Whoever usually starts these threads hasn’t yet, so I thought I’d jump in. Whatcha been reading? Here’s my list from the last month:
The Dirt: Confessions of the World’s Most Notorious Rock Band
Does this book count as a biography? It’s the tale of glam rock pioneer Motly Cru, tracing the childhood and adolescence of each band member all the way through the formation of the group, their stellar success, their plummet into irrelevancy, and their eventual dissolution. It’s told in disjointed chapters penned most often by the four band members, but occasionally others like their manager. It gives the whole thing a pretty authentic feel, even if you’re constantly aware that it’s all been passed through a sieve of PR and probably altered to make things more dramatic. But in a way, that’s how life really is when viewed through the lens of memory --it’s foggy, distorted, and hardly ever lines up perfectly with anyone else’s recollection.
There are a few genuinely dramatic and touching chapters in the book, though, like the one where Tommy Lee laments his months in prison after assaulting his wife or when Vince Neil writes about watching his 4-year old daughter slowly die from cancer. I couldn’t even finish reading the latter because I got to it the night after my wife and daughter left for a visit to St. Louis. Most of the chapters, though, had me rolling my eyes at these decadent men living and acting like children and wondering “WHY OH WHY is everything falling apart? How could this be happening?” You know, when they’re taking drugs, drinking, cheating on their wives, leaving their families to go on tour, and resorting to business practices that a three-year old would find childish. Their angst is ridiculous and they are, by and large, obviously dumbasses and misfits.
The Dead Zone by Stephen King
I’m on a bit of a Stephen King bender again, and after Doloris Claiborn I’m surprised again at how much better King was earlier in his career. The Dead Zone is ostensibly about a guy who comes out of a coma in possession of the ability to tell someone’s future (among other things) just by touching them. But at another level it’s about how an ordinary man deals with the extraordinary (a staple of King’s storytelling) and the tricky moral dilemmas that this kind of ability brings with it. Ultimately, The Dead Zone’s main character, Johnny Smith, has to find out that with great power comes great responsibility (apologies to Stan Lee).
One thing I like about this story is that until the end you’re never completely sure that Smith isn’t at least a little crazy. King sets up a parallel story about a serial killer that doesn’t quite work out the way he originally telegraphs it, and unlike in the movie adaptation of the Dead Zone where everything is clear-cut, we’re not really sure that Johnny is doing the right thing when he makes the decision that forms the lynch pin of the book’s plot. It’s just plain entertaining stuff.
Firestarter by Stephen King
Okay, this is the last of my Stephen King books for a bit. Again, this is one from early in his career, and I once again have to comment on how much more I like it than his later stuff. It’s just a ripping good adventure that starts off at a fast pace and hardly slows down at all. I got sucked into the perils of Andy and Charlie McGee, and I wanted to know how things would turn out. Still, King’s (perhaps understandable) inability to really write from the point of view of a young girl is evident here, though it’s nowhere near as egregious as in The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, which came much later. And since most of the story is told from Charlie’s father’s view, it’s not a big deal.
The Tipping Point by Malcom Gladwell
This is a book about how social, informational, and traditional epidemics gestate and move through groups. Among other things, Gladwell answers questions about why fashion trends happen, why certain children’s television shows succeed, and why teenagers smoke. To explain all this, he sets up a framework involving four groups of people: Mavens, Connectors, and Salespeople. He then explains how other elements come into play, like the power of context and the stickiness of a message.
Gladwell makes this all this interesting and fun to read through a light but dignified style, and by liberal use of colorful examples and stories. What I think the author’s greatest strength is, though, is how he takes things that we all already know or think --like the importance of the social environment or how we always tend to go to the same people for advice on certain things-- and legitimizes them by citing real, scientific studies. The treat for me is that many of these citations come from psychology, which is as you may know an area of no small interest to me.
While it’s far from impossible to poke holes in many of Gladwell’s claims (e.g., he overemphasizes how teen suicide “Mavens” and “Connectors” provide implicit permission for other kids to kill themselves while ignoring other, more powerful factors), it’s a genuinely thought-provoking work. I’m definitely going to pick up his other book, Blink.