Duncan Jones (Moon, Warcraft), award-winning director, producer, and screenwriter and son of music legend David Bowie, has formed a casual book club to get through the books the singer had listed as his favorites.
“My dad was a beast of a reader,” Jones tweeted in late December. “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.”
Still using Twitter, Jones later announced that the game was afoot. “Alright [sic] 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. You have until Feb 1.”
In case you missed it, back in 2013, three years before the late-singer’s death due to cancer, Bowie had listed his 100 favorite books on his web site. It’s an almost perfect reading list, including titles from history — Homer’s The Iliad, Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert and As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner are included — to contemporary greats like The Brief Wondrous Life Of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz and Wonder Boys by Michael Chabon.
As it happens, today would have been David Bowie’s 71st birthday. A fact Jones also remarked on Twitter.
A word on the graphic we’ve used to illustrate this piece: In 1987, the Bowie became one of the first celebrities to pose for the ALA’s READ campaign. It was reissued in 2016 and can be purchased here.
Leave a Reply