BOOKS THREAD

[Songbird]

Gotten some reading in the last 7 weeks. Halfway thru this one which is riveting and beautifully written. Would like to think they’re going to make it a movie. Amy Adams would be perfect for Mary Pat.

 

[Songbird]

Gotten some reading in the last 7 weeks. Halfway thru this one which is riveting and beautifully written. Would like to think they’re going to make it a movie. Amy Adams would be perfect for Mary Pat.

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Mary Pat Fennessy is a tragic American hero from Southie. Such a phenomenal read. Cant wait for the movie.

 

[Songbird]

Finally back to Glorious Rock Bottom by Bryony Gordon after putting it down for The Alchemist then Man’s Search for Meaning then Small Mercies. Bryony was in many ways a female Hunter Thompson and maybe even more deprived and deeper into debauchery before getting sober. Excellent writer. Fun read.

 

[Neutral Corner]

Crowe's latest book, which basically is a memoir of his early life, much of which was told in a fictionalized way in "Almost Famous". He tells his family's story in very personal detail, then offers up a number of anecdotes from his time doing interviews with high end rock stars. The Allman Brothers (post Duane), Joni Mitchell, Led Zeppelin, Fleetwood Mac, David Bowie, and many others. His mother, a teacher, pushed him very hard academically, and by skipping grades and going to summer school every year he graduated from high school at age 15. By that point he was writing about rock music for a local underground paper, then Creem magazine and Rolling Stone. By age 21 he was out at Rolling Stone, replaced by writers who were more in touch with the rising punk and new wave bands.

At that point he went back to high school as an undercover writer and wrote "Fast Times at Ridgemont High", followed by writing the screenplay and getting into the film industry.

Tons of interesting inside rock music anecdotes. Crowe is right in my wheelhouse. He was a year younger than me, but by the time I was a junior in high school he was writing feature articles for Rolling Stone on bands I loved. Lots of self deprecating humor, similar to "Almost Famous". It's not literary but a very well written period piece.

 

[Huggy]

Has anyone read - or even seen - the Fast Times book? I have never seen it though I remember reading an excerpt in Playboy.

 

[TheSportsPredictor]

Has anyone read - or even seen - the Fast Times book? I have never seen it though I remember reading an excerpt in Playboy.

So you’re the one who read it for the articles.

 

[Huggy]

So you’re the one who read it for the articles.

Yes! Guilty as charged m'lord!

 

[OscarMadison]

Way back in the day when CD-ROMs were a thing, I had a collection of Playboy interviews on disc. Boys kept stealing it, only to return it, horribly disappointed that the only bunny was the logo on the cover. They were "just borrowing it to read."

If you can find it and it will talk to your OS, it's good reading.

 

[Neutral Corner]

Has anyone read - or even seen - the Fast Times book? I have never seen it though I remember reading an excerpt in Playboy.

I read it back in the day but that was <cough> a few decades ago.

 

[micropolitan guy]

Gotten some reading in the last 7 weeks. Halfway thru this one which is riveting and beautifully written. Would like to think they’re going to make it a movie. Amy Adams would be perfect for Mary Pat.

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He is great. "Mystic River" is a must-read. I've read his entire catalogue.

I am reading "Homestand," by Bill Bardenwerper. It's about a season with the fans, owners and players of the Batavia Muckdogs and Elmira Pioneers, teams in the Perfect Game summer wood-bat league in the Northeast. Wonderful book.

 

[TheSportsPredictor]

He is great. "Mystic River" is a must-read. I've read his entire catalogue.

I am reading "Homestand," by Bill Bardenwerper. It's about a season with the fans, owners and players of the Batavia Muckdogs and Elmira Pioneers, teams in the Perfect Game summer wood-bat league in the Northeast. Wonderful book.

I read that. Felt it a bit repetitive. For similar but better try Class A by Lucas Mann.

 

[micropolitan guy]

I read that. Felt it a bit repetitive. For similar but better try Class A by Lucas Mann.

Thanks for the suggestion! I will look for it.

"Homestand" strikes home because I have worked (or covered) for a similar team since 2007, and grew up about 40 miles from Batavia.

 

[britwrit]

Has anyone read - or even seen - the Fast Times book? I have never seen it though I remember reading an excerpt in Playboy.

Crowe did an interview with a fan website way back in 2002 saying he might sometime reissue itself. So ancient news, but still interesting.

Fast Times is going for outrageous prices on ebay, will we ever see it back in print?

I think so. The rights reverted to me a while ago. If I do re-publish it, I’d probably want to write a new introduction… but frankly, we never did a sequel and I’ve never re-published the book because I like the fact that Fast Times at Ridgemont High lives in its own era. It’s sort of a dog-eared memory. I like that. I was reluctant to even do the enhanced DVD, but it was so much fun to sit down with Amy Heckerling again.

Full interview - The Uncool Exclusive Interview with Cameron Crowe – The Uncool - The Official Site for Everything Cameron Crowe

The website itself was last updated in fall of 2025.

 

[Neutral Corner]

To the extent that any rock fans think about producers, it's probably a small number, George Martin, Mutt Lange, Rick Rubin and a few others. But if you were around in the 70s or listen to classic rock now you may not know the name Ted Templeman but you'll know his work and his recent-ish memoir A Platinum Producer's Life In Music goes behind the scenes detailing the great records he made with the Doobie Brothers, Van Halen, Van Morrison, Sammy Hagar, David Lee Roth, Nicolette Larson, Little Feat and many others (including Canuckistani heroes Honeymoon Suite, hi @BYH 2: Electric Boogaloo!). A solid addition to the works that chronicle that decade.

I've known Ted Templeman since he was in Harper's Bizarre, doing "Feelin' Groovy". '67 or so.

 

[Inky_Wretch]

Tom Junod’s memoir “In The Days Of My Youth I Was Told What It Means To Be A Man” just absolutely wrecked me a couple of times. I’m talking tears rolling. I can’t recommend this book enough - especially if you had a problematic and dysfunctional father.

 

[garrow]

"The Emperor of Wine" by Elin McCoy about famed wine critic Robert M. Parker. I'm a teetotaler, so I couldn't care less about wine itself, but found the story of a guy turning his hobby into a hugely influential and prominent gig fascinating. Second read of it.

 

[britwrit]

Has anyone read - or even seen - the Fast Times book? I have never seen it though I remember reading an excerpt in Playboy.

Just posting for anybody coming across this thread. A full copy can be found at The Internet Archive. Registration is required but is free.

 

[SixToe]

About to begin “In Search of Al Howie” by Jared Beasley, about a wild hippie endurance runner before such a thing was a thing. Beasley wrote about the Barkley Marathons and its founder, so this should be good. Will update.

 

[britwrit]

Just read a biography of Rembrandt by Simon Schama. Fascinating and wonderful.... except for the part where he had a former mistress locked up in an insane asylum for over a decade because she was just a little too difficult. Famous people are awful.

The book itself is out of print but a lot of cheap copies around - especially considering the 700 page length and lots of color illustrations around.

 

[I Should Coco]

Back to my occasional hobby of re-reading Stephen King novels. Amid the recent Hantavirus and eBola outbreaks, I've checked out "The Stand: Complete and Uncut Edition" ... the beefed up, 1990 release with more than 1,100 pages and an updated time frame (it's set in 1990, with various cultural references thrown in). Still a good read, the pages fly by.

I believe this novel was the first appearance of King bad guy Randall Flagg.