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Do You Have a List Of All Your Books?

posted a year ago by BillHicksFan (10717)
21 replies | jump to latest

Art Garfunkel has a website dedicated to listing every book he read and when
https://www.artgarfunkel.com/library/list1.html

A vast majority of my physical books are biographies of those in music, film, comedy, and to a lesser extent, politics and sports, which are ones I got early in life. I have a couple on geography or books from these book exchanges in Australia through the Couchsurfing travel community. A few language books I'll probably never check out again. In fact, the only time I read physical books was when I was on an airplane, train, etc.., and they're only taking space I don't have in this very tiny house. Most of my books are e-books. I've been in a rush to sell my physical books for many reasons, but also because of neck/shoulder pain, and also because I can increase the font on an e-book or Zoom in while I see it on my TV.

I do have a list, and will post more if others reply... I love finding older books, just for comparison, even if those artists weren't very popular. Some guys like Peckinpah is even more interesting than his movies! I have the physical and e-book of this Interviews series.

Another huge benefit of e-books is the Search function.. There's some people who I rarely know, but might want to read their mentions on a certain director, or certain keywords ('love', 'hate', 'best', etc).

Brando Unzipped (Darwin Porter)
Money players inside the new NBA (Armen Keteyian, Harvey Araton, Martin F. Dardis)
Van halen a Visual History 1978-1984 (Zlozower, Neil)
The American Cinema (Andrew Sarris)
To the Limit The Untold Story of the Eagles (Marc Eliot)
The Films In My Life (Francois Truffaut)
Led Zeppelin (Bob Spitz)
Always Look on the Bright Side of Life A Sortabiography (Eric Idle)
International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers. Vol. 1 Films (Sara Pendergast, Tom Pendergast)
Long Train Runnin Our Story of The Doobie Brothers (Pat Simmons Tom Johnston)
Robert Altman and the Elaboration of Hollywood Storytelling (Mark Minett)
Van Halen Rising How a Southern California Backyard Party Band Saved Heavy Metal (Greg Renoff)
Hollywood Babylon (Kenneth Anger)
Where Did Our Love Go The Rise Fall of the Motown Sound (George Nelson)
The Led Zeppelin Saga (Davis, Stephen)
John Lennon Life Is What Happens Music, Memories Memorabilia (John M. Borack)
A Life in the Day Memories of Swinging London, Lots of Writing, The Beatles and My Beloved Wife (Davies Hunter)
Frank Capra The Catastrophe of Success (Joseph McBride)
Led Zeppelin All the Albums, All the Songs (Martin Popoff)
Conversations with Classic Film Stars Interviews from Hollywoods Golden Era (Bawden, JamesMiller, Ron)
Ancient Mesopotamia Life in the Cradle of Civilization - Guidebook - The Great Courses - TTC (Amanda H. Podany PhD)
The Anarchy of the Imagination Interviews, Essays, Notes ( etc.)
How to Talk Dirty and Influence People (Lenny Bruce) (78:39)
The Films of Roberto Rossellini (Cambridge Film Classics) (Peter Bondanella)
The Recording Engineers Handbook (Bobby Owsinski)
Bring It On Home Peter Grant, Led Zeppelin, and Beyond–The Story of Rock’s Greatest Manager (Mark Blake)
Crazy from the Heat (David Lee Roth)
How to Talk Dirty and Influence People (Lenny Bruce)
The Stone Age Sixty Years of The Rolling Stones (Lesley-Ann Jones)
Angela Davis An Autobiography (Angela Y. Davis)
Swanson on Swanson (Gloria Swanson)
Lennon in America 1971-1980, Based in Part on the Lost Lennon Diaries (Geoffery Giuliano)
The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine (Ilan Pappe)
A Modern Man (George Carlin)
Conversations with Classic Film Stars Interviews from Hollywoods Golden Era (Bawden, JamesMiller, Ron)
Reel Conversations Candid Interviews With Films Foremost Directors and Critics (George Hickenlooper)
Hitler (Ian Kershaw)
David Lee Roth - Eat Em And Smile Band Score (David Lee Roth)
Me Stories of My Life (Katharine Hepburn)
What Is Cinema (André Bazin)
Interviews with Film Directors (Andrew Sarris)
Lets Spend the Night Together Backstage Secrets of Rock Muses and Supergroupies (Pamela Des Barres)
The Last Sultan The Life and Times of Ahmet Ertegun (Greenfield, Robert)
John Ford The Man and His Films (Tag Gallagher)
Van Halen Rising How a Southern California Backyard Party Band Saved Heavy Metal (Greg Renoff)
Traveling Music Playing Back the Soundtrack to My Life and Times (Neil Peart)
The Great Erasure The Reconstruction of White Identity (Richard B. Spencer (ed.))
Last Words A Memoir (George Carlin, Tony Hendra)
Andrei Tarkovsky Interviews (Conversations With Filmmakers Series) (John Gianvito)
Esoteric Hollywood II More Sex, Cults Symbols in Film (Jay Dyer)
Last Man Standing Mort Sahl and the Birth of Modern Comedy
-Bowie- David- Leigh- Wendy- Bowie the biography-b-ok.org-
Hitler (Ian Kershaw)
The History of Rock Roll, Volume 2 (Ed Ward)
The 100 Best Movies Youve Never Seen (Richard Crouse)
How Sweet It is The Jackie Gleason Story (James Bacon)
The Comedians Drunks, Thieves, Scoundrels, and the History of American Comedy (Nesteroff, Kliph)
Led Zeppelin on Led

[–] PaladinNJ (21784) a year ago

I don't think I could make a list.
Sitting here at my desk, I look at the shelves and see hundreds of books. I know there are even more boxes in the basement and the garage.

[–] BillHicksFan (10717) a year ago

That's another reason I sold 30 of them to a friend -- they're just sitting there, and I have many other books I haven't read.

Do you have any favorite books involving movies?

[–] SamNoyoun (6016) a year ago

The Disaster Artist

[–] BillHicksFan (10717) a year ago

It's such a mirror on contemporary society when he who is voted as the star/writer/director of a movie voted "The Worst Movie Ever" has a movie made about that movie.

[–] SamNoyoun (6016) a year ago

For the ultimate comedy experience I highly recommend the following:

Step 1: Watch "The Room"
Step 2: Read "The Disaster Artist"
Step 3: Watch "The Disaster Artist"
Step 4: Watch "The Room"

I honestly don't think I've ever laughed harder in my life...

[–] jriley555 (8552) a year ago

No, but I just read an interesting rather obscure novel from the late 70s :

How German Is It by Walter Abish

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_German_Is_It

Its the only novel of his which received much critical acclaim, and yet he had a solid reputation as a writer - I'm kind of picky, easily annoyed by 2d rate fiction - this is first rate.

[–] BillHicksFan (10717) a year ago

Thanks, I'll get the e-book and maybe I'll read it!

[–] jriley555 (8552) a year ago

I think you'll like it. He goes off on some tangents with the literary & art allusions, but his characters are amusingly sardonic. Its a largely ironic take on the exuberant Germany of the 70s sitting on top of the then-recent semi-submerged memories of the 30s-40s.

[–] ShogunofYonkers (78608) a year ago

Heck no, I can’t even recall all that I’ve read.

My parents read to me often as a little kid and I took to the practice like a baby bird to flight. I was reading Clavell, Fleming, King and R.E. Howard before I was twelve. I didn’t spend much time with Winnie the Pooh, I jumped right into adult thriller, horror and adventure stories. I’ve read hundreds, maybe thousands of books but I am somewhat weak in ‘the high school/college classics’ category.

I couldn’t finish Moby Dick or that Emily Brontë stuff, that stuff was yawnsville to me.
Also, I tended to skip any book with a female lead character, call me a misogynist but it’s a genuine thing, boys like male lead characters. I’m 50 and I still do 😄

[–] BillHicksFan (10717) a year ago

Wow, that's great. No one in my family has ever read a book.

[–] punkrockgirl (1270) a year ago

That's strange. Don't think it's misogynist, just strange. Sounds like something someone a lot younger would say. I know a lot of men, ones in my life included that enjoy many classic stories with female protagonists. Take any Bronte/Austen story. Still, a girl could say the same thing. To each their own. I know the old stuff can be hard to get through, but you just have to remind yourself they were written during a different time, and therefore they're written very differently than anything we're used to. I think that makes it easier.

[–] RoboReCop (3383) a year ago

I keep one set of books for my accounting recorders, and another set for the IRS.

[–] OnanTheBarbarian (13179) a year ago

One reason I'd have a difficult time making a list is because I get a lot of books from the library.

Angela Davis!

[–] BillHicksFan (10717) a year ago

I've always been interested in the subversive.

[–] OnanTheBarbarian (13179) a year ago

I always liked her because I remember that 'fro from my childhood.🤣

And she didn't just sit in academia. Davis helped the Soledad Brother escape from prison. She was on the FBI Most Wanted List and after apprehended she spent time in prison herself. Courageous woman, despite your politics.

She was also a Professor at UCLA, my alma mater.

[–] BillHicksFan (10717) a year ago

She went to where the action was - Albania
Hoxha thought the others like the USSR betrayed Marxism.

UCLA has a great archive department. I'm guessing no one in LA ever visits, though. "Youth is waste on the young" and LA is wasted on Angelenos!

[–] OnanTheBarbarian (13179) a year ago

I remember Enver Hoxha! I am among those Greater Hellenists who believe Albania is a part of Greece.🤣

Don't tell me you're one of those anti-LA types? What's great about LA is that we don't have all those ancient entrenched ethnic neighborhoods like they have back east. There's a freedom here. And there's that vast wonderful slum called Hollywood.

[–] [deleted] a year ago

i am strictly non fiction. here's a few i can see across the room:

nixonland - the rise of richard nixon
hellbound on his trail - mlk assassintion
ghost wars - the history of the cia
agent zigzag - a criminal turned agent for the british in ww2
reclaiming history - jfk assassination
the last gunfight - the fight at the ok coral
in the garden of beasts - the rise of the nazis
charlie wilson's war
onion field
legacy of ashes - another cia book
the looming tower - 9/11 attacks
restless souls - manson murders

[–] nyctc7 (44116) a year ago

I've lived in studio apartments most of my adult life, so no room to display books. They get donated or tossed once I'm finished with them.

[–] BillHicksFan (10717) a year ago

I once had to toss a few books at an airport because of this weight limit almost 10 years ago and I'm still bothered by it. Of course, the people behind the counter can't accept gifts, and I don't think I asked the person closest to me if they were interested in books, but it could have happened, and it's even possible someone took one leaving me to throw the rest away, but I've probably got them all back in e-book format, which is how I read now compared to physical books, which I read at airports.

Now I remember leaving an entire huge suitcase full of books, etc., in Asia, thinking me and a girl were going to do a circle around SE Asia, but visas got in the way but at least it was at a hostel where people could steal be enjoying it.

[–] punkrockgirl (1270) a year ago

I keep track of my books on goodreads. I've also made various physically written lists.