I couldn't resist. Picked this up on my Kindle and am tearing through it. It's REALLY good so far. I'm past Husker's break-up and onto his solo career pre-Sugar.
The thing I like about it -- Bob's not afraid to be a jerk and to admit that the money part of music is a huge consideration. He managed to do it without compromising what he wanted to sound like, but at the same time he just flat out says "I wanted to buy a house" and stuff like that. I also like that he's really driven about being in control of the business end and doesn't want to leave it in the hand of others, especially after he gets burned a few times (by SST, in particular).
There's also a lot of really weird guest stars who pop up. I had no idea Jon Stewart bartended at City Gardens in Trenton or that he hung out with Lizz WInstead. There's no mention yet of any of the MST3K guys but it's pretty remarkable how culturally influential the Twin Cities became. And Omar -- the Tom Browning thing is MINDBOGGLING.
I'm also right now reading The Miracle of St. Anthony, which is about St. Anthony's High School, the most successful high school basketball program probably ever that faces ridiculous odds just staying afloat. It's really good -- I think a non-basketball fan might like it, but not 100% sure.
But Bottom of the 33rd (by Dan Barry) -- I can't say enough good things about this book. It's about the longest baseball game in history but that's really underselling it -- it's more about the struggles of trying to make it big and what happens when you don't. This is one of the best non-fiction books to come out in a REALLY long time.
I just finished the Mould book. What an incredibly interesting person -- definitely someone I would love to meet one day.
He definitely has a big ego and is incredibly self-confident about his output and seems to remember a lot of slights against him. But I can't blame him for that -- he's so incredibly influential and has made so much good music through the years that he totally deserves it.
The wrestling stuff is only one chapter but, naturally, it's right up my alley. He was a "booker" (aka scriptwriter) for World Championship Wrestling and also had a lot of other tasks to keep the show running. I read an interview with him about the book and he said that he's tempted to write a book just about his adventures in wrestling. I'm guessing that he wanted to get a lot more detailed about the WCW stuff but an editor told him to focus more on his music career and personal life because of word count issues and that most of the people buying the book don't know (and wouldn't care too much) about wrestling.
His "entering the gay subculture really late" stuff is incredibly fascinating. I love how willing he is to share (and to get detailed) about various physical encounters -- it's a large part of his life, obviously, and why shy away from stuff that's really important? It's also pretty heartbreaking with how great he captures how his serious romantic relationships fizzled out, with all the headgames that get attached to it.
My favorite part are the few pages he uses to describe about how he went to Catholic Church in Washington. That was really surprising from his background but very touching. He really nails the best parts about going to Mass -- meeting people, however briefly, you wouldn't ever talk to outside of church and the beauty of the ceremony -- better than I can when I try to explain to my friends why I go to Mass every week.
It's just an absolute great auto-biography. Bob's been one of the celebrities I've wanted to meet the most for a really long time. He's such a fascinating, incredible and inspirational person. His book just made that even more so.
I'm still reading the St. Anthony's book. It's very well done. There's a pretty terrific sub-genre of basketball literature out there that uses high school basketball as a sociological study. Darcey Frey's "The Last Shot" and Bill Reynolds' "Fall River Dreams" are two of my favorite books ever written (and both are huge reasons why I became a journalist). The St. Anthony's book doesn't have the same impact on me, but I think that's because I'm already really familiar with the basketball program and Bob Hurley and even a few of the players. It's the best description of things I already know about, if that makes any sense.
Trying to figure out what's next. I haven't read history or true crime in a while. Leaning towards that.
My Philly-New York commute largely sucks but it has increased my reading time exponentially. And it also fits in well with my new coffee addiction and the inordinate amount of time I spend at coffeeshops.