Books

Read 'moor with Bowie

On the second anniversary of the Thin White Duke's death – we look at how his legacy continues with The David Bowie Book Club

It’s two years since David Bowie’s death but the Starman’s legacy continues with the launch of The David Bowie Book Club. Set up by his son, film director Duncan Jones, it’s using the list of Bowie’s 100 favourite books to get people round the world reading together.

Bowie, said his son, was a beast of a reader who “voraciously consumed” a book a day, from Dante and Camus to Beano and Viz (the Thin White Duke was a big fan).

The first book club title for discussion is Peter Ackroyd’s 1985 novel Hawksmoor. But if you’ve got a copy you might want to flog it rather than read it: since The Bowie Book Club launched over Christmas second-hand copies have rocketed in price, with second-hand paperbacks advertised at as much as £900 on Amazon. Jones slammed the “price-gougers” cashing in on the frenzy to find copies of the book, which has been out of print since 2010, and promised to make the next pick easier to find.

Join The Bowie Book Club through Twitter using #Hawksmoor, and Jones will announce the next pick for The Bowie Book Club via @ManMadeMoon in February. The complete list of Bowie’s top 100 can be seen here.

And remember, anyone who wants some brand new books for a group that encourages reading and could use more books but doesn’t have ready access can write to The Big Issue’s Big Book Giveaway and tell us what you need and why. (Just don’t ask us for Hawksmoor).

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