44 Books Recommended by Bob Dylan
American singer-songwriter. 2016 Nobel Prize in Literature.
Moby Dick by Herman Melville
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All Quiet on The Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
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War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
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Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman
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On The Road by Jack Kerouac
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The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
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A Season in Hell & The Drunken Boat by Arthur Rimbaud
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Stories by Anton Chekhov
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The Odyssey by Homer
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Selected Poetry by Rainer Maria Rilke
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BOOKS
All Access: The Rock ‘n’ Roll Photography of Ken Regan by Ken Regan
Backstage Passes and Backstabbing Bastards by Al Kooper
Bound for Glory by Woody Guthrie
Confessions of a Yakuza by Junichi Saga
Deep Blues: A Musical and Cultural History of the Mississippi Delta by Robert Palmer
Girl from the North Country by Conor McPherson
Honkers and Shouters: The Golden Years of Rhythm and Blues by Arnold Shaw
Howl, Kaddish and Other Poems by Allen Ginsberg
Jerry Garcia: The Collected Artwork by Jerry Garcia
Last Train to Memphis: The Rise of Elvis Presley by Peter Guralnick
Mexico City Blues by Jack Kerouac
Michael Bloomfield: The Rise and Fall of an American Guitar Hero by Ed Ward
Mister Jelly Roll: The Fortunes of Jelly Roll Morton, New Orleans Creole and “Inventor of Jazz” by Alan Lomax
Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs
On War by Carl von Clausewitz
One Hundred Dollar Misunderstanding by Robert Gover
Parting the Waters: America in the King Years 1954-63 by Taylor Branch
Poems by Henry Timrod
Ringolevio: A Life Played for Keeps by Emmett Grogan
Selected Poems by Carl Sandburg
The American Songbag by Carl Sandburg
The Anchor Anthology of French Poetry by Angel Flores
The Blues Line: A Collection of Blues Lyrics by Eric Sackheim
The Complete Poetry and Prose by John Donne
The Conscience of the Folk Revival: The Writings of Israel “Izzy” Young by Scott Barretta
The Dave Stewart Songbook: The Stories Behind The Songs by Dave Stewart
The Land Where the Blues Began by Alan Lomax
The Life and Times of Sonny Barger and the Hell’s Angels Motorcycle Club by Sonny Barger
The Oxford Book of English Verse by Christopher Ricks
The White Goddess by Robert Graves
Thucydides: The War of the Peloponnesians and the Athenians by Thucydides
Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller
Victory by Joseph Conrad
Woody Guthrie: Radical American Patriot by Bill Nowlin
Backstage Passes and Backstabbing Bastards by Al Kooper
Bound for Glory by Woody Guthrie
Confessions of a Yakuza by Junichi Saga
Deep Blues: A Musical and Cultural History of the Mississippi Delta by Robert Palmer
Girl from the North Country by Conor McPherson
Honkers and Shouters: The Golden Years of Rhythm and Blues by Arnold Shaw
Howl, Kaddish and Other Poems by Allen Ginsberg
Jerry Garcia: The Collected Artwork by Jerry Garcia
Last Train to Memphis: The Rise of Elvis Presley by Peter Guralnick
Mexico City Blues by Jack Kerouac
Michael Bloomfield: The Rise and Fall of an American Guitar Hero by Ed Ward
Mister Jelly Roll: The Fortunes of Jelly Roll Morton, New Orleans Creole and “Inventor of Jazz” by Alan Lomax
Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs
On War by Carl von Clausewitz
One Hundred Dollar Misunderstanding by Robert Gover
Parting the Waters: America in the King Years 1954-63 by Taylor Branch
Poems by Henry Timrod
Ringolevio: A Life Played for Keeps by Emmett Grogan
Selected Poems by Carl Sandburg
The American Songbag by Carl Sandburg
The Anchor Anthology of French Poetry by Angel Flores
The Blues Line: A Collection of Blues Lyrics by Eric Sackheim
The Complete Poetry and Prose by John Donne
The Conscience of the Folk Revival: The Writings of Israel “Izzy” Young by Scott Barretta
The Dave Stewart Songbook: The Stories Behind The Songs by Dave Stewart
The Land Where the Blues Began by Alan Lomax
The Life and Times of Sonny Barger and the Hell’s Angels Motorcycle Club by Sonny Barger
The Oxford Book of English Verse by Christopher Ricks
The White Goddess by Robert Graves
Thucydides: The War of the Peloponnesians and the Athenians by Thucydides
Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller
Victory by Joseph Conrad
Woody Guthrie: Radical American Patriot by Bill Nowlin
AUTHOR
Anton Chekhov (Russian playwright)
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Herman Melville (American novelist)
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Fyodor Dostoyevsky (Russian novelist)
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Leo Tolstoy (Russian writer)
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Joseph Conrad (Polish-British writer)
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POETS
William Blake (1757-1827)
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John Keats (English Romantic poets, 1795-1821)
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Percy Bysshe Shelley (English Romantic poets, 1792 – 1822)
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ROSENBAUM: What about your literary influences. You've mentioned Kerouac and Ginsberg. Who do you read now?
DYLAN: Rilke. Chekhov. Chekhov is my favorite writer. I like Henry Miller. I think he's the greatest American writer."
- Bob Dylan: The Essential Interviews
What has Dylan been reading of late? "My, ah, my latest book...it's been out for a long time, but my latest thing I'm just reading is...back into reading the William Blake poems again. It seems like when you're young and you read them they don't have the effect on you that they do when you get older. It was years ago when it was time just to read all those guys, but lately it's been necessary for me to find some time to go back and re-read someone like Blake or Shelley, Byron, some of those people."
February 1978 interview w/ Philip Fleishman
"Dylan: The whole world is a prison. Life is a prison, we’re all inside the body. Freedom only comes from knowledge and knowledge is power. Sojust because you’re out there in the desert, facing an endless sky and an unknown nothingness, doesn’t necessarily mean you’re free. You’re trapped on the desert. Only knowledge of either yourself or the ultimate power can get you out of it. I don’t know that much. Maclean’s: Who do you read to find out? Dylan: People I read? Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Chekhov, Henry Miller, Joseph Conrad and Melville."
"Dylan: The whole world is a prison. Life is a prison, we’re all inside the body. Freedom only comes from knowledge and knowledge is power. Sojust because you’re out there in the desert, facing an endless sky and an unknown nothingness, doesn’t necessarily mean you’re free. You’re trapped on the desert. Only knowledge of either yourself or the ultimate power can get you out of it. I don’t know that much. Maclean’s: Who do you read to find out? Dylan: People I read? Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Chekhov, Henry Miller, Joseph Conrad and Melville."
June 1978 interview w/ Philippe Adler
Adler: You often list Henry Miller amongst your influences.
Dylan: Yes. I think that he's the greatest American writer.
Adler: I believe you've met him. What did you talk about?
Dylan: We played table tennis (laughs).
Adler: You often list Henry Miller amongst your influences.
Dylan: Yes. I think that he's the greatest American writer.
Adler: I believe you've met him. What did you talk about?
Dylan: We played table tennis (laughs).
November 1985 interview w/ Denise Worrell
„At certain times I read a lot of poetry. My favorite poets are Shelley and Keats. Rimbaud is so identifiable. Lord Byron. I don't know. Lately if I read poems, it's like I can always hear the guitar. Even with Shakespeare's sonnets I can hear a melody because it's all broken up into timed phrases so I hear it. I always keep thinking, 'What kind of song would this be?“
— Bob Dylan, Interview with Denise Worrell, "'It's All Right in Front': Dylan on Life and Rock" in Time Magazine (25 November 1985)
„At certain times I read a lot of poetry. My favorite poets are Shelley and Keats. Rimbaud is so identifiable. Lord Byron. I don't know. Lately if I read poems, it's like I can always hear the guitar. Even with Shakespeare's sonnets I can hear a melody because it's all broken up into timed phrases so I hear it. I always keep thinking, 'What kind of song would this be?“
— Bob Dylan, Interview with Denise Worrell, "'It's All Right in Front': Dylan on Life and Rock" in Time Magazine (25 November 1985)
