David Bowie's 100 Favorite Books Revealed For "David Bowie is" Exhibit

David Bowie isn't just a pretty face, he's also a "voracious reader" whose tastes span from classics to non-fiction to Russian lit, from poetry and philosophy to lowbrow comics. Now you can see the 100 books that made Bowie who he is.

The list was released in conjunction with the Canadian opening of the David Bowie is exhibit at the Art Gallery of Ontario. Their official website says of the event:

This fall, "David Bowie is" arrives at the AGO for the first North American stop on an unprecedented world tour, direct from a record-breaking run at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Spanning five decades and featuring more than 300 objects from Bowie’s personal archive, this totally immersive multimedia show celebrates the groundbreaking artist’s collaborations in the fields of fashion, sound, theatre, art and film.

The list of Bowie's top 100 books was complied by his archivist and given to the curators of the exhibit. His tastes are unsurprisingly intelligent and eclectic, and they provide clear insight and perspective on the rockstar's influences and inspirations. Check out the full list below and get more information about the David Bowie is exhibit at the AGO's official website.

Bowie's 100 Books

Interviews with Francis Bacon – David Sylvester – early 80s - Paperback

Billy Liar – Keith Waterhouse – early 60s - Paperback

Room at the Top – John Braine – early 60s - Paperback

On Having No Head – Douglass Harding – mid-60s - Paperback

Kafka Was The Rage – Anatole Broyard – 1995 - Hardcover

A Clockwork Orange – Anthony Burgess – mid-60’s - Paperback

City of Night – John Rechy – mid 60’s - Hardback

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao – Junot Diaz – 2007 - Hardback

Madame Bovary – Gustave Flaubert – 1980’s - Paperback

Iliad – Homer – late-70’s - Paperback

As I lay Dying – William Faulkner – early- 80’s - Paperback

Tadanori Yokoo – Tadanori Yokoo -  1973 - Paperback

Berlin Alexanderplatz – Alfred Döblin – late 70’s - ?

Inside the Whale and Other Essays – George Orwell – early 60’s - Paperback

Mr. Norris Changes Trains – Christopher Isherwood – late 60’s - Penguin

Halls Dictionary of Subjects and Symbols in Art – James A. Hall – 1975 - Hardback

David Bomberg – Richard Cork – mid-90’s - Hardback

Blast – Wyndham Lewis – 2009 - Paperback

Passing – Nella Larson – 1983 - Hardback

Beyond the Brillo Box – Arthur C. Danto – early 90’s - Hardback

The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind – Julian Jaynes – late-70’s - Hardback

In Bluebeard’s Castle – George Steiner – early 70’s - hardback

Hawksmoor – Peter Ackroyd – 1987 - Hardback

The Divided Self – R. D. Laing – 1964 – Paperback

The Stranger – Albert Camus – mid-60’s - Paperback

Infants of the Spring – Wallace Thurman – 1992 - Paperback

The Quest For Christa T – Christa Wolf – 1979 - Hardback

The Songlines – Bruce Chatwin – 1987 - Hardback

Nights at the Circus – Angela Carter – 1984 - Hardback

The Master and Margarita – Mikhail Bulgakov – early 90’s - Hardback

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie – Muriel Spark – late 60’s - Paperback

Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov – late 60’s - Hardcover

Herzog – Saul Bellow – early 80’s - Hardback

Puckoon – Spike Milligan – 1973 - Paperback

Black Boy – Richard Wright – early 80’s - Hardback

The Great Gatsby – F. Scott Fitzgerald – early 70’s - Paperback

The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With The Sea – Yukio Mishima – 1972 – Paperback?

Darkness at Noon – Arthur Koestler – early 90’s - Paperback

The Waste Land – T.S. Elliot – mid-70’s - Paperback

McTeague – Frank Norris – 2000 - Hardback

Money – Martin Amis – 1984 - Hardback

The Outsider – Colin Wilson – 1964/5 - Hardcover

Strange people – Frank Edwards – early 60’s - Paperback

English Journey – J.B. Priestley – 2011 - Hardback

A Confederacy of Dunces – John Kennedy Toole – early 2000’s - Paperback

The Day of the Locust – Nathanael West – mid-80’s - Hardback

Nineteen Eighty-Four – George Orwell – mid-60’s - Paperback

The Life and Times of Little Richard – Charles White – 1985 - Hardback

Awopbopaloobop Alopbamboom: The Golden Age of Rock – Nik Cohn – 70’s - ?

Mystery Train – Greil Marcus – 1976 - Hardback

Beano – Comic – 50’s

Raw – Graphic Comic – 80’s

White Noise – Don DeLillo – 1985 - Hardback

Sweet Soul Music: Rhythm and Blues and the Southern Dream of Freedom – Peter Guralnick – late 80’s - Hardback

Silence: lectures and writing – John Cage – 1975 - Hardback

Writers at Work: The Paris Review Interviews – Edited by Malcolm Cowley – mid-60’s - Hardback

The Sound of the City: The Rise of Rock and Roll – Charlie Gillete – 1972 - Hardback

Octobriana and the Russian Underground – Peter Sadecky – 1973 - Hardback

The Street – Ann Petry – early 80’s - Hardback

Wonder Boys – Michael Chabon – 1995 - Hardback

Last Exit to Brooklyn – Hubert Selby,  Jnr – late- 60’s - Paperback

A People’s History of the United States – Howard Zinn – early 2000’s - Paperback

The Age of American Unreason – Susan Jacoby – 2008 - Hardback

Metropolitan Life – Fran Lebowitz – 1978 - Hardback

The Coast of Utopia – Tom Stoppard – 2003 - Hardback

The Bridge – Hart Crane – mid-2000’s - Paperback

All The Emperor’s Horses – David Kidd – Late ‘70’s – Hardback

Fingersmith – Sarah Waters – mid-2000’s - Hardback

Earthly Powers – Anthony Burgess – early 80’s - Hardback

The 42nd Parallel – John Dos Passos – 2006 - Paperback

Tales of Beatnik Glory – Ed Saunders -  1975 – Hardback

The Bird Artist – Howard Norman – 1995 – Hardback

Nowhere To Run: – The Story of Soul Music – 2006 – Hardback

Before the Deluge – Otto Friedrich – 1976 – Hardback

Sexual Personae: Art and Decadence from Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson – Camille Paglia – 1990 – Hardback

The American Way of Death – Jessica Mitford – 1970 - Paperback

In Cold Blood – Truman Capote – late 60’s - Paperback

Lady Chatterly’s Lover – D.H. Lawrence – 1961 -  Penguin Paperback

Teenage – Jon Savage – 2007 – Hardback

Vile Bodies – Evelyn Waugh – early 60’s - Paperback

The Hidden Persuaders – Vance Packard – around 1962/3 – Paperback

The Fire Next Time – James Baldwin – early 70’s - Paperback

Viz – comic – early 80’s

Private Eye – Satire Magazine – 60’s through 80’s

Selected Poems – Frank O’Hara – 1974 – Paperback

The Trial of Henry Kissinger – Christopher Hitchens – early 2000’s – Paperbook

Flaubert’s Parrrot – Julian Barnes – 1985 - Hardback

Maldodor – Comte de Lautréamont – late 70’s – Penguin Paperback

On The Road – Jack Kerouac – 1960 – American Paperback

Mr. Wilson’s Cabinet of Wonders – Lawrence Weschler – 1995 – Paperback

Zanoni – Edward Bulwer-Lytton – 1975 – Hardback

Transcendental Magic, Its Doctine and Ritual – Eliphas Lévi – 1975 – Paperback

The Gnostic Gospels – Elaine Pagels – 1980 – Hardback

The Leopard – Giusseppe Di Lampedusa – 2001 - Hardback

Inferno – Dante Alighieri – 1985 - Paperback

A Grave for a Dolphin – Alberto Denti di Pirajno – mid 70’s – Hardback

The Insult – Rupert Thomson - 1996 – Hardback

In Between the Sheets – Ian McEwan - 1978 – Hardback

A People’s Tragedy – Orlando Figes – 2000 - Hardback

Journey into the Whirlwind – Eugenia Ginzburg – 2002 - Paperback

Source: The Independent