John O'Connell has 3 audiobooks on Listento.it, narrated by 3 narrators, with an average listener rating of 4★ across 1 ratings. The most-rated is Bowie's Bookshelf.
Bowie's Bookshelf
Summary
Three years before David Bowie died, he shared a list of 100 books that changed his life. His choices span fiction and nonfiction, literary and irreverent, and include timeless classics alongside eyebrow-raising obscurities. In 100 short essays, music journalist John O'Connell studies each book on Bowie's list and contextualizes it in the artist's life and work. How did the power imbued in a single suit of armor in The Iliad impact a man who loved costumes, shifting identity, and the siren song of the alter-ego? How did The Gnostic Gospels inform Bowie's own hazy personal cosmology? How did the poems of T. S. Eliot and Frank O'Hara, the fiction of Vladimir Nabokov and Anthony Burgess, the comics of The Beano and The Viz, and the groundbreaking politics of James Baldwin influence Bowie's lyrics, his sound, his artistic outlook? How did the 100 books on this list influence one of the most influential artists of a generation? Heartfelt, analytical, and totally original, Bowie's Bookshelf is one part epic reading guide and one part biography of a music legend.
©2019 John O'Connell (P)2020 Tantor
Baskerville
Summary
“I like the way your mind works,” said Doyle. “We should work on something together. Pool our resources. What do you say?” I said I would like that very much… Young journalist Bertram Fletcher Robinson can barely believe his luck when he meets his hero, Arthur Conan Doyle, on a troop ship coming back from South Africa. Better yet, the creator of Sherlock Holmes suggests they collaborate on a “real creeper” of a story—a plan that throws them into one of the most dramatic and harrowing adventures of their lives.The two travel to Dartmoor, England, cementing their friendship as they start work on what will become one of the world’s most famous novels, The Hound of the Baskervilles. But the experience proves traumatic for both of them, and when the book—anticipated to be Sherlock’s comeback vehicle — is finally published, it is credited to one author alone. Based on real events, Baskerville is a creeper too: a thrilling exploration of friendship and rivalry, love and lust, ambition and the limits of talent. It takes us from the clattering heart of Edwardian London to the eerie stillness of ancient West Country moors, where a treacherous bog might swallow a man in seconds…John O’Connell worked as books editor for Time Out for several years. He now writes, mostly about books, for The Times, The Guardian, New Statesman and The National. He is also the author of I Told You I Was Ill: Adventures in Hypochondria and The Midlife Manual.
©2013 John O'Connell (P)2013 Audible Ltd
Bowie
Summary
Le livre audio idéal pour découvrir les inspirations de David Bowie à travers les ouvrages de sa bibliothèque. David Bowie était un lecteur compulsif qui ne se déplaçait jamais sans sa bibliothèque portative. Trois ans avant sa mort, en 2013, dans le cadre de la mémorable exposition qui lui a été consacrée, il a offert au public une liste des cent livres l'ayant le plus influencé. Dans cet ouvrage, John O'Connell a choisi de les passer en revue en examinant leur impact sur la vie et l'œuvre de la star. Dans un premier temps, les titres semblent se succéder comme autant de pièces d'un puzzle insoluble : que viennent faire 1984 ou Sur la route à côté des Chants de Maldoror ? Fiction, essais, revues de bandes dessinées, occultisme, spiritualité, psychologie et histoire de l'art... La liste et les domaines qu'elle englobe sont pour le moins éclectiques ! Au fil des pages, l'auteur nous abreuve d'indices et d'une mine d'anecdotes qui permettent de se faire une idée plus précise de cet artiste transformiste. Un éclairage passionnant sur un esprit curieux, qui a su se nourrir de ses diverses passions pour construire une carrière et une œuvre devenues cultes.
©2020 Presses de la Cité (P)2021 Audible Studios