatz - Bibliomancy in the pub’s resident copy of Standard Life of a Temporary Pantyhose Salesman by Aldo Busi: “the eggs and the rest were handed round…"
Viz Comics) - Due to the number of bulbs in a light fixture
The Divided Self by R.D. Laing - The placement of the two Bowie albums in the pub’s jukebox.
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote - Picked at random by our delightful server Danny, who very politely put up with us ordering drinks and spouting nonsense about bibliomancy for several hours.
American Way of Death by Jessica Mitford - The page where Mojo Magazine's feature article on David Bowie began.
Our book choosing technique includes such divinatory practice as bibliomancy. Here from Nathanial Hawthorne, House of the Seven Gables
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