Thirty Years On Earth - ISSUE 11

The 10 Best Books I've Read In My Life...So Far

A sullen faced Lucy in front her record/bookshelf. Image by Lux Lumen.

Housekeeping

Hey guess what? I turned 30 this week and despite all the jokes about things being down hill from here, I’m actually really excited to get stuck into my 30’s and I feel they are gonna be my best years. Let’s see…

So what’s been happening in my world this week, other than the big three o? Well, I went live with Matt Loves Cameras on YouTube and you can catch up with that here. We had a lot of fun interacting with everyone and next time we will be focusing more on listener questions and asking you guys to contribute to the convo!

Catch up on my most recent FStoppers article here if you want a more in depth look at the Canon G2 and some photos from it. Also the comments section in my Zuiko lens article is out of control and has become a bit of a joke really. So go check that out if you need a distraction or reminder that it doesn’t matter what you say online people will always hate.

Now let’s get into the juicy stuff…by juicy I mean, 10 books I think you, and the rest of the world should read! These are all special to me in some way, whether they are recent pick ups and additions to my shelf, or tried and true classics I have been burying my head in since I was a shoegazing teen. There are links embedded through out this newsletter for each book so you can make a little amazon wish list or just go ahead and grab whichever you feel will be the next best book for you or maybe even a friend!

I love a good book shop but we only have one here in my town that has the sort I like, so I tend to shop online these days. If you have a cool, small, awesome book store near you then def support them if you can. The links to some of these titles are affiliate and I may earn a small commission at no cost to you, so it’s a great way to support the channel and the podcast!

If you do wanna show some love and say thank you, you can donate through my buy me a coffee page and keep me creating cool stuff for you to enjoy. :)

It was so much easier to get stuck into some reading when Luca was in tummy. Image by Lux Lumen.

1. The Mars Room by Rachel Kushner

The Mars Room is my favorite new-ish book of all time. The story centers around a mother, Romy Hall, who is serving two consecutive life sentences at the Stanville women’s prison. Right off the bat you know this book isn’t the feel good hit of the summer, but boy is it a page turner. A heart wrenching, brilliantly written and unforgettable piece of fiction that is actually steeped in a lot of reality and reflective of the authors time growing up in San Francisco bay area.

It flips from Romy in prison making these astute observations of her fellow inmates that are reminiscent of Holden Caulfield’s inner dialogue in the pages of every depressed teens favorite book, The Catcher In The Rye, which I read religiously in high school but will not by on this list. However you may want to check it out if you have got this far in life without doing so. That is up to you.

I guarantee you from the moment you start reading The Mars Room you will be engrossed and determined to get to the bottom of Romy’s story. I think this book reflects a lot of what is perhaps wrong with America, despite my love for the country and the people, there are so many that slip through the cracks or fall victim to their surroundings. If you read 1 book this year or next year, or any year, make it this one!

2. Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep

So by now I’m sure you, lovely reader, are aware of my love for the movie Blade Runner. The original and the best, not the new one, despite what Grainy Days will have you believe. So in case you didn’t know, like many great films, Blade Runner was a book before it was a movie. A book titled, Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep by the brilliantly minded author Phillip K Dick, who also wrote another novel turned motion picture, A Scanner Darkly.

I haven’t read this book for quite a while now, but the great detail within it has not left me and I encourage anyone who is a fan of the movie to seek out the book and give it a go. The name of the book is enough to convince you I think, such a cool title.

3. Chapter & Verse - Bernard Sumner

Being the music lover I am I spent a lot of my early years reading bio after bio on all my fav musicians and trying to figure out what it would be like to enter their world or have a piece of what they had experienced. I burnt out quite hard on reading anything related to music though and haven’t picked up anything like this in a while. My reading habits have changed as of late and I seem to be venturing into genres like life, self help, non fiction etc. which really surprises me and I know this would make 21 year old Lucy gag in disgust. Lol.

This book is ten times better than I thought it would be. I was always obsessed with Ian Curtis’ tragic end and had read extensively on that topic. The stand out being Debbie Curtis’ book, Touching From a Distance, which is an account from Ian’s wife and was the inspiration for the Biopic on Joy Division titled Control, which is captured beautifully in black and white. Even if you don’t really know the band the movie is so watchable so def see it.

Back to the book though. Chapter and Verse is a nice reprieve from the often depressive narrative surrounding Joy Division. Guitarist Bernard has so many reflective moments of both his early years growing up in the north of England but also of Ian and the band. It takes you through to the time between Joy Divisions tragic demise and the formation of the equally as iconic and brilliant, New Order. Bernard shares his difficulties with writing lyrics, comparing it to the ease that Ian seemed to have when crafting lines. It’s just a great read and kind of makes you realize how these were all just ordinary blokes in a boring town that managed to create not one, but two phenomenal bands of the last few decades. A must FFO both the bands!

4. Meet Me In The Bathroom

What an absolute banger of a book! Lizzy Goodman writes about the early 2000’s indie rock scene in New York which was such an iconic time and maybe the last really big movement in music we have seen?? If you are into bands like The Strokes, Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Interpol then you will no doubt enjoy this book! You can shoot with your digicams by day and then by night chuck on Is This It by The Strokes and indiesleaze the fuck out with this book. Meet Me In The Bathroom rocks!

5. How To Start a Side Hustle - Kaylene Langford

A pretty big departure from the rest of the list of here but one that feels oh so relevant right now in 2022 where we are all dreaming of doing what we love for a living. Now this could be as big or small as you like but Kaylene will get you organized and in the zone ready to dial in the ins and outs of your business idea. Unlike most books on this topic it is designed beautifully and each pages color scheme and layout will keep you inspired and engaged! How To Start A Start Side Hustle is part of a series titled survive the modern world which is well worth checking out if you feel you need some guidance navigating this day and age.

6. Outline, Transit & Kudos - Rachel Cusk

I am a person who judges a book by it’s cover and you probably are too. We all are. Any Rachel Cusk book is almost impossible to not purchase due to the aesthetically pleasing photographs on the front cover, paired with the block black font that accompanies it. I bought the first book Outline in a feminist bookstore, yes like the one in Portlandia, years ago now and I rushed through it so I could go back and buy the next installment. There is no particular storyline here but more so a series of conversations being had between the main character and the people she encounters. We learn about her through them, as she listens and then reflects we uncover more and more of her. There is nothing grand about these three books but more a comfort in knowing that someone else is moving painfully through life just like you sometimes do. You can buy all three together in a series here if this sounds like your cup of tea. It was defiantly mine.

7. Less Than Zero - Bret Easton Ellis

The author famous for the disturbing, unsettling but very popular book/movie American Psycho has actually written many other titles that all are very different to the famous gruesome tale of Patrick Bateman. Less Than Zero has admittedly a lot less going on than the aforementioned classic but in my opinion it is the best of Ellis’ work.

Coined as The Catcher In The Rye for the MTV generation, Less Than Zero follows a bunch of bored youths drinking in bars, taking prescription drugs and having dispassionate sexual encounters. All of this happens to a soundtrack of Elvis Costello and other cool 80’s acts and is now considered a cult classic. Fun fact, a very young Robert Downey Jr played the main character Clay in a movie version of this book that was pretty b grade and awful but also good for a laugh on YouTube.

8. Hunger Makes a Modern Girl - A Memoir

An absolute must for any Sleater Kinney fan. Front woman Carrie Brownstein walks us through her life, time with the band and intimate details of her relationships. The title of this book, Hunger Makes a Modern Girl, is taken from the Sleater Kinney song Modern Girl. This song along with many by Hole, Bikini Kill, Bratmobile, Sonic Youth and countless others, shaped me and my values as a woman. Getting access to Carrie’s world in this biography was such a treat and it made me love her even more. Fun fact - Carrie Brownstein is one half of the hilarious duo behind the show Portlandia!

9. Among The Thugs - Bill Buford

If you are a fan of, or intrigued by, British culture, football, the psychology behind crowd violence and the impact of sport on a nations behavior than buy this book! The link I've embedded takes you to a copy that is about $7 and I promise you it will be the most exciting $7 you have ever spent, honestly!

Bill Buford is an American journalist who took it upon himself to befriend, and engross himself in the lives of, what might seem like normal everyday working class British people, but are in fact raging football hooligans with varying degrees of questionable activity and behavior that expose this longstanding culture for what it really is. However, Bill becomes so unarmored and intrigued with these characters, despite their unsavory behavior and in doing so he falls deeper and deeper into the underbelly of this violent world.

This is a tour de force of brutality and social commentary on something that we all know about but don’t really know about it, if you know what I mean?? You will not be able to put it down, you will be panicking that these burly British blokes will surely headbutt poor Bill, the yank who can’t keep up with the pints and packets of crisps and doesn’t know the first thing about their religion, football. It’s confronting and quite disgusting at times but much like the first book, The Mars Room it serves as a poignant piece of literature that documents and speaks to what it is to exist in a country at a certain time. Books like this shed light on darker parts of our society but can explain the narrowmindedness of certain types of beliefs around race, gender etc.

Well worth a read and check out that cool AF photo on the front!

10. Girls That Invest - Simran Kaur

This is a laughable departure form the book I just recommended so highly, but stick with me. Also stick with me even if you aren’t a girl. This book is going to define my 30’s I can just feel it.

So have you ever thought what the hell is investing? What does all the jargon mean? Why would anyone do it when it’s so risky? Maybe you have thought about doing it but then you put it off cause you told yourself “I’m not rich, investing is for wealthy people”

Oh my god me too! This book will BLOW. YOUR. MIND. I am notoriously bad with numbers, math, science, geography, graphs, tables, ratios, percentages, statistics, oh and also spelling, grammar, computers, I could literally go on and on! I left school when I was 14 and I have some massive knowledge gaps. With those knowledge gaps also come some pretty hardcore limiting beliefs around myself that I have carried for a long time. Investing is something that has never been on my radar but as I get older I want to leave behind something for my son and this book is making it seem more possible.

Honestly if you have even a morsel of interest in getting control of your finances, growing your money and doing it without all the BS that can come in this industry, then get yourself a copy of Girls That Invest! The intro chapter alone is so eye opening. Breaking down the history behind why females have a lack of involvement in the stock market and how this effects our overall position in society when it comes to freedom etc.

This would be a great book to gift to a young female. or male, right now growing up in a world where houses are becoming less and less affordable and securing your future is seeming less and less likely. This book is the only money book a millennial or gen Z person needs. Put it this way, if Lucy Lumen’s Analog Adventures was a finance channel, which it will never be don’t panic, it would be exactly like this book. No gatekeeping, no isolating language and no intimidation just info to empower, inspire and provide value to your life!

On that note I think we can wrap up this list…

What’s in your top ten??

Comment with your number 1 book of all time! Or if you loved, or have read some of my picks then let me know. I enjoyed sharing a little something about myself that wasn’t photography related so if you did too please let me know with a comment or a DM.

Next issue we will be back to photography and I will be sharing the details of my getaway that I am about to go on with Lux and the Pen FT.

Have a great weekend my friends and thank you so much for reading.

Love Lucy xx