August: Rock your books off

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We love books, and we love music. And we’re not the only ones: Authors Jonathan Lethem, Rick Moody, J. Robert Lennon and more have all played in real bands. Very literary novelists cook up fictional rock stars, such as Ben Greenman, whose ‘Please Step Back’ came out this year, and Don Delillo, who gave us Bucky Wunderlick in 1973’s ‘Great Jones Street.’ And there are real-life rockers who become writers, like Frank Portman, who went from fronting The Mr. T Experience to penning the young adult novel ‘King Dork.’ It goes right round, baby, right round like a record, baby, right round round round.*

And then there’s how the business functions: Like the music industry, the publishing industry is facing a digital revolution for which it was largely unprepared -- not that a few didn’t see it coming.

All August, we’ll be jumping right into the middle of the slamming intersection between books and music like 19-year-olds pumped on Red Bull. Will we get sweaty? Probably. Will we get bruised? Most likely. Will we bleed like the time I went to a protest and got slammed in the face by my own camera when the Red Hot Chili Peppers started playing? Let’s hope if we do, it isn’t quite so embarrassing.

Like PoMo Month, this exploration of books and music will not be the only thing happening on Jacket Copy. We’ll continue to post on book news and other fun stuff. But keep an eye out for our Rock Your Books Off month posts, and add your voice to the coming cacophony.

-- Carolyn Kellogg

* Lyric from the Dead or Alive song ‘You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)’