Leave it to David Bowie to make reading cool again.
In particular, we owe thanks to Bowie’s son, director Duncan Jones, who has launched an online book club dedicated to his late father’s favorite literary works.
In 2013, Bowie’s website revealed his personal list of “Top 100 Books,” which featured heady works such as F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby and Don DeLillo’s White Noise to T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land and Peter Ackroyd’s Hawksmoor
Jones picked the latter as the first offering.
“My dad was a beast of a reader. One of his true loves was Peter Ackroyd’s sojourns into the history of Britain & its cities. I’ve been feeling a building sense of duty to go on the same literary marathon in tribute to dad. Time allowing,”
And then, the official announcement: “Alright, gang! Anyone who wants to join along, we are reading Peter Ackroyd’s Hawksmoor, as an amuse cerveau before we get into the heavy stuff.”
Jones – the director of films like Moon, Source Code and Warcraft – added that book club members have until February 1st to finish reading the novel before the next pick is revealed.
Bowie’s list also featured famed novels like George Orwell’s 1984, Jack Kerouac’s On the Road, Anthony Burgess’ A Clockwork Orange and John Kennedy Toole’s A Confederacy of Dunces and music books like Sweet Soul Music: Rhythm And Blues And The Southern Dream Of Freedom and a collection of John Cage lectures and writings. There are also works dedicated to history (Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States), the occult (Transcendental Magic, Its Doctrine and Ritual) and art (Halls Dictionary Of Subjects And Symbols In Art).
