I think it goes without saying that I love this book, and that's why it must be passed along
At my advanced age, I have become incredibly selective about which books I read (not to mention sleep with). I approach them the same way I approach people, taking a bit of time to gauge their style, tone, and sensitivity. Are they just here to sit limply on a coffee table with a tight spine? Content to find their way into some hipster’s stoop sale when he needs weed money? That’s not my kind of printed matter. I want, demand, and seek out stories that I will return to repeatedly because they’ve been crafted by a person who has taken the time to look at the world and make sense of its beauty, cruelty, and everything in between.
I never thought Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards would qualify as that caliber of author. Last fall before a trip to London, a work colleague approached me about reviewing his much-ballyhooed memoir, Life (see my review here), and I bit for reasons unknown to me. No, I confess: it was that goddamn jacket, a slick David La Chapelle photograph I’ve always loved for its floating-fish-eye quality. It had nothing to do with how I felt about the Stones’ music because, frankly, I had never had a Stones phase (more on that later), aside from seasonal fixations on “Gimme Shelter.”
Fast-forward to Thanksgiving in upstate New York on a frozen lake. I’m under a pound of down blankets, nursing a cold, and nose-deep in Life. I put off peeing and eating so I can listen to Richards’s craggy, mirthful voice reverberate in my congested sinuses. Long before heroin enters the narrative, it becomes obvious that I’m falling in love with a love story about music, not sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll (that would be Mick Jagger’s, or even Bill Wyman’s, story, which I doubt would be as interesting). Not only that, but my narrator is generous, wanting to share how he created iconic sounds in a way that non-players will understand, in a way that hit home for me that Richards is a student, not a crass mimic, of American blues.
This book marked a first in my reading life—even my reaction to my beloved Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung by Lester Bangs was different—and I had to do something to honor that. On Twitter one day in December last year, on the eve of finishing Life, I broached the subject of a “book-pass-long,” a kind of human library lending chain. The idea is simple and by no means groundbreaking: I share a book I love with an equally invested reader, and then she or he passes it on to someone else. Marginalia required (see a favorite passage of mine from Life below). Aesthetic disfigurement encouraged (see my biblio-snog above). Document the experience of physically handling one of the world’s most perfect technologies via a blog, Twitter, a book group, etc.
One of my favorite passages; Richards knows how to articulate how music moves us
This isn’t about hating ebooks, for the record. My leisure, blocking-out-the-world-so-I-can-learn-about-the-world reading happens on paper because I toil on a computer all day, and I need a break from screens. And so the book-pass-along begins! This week, I’ll hand over my copy of Life to my librarian pal Katie Dunneback, who I know will add another layer to an already extraordinarily meaningful text. Here’s to Life having at least ten lives.
Ha! Imagine introducing this man to your family. Patti Hansen did
Writing soundtrack:
- A shit ton of The Go-Betweens (fanks, PK)
The Nowhere in the Middle 
Heather
February 13, 2011
Oooo… he looks better in lipstick. Hahaha! This is a great idea, and I’m looking forward to it!
Heather McCormack
February 13, 2011
He is shockingly photogenic the more you look at him. Or do I just sound deranged?
Jeff Scott
February 13, 2011
This is a wonderful idea and reminds me of an episode of the Gilmore Girls where they pass a book back and forth while marking in the margins.
Heather McCormack
February 13, 2011
Jeff, this happened on Gilmore Girls?! Glad to know. Never watched the show. But did they include Top Ten Favorite Stones Songs, though? I don’t think so!
Odette
February 13, 2011
Ok, you have been sufficiently convincing with this lovely blog entry.
Damn you, Heather.
Because of you, I now have another book to add to my already infinitely long list.
Damn you?? Nono…. THANK YOU. 🙂
Heather McCormack
February 13, 2011
Allie, I am always more than happy to add to your ever-growing book pile. Keeps life inarestin’, dudn’t it?
Odette
February 13, 2011
Photogenic?? Dunno, I’ve never liked him
Odette
February 13, 2011
Oh and yes, keeps life interesting… and flippin’ unmanageable! Hahah joking… of course I am always more than grateful, dear 😉
Reblogga
April 2, 2011
I slept with this book too, and became a whore for his narration. Sigh, I would have cut a bitch who tried to take it away before I was finished. Then I had to watch all the many parts of the talk at NYPL where I thought the moderator was gonna get on his knees. Do all bookish dames have a secret pirate fantasy? I do.
Heather McCormack
April 2, 2011
This was the first work of nonfiction I’d fallen hard for in years. Not only for being a raucous read but also opening up the Stones’ catalog to me. I am a happier person because of Exile and Some Girls.
JSLambert
April 19, 2011
Sometimes the best reading material comes from a very unexpected place. I like the idea of a book-pass-along. Readers will be able to open their minds to litreature they may not have read otherwise. Even though I may like this idea, I would probably find it hard to actually finish the books in any kind of timely matter. Every time I start to really enjoy a book, it inspires me to write; hence putting down the book to pick up my pen.
~JSLambert