Poptimist Books?

[mippy.livejournal.com]

I've just finished reading Pet Shop Boys: Literally, which I rather liked. It felt wonderfully anachronistic to sit on the tube with 1989-era Neil and Chris staring out from the cover, and, as the PSBs were the first band I really liked back when I was wee, to get little insights behind the songs and image. They do come across as a pair of big whiny jessies, though. Guess it goes to show how quickly one gets accustomed to the money and the tedium of popstardom...

Anyway, it's made me want to read more pop books. Trouble is, I feel I've either read all the good ones or can never find what I'm looking for on the library shelves. Past favourites have included:

Feel by Chris Heath
Lost in Music by Giles Smith
Living Through Pop, ed. Andrew Blake (read this for my degree, but it's a good mix of academe and the anecdotal)
The Shoe by Gordon Legge (a novel, but sums up the effect of music on a young boy's life better than anything else I've read)
You Don't Have To Say You Love Me by Simon Napier-Bell
The Look by Paul Gorman
Tainted Life by Marc Almond 
Love Is The Drug, ed. John Aizlewood (I'm quite fond of the Dexys chapter)
Hell for Leather by Seb Hunter (approx 1000x more entertaining than I expected) 
EDIT:
Forgot The Nation's Favourite - one of my favourite books ever, for shame - and Bill Drummond's 45, which isn't really all about music but does have nice pieces in about Crystal Day and the Bunnymen's rabbit ears tour.

I have Saint Morrissey, Rip It Up... and England's Dreaming sat on my shelf, taunting me. I'm after something a bit more, well, suited to reading on the bus in the morning, though. 

What's your favourite pop book? And, even better, what made you throw it across the room with irritation?

Comments

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

i, like punk never happened by dave rimmer
ii. hammer of the gods by stephen davis
iii. nico: the last bohemian by james young
iv. seven years of plnety by ben thompson
v. stairway to hell by chuck eddy

plus also

reals punks don't wear black by lj:user/koganbot/

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

tom on friday if you remind me i will lend you the two rimmer books* and give you back OLD PETER'S RUSSIAN TALES

*the other one is ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE EAST and is even better imo

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

you like Seven Years of Plenty, mark? I bought it at the time and thought it was ... OK. It's now boxed up in storage somewhere so I can't re-read.

I suspect Thompson's writing is better than his thesis (and taste).

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

well i am a close long-time friend of BT so to me his style reminds me of HIM IN PERSON, and i like him so etc

i have 0xinterest in ppl's "taste" it is a bourgeois reification

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

Fair point. Perhaps what I meant was the book didn't convince me to go out and buy any of the records he bigged up in it or reevaluate the ones I already knew.

[spittake.livejournal.com]

I've had a copy of Like Punk Never Happenedfor years but I don't remember it being that awesome.