Was just wondering if any of you guys read? Actual books with pages made out of paper. And if so what?

I love reading Robert Rankin who's from Brentford. I split my side reading his books. The same with Terry Pratchett.

Does anything you read (fiction wise) ever influence your songs?

Totally I regularly turn to my battered copy of huck finn when Im stuck for lyrics.
I have no idea why thats my most read book...

At the moment I'm reading 'Shadow of the Wind' which is a stunning book by carlos ruiz zafon. Before that I read the assassins apprentice trilogy which I reckon is up there with Philip Pullmans Dark Materials trilogy....
Huge fan of Terry Pratchett aswell, although for some reason I dont think he particularly influences our music...

If I dont outright steal from books I'm sure they affect my writing sub conciously

Wow, sounds like I read a lot, but not really...I usually just read when I go to bed to help me fall asleep (problems with that), which at the moment doesnt take long.....Means my books end up in tatters pretty quickly though.

Oh, Bill Bryson is so funny aswell, although his books are kind of all too similar.

Oh, another great book I read last year was Empire of the Ants by Bernard Werber

So, what about you? Do you steal from books too?

I'm a book addict. A friend of mine once referred to me as library-munching! I do think my reading directly affects my lyrics. In fact, it's one of the reasons I read so much; I believe it helps the songwriting process enormously. It's not just that you're digesting language and turns of phrase, you're also opening your imagination up to someone else's characters, images and landscapes. It keeps the creative brain in motion.

I don't always read fiction though - in fact for about 5 years up until about a year ago I read nothing but non fiction! A lot of that material has made its way into my songs. Actually I'm writing a song as I type this (I'm taking a break from drafting lyrics) which is based on Naomi Klein's 'the shock doctrine'.

Favourite books are: Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance by Robert Pirsig, The life of Pi by Yann Martel, the famished road by Ben Okri, The mosquito coast by Paul Theroux. I could go on all night.

Let me know if you're interested in the extended list

Great thread btw Schavuitje

I love books. They are my other passion I do write stories as well as music but they always take so long, compared to songs

that music always wins and they remain waiting to be finished 


Could not agree more. I think just on that level it can influence your creative ability so much.

Robert Rankin is a genius, seriously. His stories the the things that happen in them are unbelievable. He's a musician too
so music often, although not all the time, appears in his stories.

A good one to try out which features music heavily is "The Da-Da-Di-Da-Da Code."

The idea's that run through it are great.

If I make a list of people I enjoyed reading it would look like this 

Ramsey Campbell - British horror
Douglas Adams - British sci-fi/humour
Brian Lumley - British Horror - The Necroscope series (Incredible)
Wally Lamb - For his book ( I Know This Much Is True.)
Dean Koontz - American Thriller/Horror
Douglas Adams & Mark Carwardine - For the book (Last Chance To See) About species of animal facing extinction but with Adam's humour.
J.K.Rowling - Harry Potter of course 
I Have just realised how long this list could get so I'll stop there 

I would be interested in an extended list mate, because I'm always looking for my next book to read

I do the same as you. I use it as a tool to help me get to sleep. Sometimes I get no further than a page, sometimes I'll be
reading for half an hour. Even just a few pages at a time it is surprising how quickly you can finish a book though, don't you think?

To answer your question Ram, I haven't yet used anything consciously from a book, but I did use something I saw on tv.
It was an American reality type show where a camera crew were filming a detective. The detective was himself filming outside a motel.
His clients husband was inside having it away with a woman and he was getting it as evidence through a small gap in the curtains.
He showed it to his client, the mans wife, and she was distraught of course...

So it influenced me to write "Bang Bang".
In the song a woman find out by seeing photographs that her husband sleeps with another woman in a motel. She goes there and
bursts through the door and confronts them. But instead of being ashamed or sorry, he tells her she never ever mean't anything to him and
she can keep her wedding ring because it means nothing to him.
So she kills him. She shoots him but gets away with it. Puts on the greiving widow act. But then
she begins to feel such guilt and loneliness that she end up taking her own life.

It was the first song I wrote since giving up writing many years ago and the very first song I posted on this forum

When I listened to it recently I really enjoyed the song but because it was my very first song and recording, the sound quality is
terrible. That's another one I definately want on the album though. So Re-mixing of that one will be on the cards soon.

I read all the time. Any spare moment, and now I have a Kindle Reader on my smart phone I'm never without a book.

Love Pratchett of course. Just finished Snuff.

Ian Banks / Ian M Banks for good stories and Sci-fi

But mostly crime / thrillers
Ian Rankin
Lee Child
Kathy Reichs
Stuart McBride
Michael Connelly

and lots more

and one day I'll finish Anne Rynd's Atlas Shrugged......

I constantly read and draw an enormous amount of inspiration from books, sometimes I even steal lyrics or themes from the book

Recently I have enjoyed -

Peter May - The Blackhouse - brilliant mystery thriller set on the Isle of Lewis
Alice Sebold - The Lovely Bones - Little girl gets brutally murdered and looks down on her family from heaven
Delphine de Vigan - No and Me - French book about a schoolgirl who houses a homeless person

Would recommend these books!

Argh! The dreaded Ayn Rand! Atlas Shrugged is a book that is stalking me. I've never read it, but it pops up everywhere I look. I'm going to have to just capitulate at some point and read the bastard

Ok, since you asked for it, here's my extended list. Mostly recommendations from the last 12 months of reading, but some lifelong favourites here too:

Ian McEwan - Atonement (this is incredible) - enduring love (this is very good) - I don't recommend Solar
Will Self - How the dead live (this is very funny, and very poignant, very human and warm)
Johnathan Franzen - Freedom (might be the best book I've read in a decade. Amazing, very appealing to musicians)
Zadie Smith - On beauty
Joseph Heller - Catch 22 (read anything by Heller and you're in for a treat)
Paul Theroux - Millroy the magician (totally off the wall. Lolita for vegans?)
Joanne Harris - Chocolat (this was a film. Quite a good one. The book's much better)
Ben Okri - Dangerous love (very sad, but not as sad as Atonement (Ian McEwan))

Non-fiction
Noami Klein - The shock doctrine (life-changing) - No Logo (dispatches from the big brands' world)
Greg Palast - Armed Madhouse (funny yet alarming look at militarised modern USA)

That little lot should keep you all busy for a while. Let me know when you need more

i tend to read perched on the big telephone, music biogs mostly but enjoy fiction too..

i really enjoyed these ...

TEARING DOWN THE WALL OF SOUND  by mick brown about the rise and fall of phil spector
£5 on amazon
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Tearing-Down-Wall-Sound-Spector/dp/0747572437/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1327598309&sr=1-2

ALWAYS MAGIC IN THE AIR about the brill building songwriters.. 
£3 on amazon !
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Always-Magic-Air-Brilliance-Building/dp/1841157287

both are superb. and of course REVOLUTION IN THE HEAD by ian macdonald about the beatles recording is knockout and i constantly dig into it, fires you up

I really like john steinbeck, passed me by until recently, Grapes of Wrath is tremendous, has its own music, unforgettable, probably get that for tuppence as well.
nothing like a good book except maybe a good album.

I love reading so thought I'd share my recommendations

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak - this was awesome. It's narrated by Death himself, and because he isn't human, his way of seeing the world is completely different. Loads of amazing images and metaphors in the things we see as mundane. Plus it's a touching story to boot (WW2)

The Raw Shark Texts by Steven Hall - awesome beginning that will hook you right in, with a really weird story that keeps you turning the pages. Plus it turns into the film jaws at the end, and who doesn't like that film? There's 36 chapters, plus 36 "negative" chapters that are hidden all over the place (they're not in the book, put it that way) which makes it fun to delve into...

The Complete Chronicles of Conan the Barbarian by Robert E. Howard - hahaha, totally trashy, but amazing to read! it's got eveything; black magic, giant snakes, busty princesses that naturally fall for the lead, weird monsters, blood and gore...epic stuff! Plus each story is pretty short so you can dip into it at your lesiure

Peter

+1 for chocolat, tone. Much better than the film. Her other book '5 quarters of the orange' is also great.

Im gonna have to investigate kaflas list as I havent heard of any of them! I did see the film of 'The Lovely Bones' though.

What about some trilogy love? My favourite has got to be His Dark Materials (Pullman). Even better than Lord of the Rings IMO

This Mr Chainsaw sounds very interesting

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak - this was awesome. It's narrated by Death himself, and because he isn't human, his way of seeing the world is completely different. Loads of amazing images and metaphors in the things we see as mundane. Plus it's a touching story to boot (WW2)

I love reading & I do alot.  I am reading a brilliant book atm about the shipping forecast called "Attention All Shipping". It was a radio 4 book of the week.
I have also just started "Life & Fate" by Vasily Grossman about the Russian front, Stalingrad, it is brilliant & a must I would say for any songwriter. It is so powerful emotionally & demonstrates what humans can do in all situations, God it's bloody good, right I am going back to it!!!

Although I used to be a manic reader and in my youth often worked my way through an author's entire catalogue, after doing an English degree in my 40's where I had to read six books a week, it kind of knocked the habit of reading novels out of me. Nonetheless, much of what I read at that time is still with me and remains a constant influence.

Actually, the two writers who are with me all the time are both playwrights: Shakespeare and Samuel Beckett. In Beckett my existential outlook found a kindred spirit but with Shakespeare I am always blinded by the amount of stuff he can get into one or two lines and I aspire to being able to do that. Oddly enough, for those not into him, the writing seems to be over-flowery or needlessly verbose, and there are parts like that, but it's often his economy that blows me away. The soliloquies in Hamlet contain some stunning examples of it.

Ramshackles, I must admit I did read the entire 'His Dark Materials' trilogy almost without stopping a few years ago - fantastic stuff.  I'm currently enjoying Christopher Hitchen's last book of essays which is brilliantly written and great for 'dipping into'.


Also I'm a big fan of quality cinema, which at it's best serves the same purpose as literature - stuff like the Three Colours trilogy and films by Bergman or Tarkovsky.

Anyone read any music specific books? I just finished 'The Art of Piano Playing' by heinrich neuhaus. He was the teacher to Richter and various other famous pianists. Great book. It's not really a textbook, as it has a very chatty style and seems to read like part biography/memoir and part instruction on both playing and teaching. It's a must for anyone that tinkles...

Yep I read the occasional music book. Just picked up Quintet by David Blum (5 journeys toward musical fulfilment) and I have Schoenberg's theory of harmony threatening to come off the bookshelf at some point.

I like the sound of the piano book very much RS (being one who likes to tinkle as often as I can). Might have to seek that one out.