David Bowie is celebrated as a trailblazer in music, fashion, and cinema, as well as a pop culture legend. Beyond his artistic legacy, he was a passionate reader, often consuming a book every day.
In 2013, during the Art Gallery of Ontario’s “David Bowie Is” exhibit, curators Geoffrey Marsh and Victoria Broackes curated a list of Bowie’s top 100 books. This eclectic collection spans groundbreaking works like Alfred Döblin’s Berlin Alexanderplatz, timeless classics such as Gustave Flaubert's Madame Bovary, and modern masterpieces like Michael Chabon’s Wonder Boys, alongside numerous titles on music history.
Here’s the full list of Bowie’s 100 favorite books. How many have you explored?
1. Interviews With Francis Bacon by David Sylvester2. Billy Liar by Keith Waterhouse3. Room At The Top by John Braine4. On Having No Head by Douglass Harding5. Kafka Was The Rage by Anatole Broyard6. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess7. City Of Night by John Rechy8. The Brief Wondrous Life Of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz9. Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert10. The Iliad by Homer11. As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner12. Tadanori Yokoo by Tadanori Yokoo13. Berlin Alexanderplatz by Alfred Döblin14. Inside The Whale And Other Essays by George Orwell15. Mr. Norris Changes Trains by Christopher Isherwood16. Dictionary Of Subjects And Symbols In Art by James A. Hall17. David Bomberg by Richard Cork18. Blast by Wyndham Lewis19. Passing by Nella Larsen20. Beyond The Brillo Box by Arthur C. Danto21. The Origin Of Consciousness In The Breakdown Of The Bicameral Mind by Julian Jaynes22. In Bluebeard’s Castle by George Steiner23. Hawksmoor by Peter Ackroyd24. The Divided Self by R. D. Laing25. The Stranger by Albert Camus26. Infants Of The Spring by Wallace Thurman27. The Quest For Christa T by Christa Wolf28.
The Songlines by Bruce Chatwin29. Nights At The Circus by Angela Carter30. The Master And Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov31. The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark32. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov33. Herzog by Saul Bellow34. Puckoon by Spike Milligan35. Black Boy by Richard Wright36. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald37. The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With The Sea by Yukio Mishima38. Darkness At Noon by Arthur Koestler39. The Waste Land by T.S. Eliot40. McTeague by Frank Norris41. Money by Martin Amis42. The Outsider by Colin Wilson43. Strange People by Frank Edwards44. English Journey by J.B. Priestley45. A Confederacy Of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole46. The Day Of The Locust by Nathanael West47. 1984 by George Orwell48. The Life And Times Of Little Richard by Charles White49. Awopbopaloobop Alopbamboom: The Golden Age of Rock by Nik Cohn50. Mystery Train: Images of America in Rock 'n' Roll Music by Greil Marcus51. Beano (comic, ’50s)52. Raw (comic, ’80s)53. White Noise by Don DeLillo54. Sweet Soul Music by Peter Guralnick55. Silence: Lectures And Writing by John Cage56. Writers At Work: The Paris Review Interviews edited by Malcolm Cowley57. The Sound Of The City: The Rise Of Rock And Roll by Charlie Gillett58. Octobriana And The Russian Underground by Petr Sadecky59. The Street by Ann Petry60. Wonder Boys by Michael Chabon61. Last Exit To Brooklyn by Hubert Selby, Jr.62. A People’s History Of The United States by Howard Zinn63. The Age Of American Unreason by Susan Jacoby64. Metropolitan Life by Fran Lebowitz65. The Coast Of Utopia by Tom Stoppard66. The Bridge by Hart Crane67. All The Emperor’s Horses by David Kidd68. Fingersmith by Sarah Waters69. Earthly Powers by Anthony Burgess70. The 42nd Parallel by John Dos Passos71. Tales Of Beatnik Glory by Ed Sanders72. The Bird Artist by Howard Norman73. Nowhere To Run: The Story Of Soul Music by Gerri Hirshey74. Before The Deluge by Otto Friedrich75. Sexual Personae by Camille Paglia76. The American Way Of Death by Jessica Mitford77. In Cold Blood by Truman Capote78. Lady Chatterley’s Lover by D. H. Lawrence79. Teenage by Jon Savage80. Vile Bodies by Evelyn Waugh81. The Hidden Persuaders by Vance Packard82. The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin83. Viz (comic magazine, early ’80s)84. Private Eye (satirical magazine, ’60s – ’80s)85. Selected Poems by Frank O’Hara86. The Trial Of Henry Kissinger by Christopher Hitchens87. Flaubert’s Parrot by Julian Barnes88. Le Chants de Maldordor by Comte de Lautréamont89. On The Road by Jack Kerouac90. Mr. Wilson’s Cabinet of Wonder by Lawrence Weschler91. Zanoni by Edward Bulwer-Lytton92. Transcendental Magic: Its Doctrine and Ritual by Éliphas Lévi93. The Gnostic Gospels by Elaine Pagels94. The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa95. Inferno by Dante Alighieri96. A Grave for a Dolphin by Alberto Denti di Pirajno97. The Insult by Rupert Thomson98. In Between the Sheets by Ian McEwan99. A People’s Tragedy: The Russian Revolution 1890-1924 by Orlando Figes100. Journey Into the Whirlwind by Eugenia Ginzburg
This article was originally published in 2016 and has been updated for 2019.
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Buzz
