What's the Best G n' R Book You Have Read?

[emybdc]

11 minutes ago, the-estranged-girl said:

They didn't publish yet in Portuguese. I'm Brazilian too, but I had to buy the English version on Amazon.

I'm still reading it, and it is a good book (not as good as ISE, IMO, but, still, a good book). It's more like a collection of Duff's articles on Seattle Weekly. It focus a lot on his life post-GNR. Maybe the most interesting part regarding to the band is when he described his "reunion" with Axl in 2014 for the South American tour. 

Cool, thanks for the info!

I hope Duff writes a third one about everything that went down to get to this reunion and the tour.

[Apollo]

They all are fairly interesting and give different perspectives of the band.  If you are a GnR fan, might as well read them all!

[double talkin jive mfkr]

read slashs, duffs and stevens and the band that time forgot, man that one was shit 

 

steven's was fun quick easy and depressing read 

slashs actually in my opinion left me wanting a lot more 

duffs was excellent especially cause he's such a good guy and knows how tell stories, truly a story of redemption 

[thedemonjudgeholden]

I enjoyed Danny Sugerman's "Appetite for Destruction: The Days of Guns N' Roses". It's a meditation on art and intoxication that explains the appeal of early GNR.
Endorsed by Oliver Stone!

 

[Tourettes2400]

I have read Slash, Duff, and Steven's. I really enjoyed Duff's and Slash's the most.

[Axl's Agony Aunt]

I have read Paul Stenning's Guns N' Roses biography and Mick Wall's Axl biography, which both contained a mixture of known and new information.

I have also of course read my memoir of how I tried to live the rock n' roll lifestyle in the year Appetite brought Guns to the world: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Guns-Roses-Worker-Traveller/dp/1849913986

 

[Hejanne]

Duff's book is the best! It's not about being a rock god, it's a really dark and personal.

I cried a lot, while reading Duff's book. 'And I don't remember a day of peace from 1990 until 1994.' That was very toff to read about, since i became a fan in '91. Learning that one of my heroes felt like that, while I was thinking of them as gods, that was very saddening.

I also cried at the part when Duff meet Axl again

 

[emybdc]

10 minutes ago, Hejanne said:

Duff's book is the best! It's not about being a rock god, it's a really dark and personal.

I cried a lot, while reading Duff's book. 'And I don't remember a day of peace from 1990 until 1994.' That was very toff to read about, since i became a fan in '91. Learning that one of my heroes felt like that, while I was thinking of them as gods, that was very saddening.

I also cried at the part when Duff meet Axl again

 

I can relate to this. I cried the whole book through. I cried at the beginning when he writes about how he met everyone, I cried when things were good thinking about how bad they got, I cried when things were bad, I cried when he got healthy, and finally I cried when I told my mom about the book. Ugh, no more tears left in me since then.

[axlslash]

I got Watch You Bleed from the discount pile in a Canadian bookstore years ago and enjoyed it well enough. But honestly, there is no debate. There is @recklessroad and there is everything else.

[Axl's Agony Aunt]

On 19/02/2016 at 8:20 PM, Hejanne said:

Duff's book is the best! It's not about being a rock god, it's a really dark and personal.

I cried a lot, while reading Duff's book. 'And I don't remember a day of peace from 1990 until 1994.' That was very toff to read about, since i became a fan in '91. Learning that one of my heroes felt like that, while I was thinking of them as gods, that was very saddening.

I also cried at the part when Duff meet Axl again

 

Thanks for the rave reviews of Duff's book, will definitely try and read it soon.

I'm sure Duff would've wanted more peace, but rock n' roll isn't generally a place for relaxing, especially in a punk metal band noted for notoriety, courting controversy and being 'dangerous'. Duff survived and can enjoy his peace now, in 'middle-age'; plenty of time for peace as long as you survive, and thankfully Duff did to tell his story... 

[BetterDay7]

I just read Dermot O'Leary's autobiography, The Soundtrack to My Life. Personally, I found it pretty weak but I bought it (from the £1 shop) cos it has a chapter in it, supposedly, about 'November Rain'. Sadly, said chapter tells you virtually nothing about November Rain. Ah, well. 

[BetterDay7]

On 2/17/2016 at 10:04 PM, Axl's Agony Aunt said:

I have read Paul Stenning's Guns N' Roses biography and Mick Wall's Axl biography, which both contained a mixture of known and new information.

I have also of course read my memoir of how I tried to live the rock n' roll lifestyle in the year Appetite brought Guns to the world: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Guns-Roses-Worker-Traveller/dp/1849913986

 

You be Marc Latham then, I presume? Good on you. 

[willl]

Since this has been bumped anyway I stumbled across this article a few weeks back, for all those interested in reading about the out-of-print Izzy book.

Quote

IZZY STRADLIN's Bassist Says 'Dust N' Bones' Biography Is 'Example Of Schlock Journalism'

IZZY STRADLIN & THE JU JU HOUNDS bassist Jimmy Ashhurst has slammed the recently published unofficial Izzy Stradlin (ex-GUNS N' ROSES guitarist) biography "Dust N' Bones" as "another example of schlock journalism." Writing to the Beenafix.com board, Ashhurst — who was interviewed for the aforementioned book — stated, "I was surprised to see all of the negative comments about the book by Jake Brown 'Dust n Bones...bla bla' Believe me, had I known how it was to come out in the end I would never have granted the interview...there's just no way to determine what the guy was going to do at the time...I tried as best I could to be careful and the guy promised me that it would be a quality product and would not be any kind of tabloid gossip-type of publication...I was concerned about how Izzy would react as well, and tried very hard not to address any personal topics or to put the author in a position to slam him in any way. I was assured many times that this was going to be a book that was going to be accurate and informative and as I know Izzy would never put anything out there himself, I believed that it would have been a great source of information for his true fans around the world. Alas, this appears to not be the case and it would seem as though it was just another moneymaking opportunity and another example of schlock journalism. You can be sure I will be more careful and not make the same mistake in the future...and I'm sorry that the thing was so disappointing to the real fans. It's a shame really because it could have been really cool had it been done right.

"However, in all fairness I haven't yet read the book myself...I'm waiting right now for my copy to arrive (I had to buy my own copy from Amazon...which says a lot about the publisher in itself) so I'll try and reserve any further comments I have until after I've read it for myself...but for now I trust you guys' opinions, for if there's anyone who knows it would definitely be you guys..."

Ashhurst recently took part in the recording sessions for the third album from reunited Los Angeles hard rockers BUCKCHERRY. The as-yet-untitled follow-up to 2001's "Time Bomb" was produced by guitarist Keith Nelson and is tentatively due in Japan in late July/early August. A U.S. record deal for the new album has yet to be secured.

I remember when all this went down on the Izzy forum. The book hadn't officially been released but Amazon shipped a few copies out early which lead to the forum reviews and Jimmys comments - then the book basically disappeared off the face of the earth

[coolranchdressing!]

I'm into Art so I liked Robert John's photographic history...really shown the earlier days and some rare raw photos. As for Autobiographies Duff's was by far the most insightful and touching (and not too long-winded if you "know what I'm sayin'"

[sanity_lost]

I read Mick Wall's book about a month or so ago. I went into it knowing it had a pretty low rating and most thought  it wasn't very good. I tried to keep an open mind, but ... wow, it was really bad.

If I was only a casual fan of GNR and didn't really know much about them I probably would have thought it was great, but knowing as much about them as I do ... it was pretty terrible. Then again, I might have thought it wasn't any good even if I didn't know much about Guns. There was one point when he described Axl staring into a mirror in the dead of the night worrying about how successful his ex-bandmates were. That was crossing a little too far into fanfiction territory for me and almost had me tossing the book aside despite being nearly done with it. But I persevered and completed it.

I picked up Watch You Bleed directly after that. Directly as in minutes. I read the first 20% or so right away before I was interrupted and had to put it down. I thought it was a pretty good read despite numerous errors. It has been at least a month and I am afraid to pick it up again as there is a possibility that a lot of the reason I thought it was a good read was because anything will look great next to Mick Wall's book.

[Italian girl]

I read welcome to my jungle, by Craig duswalt.

I didn't Like it very much...I

Edited April 1, 2016 by Italian girl

[Axl's Agony Aunt]

11 hours ago, BetterDay7 said:

You be Marc Latham then, I presume? Good on you. 

Yes, thanks BetterDay7.

[BetterDay7]

On ‎01‎/‎04‎/‎2016 at 4:44 AM, Italian girl said:

I read welcome to my jungle, by Craig duswalt.

I didn't Like it very much...I

Dreadful

[born2boogie]

On 2/18/2016 at 2:33 PM, emybdc said:

I can relate to this. I cried the whole book through. I cried at the beginning when he writes about how he met everyone, I cried when things were good thinking about how bad they got, I cried when things were bad, I cried when he got healthy, and finally I cried when I told my mom about the book. Ugh, no more tears left in me since then.

ME TOO! (re: Duff's book)

I just finished It's So Easy and I loved it. I was even considering buying his How to Be a Man book, but I'm not sure as a woman how much I'll get out of it? Ha ha.

I managed to find most of his old Seattle Weekly articles online and read all of them, I personally really like hearing about Duff the dad and whatnot:)

By the way, this thread inspired me to finally order Reckless Road, so I should be getting that soon. I'll probably buy Slash's at some point as well.

[emybdc]

On 03/04/2016 at 1:13 PM, born2boogie said:

ME TOO! (re: Duff's book)

I just finished It's So Easy and I loved it. I was even considering buying his How to Be a Man book, but I'm not sure as a woman how much I'll get out of it? Ha ha.

I managed to find most of his old Seattle Weekly articles online and read all of them, I personally really like hearing about Duff the dad and whatnot:)

By the way, this thread inspired me to finally order Reckless Road, so I should be getting that soon. I'll probably buy Slash's at some point as well.

Reckless road is amazing. The pictures are pure gold.

[DizzyReed63]

Duff's book was a fantastic book. Reckless Road was a beautiful photo history with some fun stories (and tons of typos).

I also dug the chapter in Chuck Klosterman's book about when he got into GnR.

Anything written by people not connected with the band is usually crap.

[AncientEvil80]

GNR book - Reckless Road. Priceless and no BS. All the rest, subpar compared to it.

 

Biography - Slash. Duff's was written in much better form, but I enjoyed Slash's more. More detailed too. Steven's was very enjoyable too, but below in style to the others.

[Axl's Agony Aunt]

On 03/04/2016 at 5:13 PM, born2boogie said:

ME TOO! (re: Duff's book)

I just finished It's So Easy and I loved it. I was even considering buying his How to Be a Man book, but I'm not sure as a woman how much I'll get out of it? Ha ha.

I managed to find most of his old Seattle Weekly articles online and read all of them, I personally really like hearing about Duff the dad and whatnot:)

By the way, this thread inspired me to finally order Reckless Road, so I should be getting that soon. I'll probably buy Slash's at some point as well.

I haven't read either, but I think you should get a lot out of it as a woman, thinking academically. You can compare Duff the single rock star and Duff the family man, seeing how he's changed etc. That's if you're at all interested in Duff the family man from a personality view, rather than all the Guns-related band stuff? Should a woman not learn about a man? I think they should learn as much as possible!

[Axl's Agony Aunt]

21 hours ago, DizzyReed63 said:

Duff's book was a fantastic book. Reckless Road was a beautiful photo history with some fun stories (and tons of typos).

I also dug the chapter in Chuck Klosterman's book about when he got into GnR.

Anything written by people not connected with the band is usually crap.

My books are great, but they don't really concern the band, just me as a fan, or being influenced by their lyrics and life to become a writer.