Hey, I'm back from vacation and ready to lead the What'cha Readin' Book Club again, as we spend June reading about one of my heroes, Bob Dylan. The book in question is The Ballad of Bob Dylan, by prolific poet and biographer Daniel Mark Epstein, and it examines Dylan's life and work via four concerts he played in 1963, 1974, 1997 and 2009.

Here's the thing: I can't put this book down. I'm almost done, in fact. That said, I'm a tremendous fan of Dylan's and some of the facts and anecdotal stories presented here are quite familiar to me, so that's helping me breeze through. I feel like I cheated on a test or something. Ah, but where are you, here at the mid-point of the month? And what do you make of this book?

I have some good news and bad news about our club process for June. I'll start with the bad: due to a scheduling conflict, Epstein cannot participate in a live chat with us at the end of the month to answer your questions about his book. So, that's sad. The good news: I did speak to Epstein earlier this week and presented him with some of your great questions regarding The Ballad of Bob Dylan, and the chat went very well. You'll hear that before the end of the month. 

Oh, more good news: I have four more copies of The Ballad of Bob Dylan to offer to people (not employed by the CBC) who share a list of their top five Bob Dylan moments. I’ll let you know if your list was deemed a winner (you can only win once, BTW), so check back here for a response. If you do win, please send your name (real and blog), mailing address and winning answer to rock@cbc.ca with “The Ballad of Bob Dylan” in the subject line. 

Man, the story about this performance of "Things Have Changed" on the Oscars (where Dylan won for this song) is priceless. Lemme know when you get to it in the book.

 

Related: 

What'cha Readin'? The Ballad of Bob Dylan by Daniel Mark Epstein

CBC Books

What'cha Readin'? Goodbye Lightfoot, hello Dylan

What’cha Readin’? Thoughts on Writing Gordon Lightfoot by Dave Bidini

Obama awards Bob Dylan with Presidential Medal of Freedom

A concert for Levon Helm, tonight on Canada Live

THE LIST: Five Sides of Bob Dylan

Single Songs: Bob Dylan's 'To Ramona'

From Digital to Analog: Bob Dylan, Talking Heads, Drive Like Jehu

posted by Vish Khanna on Jun 15, 2012