Jarvis Cocker's reading list
By The Happy Reader
Jarvis Cocker's reading list
By The Happy Reader
After Jarvis' thrilling interview with Simon Armitage, in issue 10 of The Happy Reader, he sent over some of his favourite nightly reads. They take in poetry ('poems work well in the middle of the night because your semi-conscious mind is content to let the words trickle through it without worrying too much about the meaning'), short stories ('something to occupy the mind — but over in time to avoid being fully awake') and some rather weighty non-fiction. Seven of his suggestions are republished here for your reading pleasure.
Reservoir 13: Winner of the 2017 Costa Novel Award
Jon McGregor
£9.99 £9.49'The subject matter is kind of heavy for late at night but he's a great writer and evokes a modern-day rural setting incredibly vividly. I was interviewed by him once and he kind of freaked me out because all his questions were lines taken from Pulp songs...'
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter: A Novel
Carson McCullers
£9.99 £9.49'She is a great writer but is especially brilliant when writing from the perspective of a child. I borrowed liberally from The Member of the Wedding and The Heart is a Lonely Hunter for the song 'Big Julie' from my first solo record.'
Eve's Hollywood
Eve Babitz
£12.99 £12.34'I did a lot of reading about Hollywood and Los Angeles for the Room 29 project that I did with Chilly Gonzales. This book (and another of hers called Black Swans), was recommended by a friend who once went on a date with her. There's a famous photo of her sitting in the nude playing chess with Marcel Duchamp. A lot of books concerning LA tend to bang on about how shallow and empty it all is — but Eve Babitz is having none of that and delights in the sheer sensuous beauty of the place. Reading this in bed is like falling asleep under a parasol on the beach.
Fire on All Sides: Insanity, insomnia and the incredible inconvenience of life
James Rhodes
£9.99 £9.49'It's a combination of a tour diary, an anti-self-help book, a confession and a personal guide to classical music — what's not to like? — and, seeing as reading in bed last thing can often be an attempt to quieten down 'the voices' that otherwise occasionally invade our minds at night, it's great to have someone describe that internal (and infernal) dialogue in such an accurate and entertaining manner.'
Book of Longing
Leonard Cohen
£10.99 £10.44'I was involved in a series of concerts back in 2005 called 'Came So Far For Beauty' which featured various artists covering the songs of Leonard Cohen ( he was still in retirement at the time). At the end of the run of shows we were each presented with a signed copy of this collection. I actually finished re-reading it about a week before he passed away.'
Harmonium
Wallace Stevens
£12.99 £12.34'I discovered Wallace Stevens through my BBC 6 Music radio show: it was the anniversary of his birth so we played a recording of him reading 'So and So Reclining on Her Couch' and I really loved the way he delivered it so I bought Harmonium. I find I have quite exotic dreams after reading a couple.'
The Red Book: A Reader's Edition
C. G. Jung
£35.99'Very important the reader's edition: try to read the full-size, illustrated version in bed and you may find that you get trapped underneath it if you nod off! This could be the ultimate bed-time book: he harvested the material for it through the process of lucid dreaming. Took me about a year to get through it as it is written in a very dense, deliberately archaic form of prose. It really is worth the effort though.'