White Lung's Mish Barber-Way on the 7 books that changed her life
Vancouver punk rockers White Lung are known for their ferociously raw sensibility and biting lyrics that tackle on issues of gender, sexuality and true crime. For the first time they've cracked the Polaris shortlist with their album Paradise. The winner will be announced September 19.
In her own words, White Lung's enigmatic frontwoman Mish Barber-Way explores the 7 books that have changed her life.
Sex, Art and American Culture by Camille Paglia
For those of you who aren't ready to swallow the density of Paglia's debut book Sexual Personae, (though I suggest you do) this collection of some of her most provocative essays is a good start. I always force this book on my friends, especially young women who I fear have read too many bad blogs and are starting to get sucked into a hole of radical, progressive nonsense. Paglia is the most brilliant academic writer. Everything she says makes the world click. She is too smart to care about anything but the truth. Any person who calls themselves a 'feminist' should read this book, and if they disagree, argue her points intelligently. I hang on her words like a pathetically loyal disciple.
Diary of a Drug Fiend by Aleister Crowley
Reading Crowley is like being on speedballs: a wave of bliss shot with hilarious lines like a rush of adrenaline up the nose. Doesn't 1922 seem like the ultimate time to be a junkie? The whole book paints cocaine and heroin as the glamorous aperitifs they were back then. Blissful ignorance. A snort here, a bump there, as we run around Europe eating pastries and scoring bundles off cool doctors in top hats. I never cared about Crowley's occult stuff or his Paganism but reading him always felt good. He is funny, perceptive, dark and dreamy. A great story teller.
Headache Factory by Jim Goad
I was a late bloomer. I found the world's greatest writer far too late in life, but I have made up for lost time. Jim Goad first gathered cult fame in the 1990's with his controversial zine ANSWER ME! that he wrote with this then-wife Debbie Goad. After that, he published his debut book, The Redneck Manifesto that argued class, not race, is what is important. Goad's writing is sharp, funny and theoretically sane. He makes sense. He is fearless. He is also extremely prolific and narcissistic, so he has uploaded every single piece he has ever written into his website. Out of all his work, I love his book Headache Factory, which is assorted tales of run-ins he has had with stalkers, haters, lovers and internet trolls. It's endlessly entertaining. And his latest, yet to be published book, The New Church Ladies dismantles the hyper-sensitive word of social justice warriors and PC fanatics arguing that their ideology does more harm than good. Everyone needs to read Goad, have a laugh at our own expense and think about why we are so pathetically sensitive. Goad's writing makes me think. It's pure, fearless sanity about human nature. His arguments are air tight. He is brilliant.
I Dreamed I Was A Very Clean Tramp by Richard Hell
This is one of the best biographies ever written. Whether you care about Richard Hell as a musician or a writer, does not really matter. This is a captivating book about the seventies rock scene in New York, heroin, sex, love, living in the dirt and young men getting all they can from their sex appeal and charm. This book is romantic, cheeky and smart. They don't make men like Hell anymore.
So Sad Today: Personal Essays by Melissa Broder
Broder is a cult poet by trade, and So Sad Today is her first book of essays. She wrote most of the book through her dictaphone while driving around Los Angeles. Broder is grossly honest, narcissistic, sad, perceptive and appealing all at once. I recommend this book for any woman who feels stuck in her wretched, wasteful, self-loathing and needs a little hope. I gobbled up these stories and you will too.
Dark Sparkler by Amber Tamblyn
Actor and poet Amber Tamblyn (and friend of mine, not going to lie) spent years obsessing over her own position in Hollywood through the deaths of famous actresses before her. This book explores beauty, fame, necessity of self and death through poems about the fatalities of everyone from Britney Murphy to Marilyn Monroe. I come back to these poems again and again when I need to feel full. Tamblyn is an excellent poet who manages to layer dark comedy into these tragic, provocative stories.
The Fart Party by Julia Wertz
I remember buying The Fart Party by Julia Wertz at the local comic shop, reading it on the bus and having to make myself stop because I knew if it went too fast it would be over and I would be sad. I never wanted this book to end. Maybe I loved this book so much because when I was reading it, Wertz's life mimicked my own: finishing university, sarcastic, selfish and struggling through a loving relationship on the brink. I felt like I was reading comic strips about my own stupid, overwhelming mid-twenties existence. This book made me get over myself and how much I hated everyone because Wertz did it for me. It's one big eye roll, but mostly at herself. I can still go back and these comics make me laugh.