sjhastoomanybooks 's review for:

Dreaming the Beatles: The Love Story of One Band and the Whole World by Rob Sheffield

4.0

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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.