I try to read as many as I can, even if I'm not into the individual or the music.  I'm currently reading the Keith Richards rag and am enjoying it very much.  How 'bout choos guys?

Touching From A Distance written by Ian Curtis' wife.

Shakey- Neil Young..I really loved reading about all the traveling and his recording then and there habits. He's a bit mad and obsessed with his work but I enjoyed being submerged in the life he has led. I have yet to listen to tonights the night but I hope it's as good as the book makes it seem!! I'm gonna find that Patti Smith book next!!

The chapter about the making of Funhouse in Open Up and Bleed should be a whole book, it's incredible. Mr. S by Frank Sinatra's longtime valet George Jacobs is one of the wildest biographies, portraying Frank and his pals (including JFK) as a bunch of insecure, whoremongering, rat soup-eatin' honkies. John Lydon's autobio Rotten: No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs gave me new respect for the guy and it's kind of touching that he finds his story after his mother's death too painful to delve into. White Light/White Heat: The Velvet Underground Day-by-Day by Richie Unterberger is the last word on the VU and clears up the many mysteries surrounding the group. My all-time favorites are Last Train to Memphis and Careless Love by Peter Guralnik, a two-volume biography of the King of Rock and Roll beside which all other Elvis books are trash.

my fault - billy childish (a bit of a bummer) just kids - patti smith faithfull - marianne faithfull be my baby: how i survived mascara, miniskirts, and madness, or my life as a fabulous ronette - ronnie spector ALSO! free online kicksville66 - miriam linna (original drummer for the cramps) @ http://kicksville66.blogspot.com/ i also like the writing of julian cope!

cramps biography

Learn and laugh your ass off at the same time with "I have fun everywhere I go" by the great Mike Edison and "Rock Stardom for dumbshits" by The wonderful Phantom Surfers ! And check the BOOKSHELF group ! You may find other suggestions there !

TMLD sounds awesome!! It seems Canada has a great slice of every genre through the years. The surf/rnr output is really astonishing. Thanks, Mark.

Mark Von Frankenstine said:

I recently read "We Never Learn" by Eric Davidson of the New Bomb Turks. It's sort of a retrospective of the whole 90s punk/garage scene as told through a heavy filter of autobiography. I think he did a pretty damn good job covering over a decade of international music. It's nowhere near as exhaustive as books like "Please Kill Me" or "We've Got the Neutron Bomb", but it's a decent read if you can get over Davidson's um... 'flowery' prose style. Ha ha.

I also really recommend "Treat Me Like Dirt" which is the exhaustive (almost painfully so at times) expose of the first wave punk scene in Toronto, Canada and the surrounding area. It's fantastic, but damn it covers a LOT of stuff.

I really enjoyed Charles Mingus' autobiography Beneath The Underdog, but it gets kind of mixed reviews elsewhere.

"Good Rockin' tonight" by Escott/Hawkins...

I recently read "We Never Learn" by Eric Davidson of the New Bomb Turks. It's sort of a retrospective of the whole 90s punk/garage scene as told through a heavy filter of autobiography. I think he did a pretty damn good job covering over a decade of international music. It's nowhere near as exhaustive as books like "Please Kill Me" or "We've Got the Neutron Bomb", but it's a decent read if you can get over Davidson's um... 'flowery' prose style. Ha ha.

I also really recommend "Treat Me Like Dirt" which is the exhaustive (almost painfully so at times) expose of the first wave punk scene in Toronto, Canada and the surrounding area. It's fantastic, but damn it covers a LOT of stuff.

Check out I slept with Joey Ramone, It's written by his brother, I enjoyed it.

Patti Smith, "Just Kids". It's incredible, and it just won the National Book Award for non-fiction.