My two favorite things combine in this weekend’s New York Times Book Review with a cover graphic of Bruce Springsteen (unfortunately, done so poorly I didn’t realize it was him until I read the cover).
There’s a two-page spread on seven books on or about Springsteen. The lead items are actually short story collections — Meeting Across the River and Deliver Me from Nowhere — inspired by Springsteen tunes. The others are more straightforward works, including Runaway American Dream, The Ties That Bind and Bruce Springsteen’s America. (I found the latter — a collection of interviews with various Americans about what they think of a particular Springsteen song — horrendous and did not finish it.)
Then, there’s a center spread with brief reviews on 11 music-related books, including Phil Lesh’s story about life in the Grateful Dead (Searching for the Sound; works ranging from The Velvet Underground, to the Wu-Tang Clan to disco to Billy Joel; and, The Rock Snob’s Dictionary
.It would be wonderful if the Book Review did this regularly as it does with children’s books, summer reading and the like.
The best music [is]essentially there to provide you something to face the world with.
Bruce Springsteen
