Michael Stipe's Reading List

Notable reader profiled on radicalreads.com. 10 favorite books recommended in their radicalreads feature.

Favorite books (2020)

Favorite books recommended by Michael Stipe, as compiled by radicalreads.com. Source article: https://radicalreads.com/michael-stipe-favorite-books/.

Source: radicalreads.com

Complete Works

Arthur Rimbaud (also rec’d by Jim Morrison ) · Buy on Amazon

"Because of Patti Smith I read Rimbaud’s entire works at the age of 16. The whole time I was thinking his name was pronounced Rim-bawd. I actually can’t say at the time that I understood much of the finer points, but it was a wild read."

On The Road

Jack Kerouac (also rec’d by Bob Dylan & John Lennon ) · Buy on Amazon

"This book became my band’s template. To explore the country and do it all — having a great big time — on our terms, and no one else’s. Hooray! Followed by “The First Third” by Neal Cassady. The muse speaks, writes, smokes, drinks, seduces."

Dhalgren

Samuel R. Delaney · Buy on Amazon

"Where I learned in eighth grade, I think, that in the future you could have unbridled sci-fi sex with every man and woman within reach, without guilt, fear or weirdness, and have great end-of-times adventures. Just like my dreams! Fantastically futuristic!"

Breakfast of Champions

Kurt Vonnegut · Buy on Amazon

"Introduced me to irony and self-deprecating humor. I can’t say I learned the lesson well, but…a B- for effort."

All Families Are Psychotic

Douglas Coupland · Buy on Amazon

"He is one of our great futurist lights and this is all the proof I need to make such a claim."

Lolita

Vladimir Nabokov · 1955 · Buy on Amazon

"His humor and grasp of humanity and language thrill."

Play It As It Lays

Joan Didion (also rec’d by Michael Stipe & St. Vincent ) · Buy on Amazon

"Which weirdly, through a Jack Pierson photograph and a gift from Douglas Coupland, became maybe the genesis of, and one of the three horns of my ongoing obsession with sculptural replicas and obsolete forms."

Four Plays by Aristophanes

Aristophanes translated by William Arrowsmith · Buy on Amazon

"I love the bawdiness and audacity of both writer and translator."

Bonjour Tristesse

Françoise Sagan · Buy on Amazon

"She was so young; it’s so very French in its desperate and elegant melancholy."

Just Kids

Patti Smith (also rec’d by Annie Clark & Marina Abramovic ) · Buy on Amazon

"Because I’m reading it as I write this, and it’s amazing."

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