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4.06 AVERAGE
4.06 AVERAGE
informative
reflective
fast-paced
Read this book if you would like to think about the Beatles a normal amount. This will certainly not give you the urge to listen to their complete discog and countless hours of outtakes and demos. Nor will you find yourself exploring their solo careers and contemplating the what-ifs and could-have-beens had things gone differently. This is just a normal book about a normal band :)
finished in jan - loved in many ways but also had many issues with it … not exactly a fault of the book or rob himself, more so the hype surrounding it. i felt like a lot of it was a regurgitation of well established cannon. would work well at an entry level for sure. frustratingly i think rob didn’t fully get a grasp on the lennon-mccartney dynamic which i think is so central to the beatles as a ~dream~
DNF 49.24%
I'm in the minority here, but I truly hated this book. The Beatles are my favorite band, meaning, of course, that they are very important to me. The last thing I want to read is the condescending words of a man with an embarrassing superiority complex. Nothing that he said was funny or interesting. The facts were all pieces of information I was already familiar with... but the thing is, the majority of this book was not composed of facts: It is made up of Sheffield's opinions and statements that sound as if they were pulled from a gossip column. Throughout all I managed to get through in this book, I felt like I was being forced to listen to the (all too common) trope of 'man who thinks young girls who like the Beatles are just faking it for attention, and that all of his 'mansplained' opinions are gospel.'
I'm in the minority here, but I truly hated this book. The Beatles are my favorite band, meaning, of course, that they are very important to me. The last thing I want to read is the condescending words of a man with an embarrassing superiority complex. Nothing that he said was funny or interesting. The facts were all pieces of information I was already familiar with... but the thing is, the majority of this book was not composed of facts: It is made up of Sheffield's opinions and statements that sound as if they were pulled from a gossip column. Throughout all I managed to get through in this book, I felt like I was being forced to listen to the (all too common) trope of 'man who thinks young girls who like the Beatles are just faking it for attention, and that all of his 'mansplained' opinions are gospel.'
I stopped reading at 25%- tbh I bought this in a “wow have you heard of the Beatles???” phase in 2019 and I’m sorry to say I am not interested anymore
Love Rob Sheffield’s writing though!
Love Rob Sheffield’s writing though!
informative
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
I have so many thoughts about this book and they are all paradoxes. I was both riveted and endlessly frustrated. There was trivia included that made me feel like both an insider and outsider. It jumps around time eras and songs, at times making it seem like the author just plucked anecdotes without much thought to the bigger construct of the book. At times these snippets work, like you are walking by a window and stumble upon something interesting. Other times I thought "Why is this here?" There are little inside jokes using lyrics from songs not of the subject of the chapter. Sometimes this comes across as wonderfully clever. Other times as eyerollingly trite. I'm not going to even go into how annoying and condescending the whole concept of "the girls" is in this book - creating its very own madonna/whore construct right there in the pages.
My favorite part is all the highlighted songs (both Beatles and otherwise) that I have to now go back and listen to. Even while reading, I'd play the Beatles album after subsequently finishing a chapter. If anything, the book achieves discovery and rediscovery. Today I'm giving it four stars, but tomorrow I'll probably give it three.
My favorite part is all the highlighted songs (both Beatles and otherwise) that I have to now go back and listen to. Even while reading, I'd play the Beatles album after subsequently finishing a chapter. If anything, the book achieves discovery and rediscovery. Today I'm giving it four stars, but tomorrow I'll probably give it three.
funny
informative
lighthearted
fast-paced
Really lovely read. Caught myself smiling, knowingly, at many points during this book. It was like a nostalgic flip through my memories, without all the sour bits. It taught me that there are still so many new things to learn about The Beatles and history in general.
Sheffield is great and gave me new perspective and context of a band who, for me, had simply just existed before this. Sent me down a rabbit hole.