Michael Jackson and books
“It was Rose who instilled in me a love of books
and literature that sustains me today.
I read everything I could get my hands on.
New cities meant new places to shop.
We loved to shop, especially in bookstores and department stores,”
~ Michael Jackson, Moonwalk
"She [Miss Rose Fine] taught me the wonderful world of books and reading
and I wouldn’t be the same person if it wasn’t for her.”
~ Michael Jackson
“I love to read. I wish I could advise more people to read. There’s a whole new world in books. If you can’t afford to travel, you travel mentally through reading. You can see anything and go any place you want to in reading.”
~ Michael Jackson
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
MJ: “I watch cartoons. I love cartoons. I play video games. Sometimes I read.”
Q: “You mean you read books?”
MJ: “Yeah. I love to read short stories and everything.”
Q: “Any in particular?”
MJ: “Somerset Maugham.. Whitman. Hemingway. Twain.”
Javon: That’s how he filled all those hours by himself: books. He’d read anything and everything he could get his hands on. History. Science. Art. There were so many trips to Barnes & Noble. It was almost a weekly thing. He would go into bookstores and drop five thousand dollars like he was buying a pack of gum. At one point, he actually bought a bookstore—I’m talking about an entire bookstore. He paid cash for it. ~Remember the time: protecting Michael Jackson in his final days
Here is a list with some of Michael’s favorite books:
FICTION
Peter Pan, by J.M Barrie
Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach
To Kill A Mockingbird, by Harper Lee
The Old Man And The Sea, by Ernest Hemingway
Rip Van Winkle, by Washington Irving
The Verger, by Somerset Maugham
The Complete Works of O. Henry
The Reluctant Dragon by Kenneth Grahame
The Red Balloon, by Albert Lamorisse
They Cage the Animals at Night, by Jennings Michael Burch
The Giving Tree, by Shel Silverstein
Complete Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson
Complete Stories and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe, by Edgar Allan Poe
SPIRITUAL/BUSINESS/SELF HELP
The 48 Laws Of Power, by Robert Greene
As a Man Thinketh, by James Allen
The Power of Positive Thinking, Norman Vincent Peale
The Gift of Acabar, by Og Mandino
Leaders Of Men: Types And Principles Of Success, As Illustrated In The Lives And Careers Of Famous Americans Of The Present day, by Henry Woldmar Ruoff
The Greatest Salesman in the World by Og Mandino
Your Creative Power, by Alex Osborn
Reach Out for a New Life, by Robert Harold Schuller
Hagakure: The Book Of The Samurai, by T. Yamamoto
365 Exercises For The Mind, by Pierre Berloquin
Books by Sri Aurobindo
Books by Kalki Krishnamurthy
Aid To Bible Understanding
BLACK HISTORY
Malcolm X, by Alex Haley
The Negro Caravan, by Sterling A. Brown
Black Heroes of The 20th Century, by Jessie Carney Smith
Without Sanctuary: Lynching Photography in America, by James Allen
Black in America, by Eli Reed
King: A Photobiography of Martin Luther King Jnr, by Charles Johnson, Bob Adelman
In Praise of Black Women, Volume 1: Ancient African Queens, by Simone Schwarz-Bart
The Face of Our Past: Images of Black Women from Colonial America to the Present, by Kathleen Thompson and Hilary MacAustin
Brown Sugar: Over 80 Years of America’s Black Female Superstars
Before the Mayflower, by Lerone Bennet Jr
How To Eat To Live by Elijah Muhammad
The White Problem in America, by JET magazine authors
Reflections in Black, by Deborah Willis
The African Origin of Civilization: Myth or Reality? by Cheikh Anta Diop (1989)
Black Dance in America: A History Through Its People, by James Haskins (1990)
The Hotel Book: Great Escapes Africa
POETRY
The Prophet, by Kahlil Gibran
Robert Burns poems - “Ae Fond Kiss, And Then We Sever”, “Tom O’Shanter”
Poetry by Rabindranath Tagore
Sufi Poetry
Thoughts of Love: A Collection of Poems on Love, by Susan Polis Schutz
The Children’s Hour, by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
The Tyger, by William Blake
The Bridge of Sighs, by Thomas Hood
The Prophet, by Kahlil Gibran
BIOGRAPHIES ON ICONS
Abraham Lincoln, by Carl Sandburg
Lincoln’s Devotional, by Carl Sandburg
James Dean: An American Icon, by David Loehr
My Life in Pictures, by Charlie Chaplin
Lennon in America: 1971-1980, Based in Part on the Lost Lennon Diaries, by Geoffery Giuliano
The Beatles Illustrated Lyrics, by Alan Aldridge
Glass Onion: The Beatles In Their Own Words, by Geoffrey Giuliano
The Lost Lennon Interviews, by Giuliano
Things We Said Today: Conversations with the Beatles, by Geoffrey Giuliano
Elvis Day By Day, by Peter Guralnick
The Rolling Stones: A Life on the Road
Bruce Lee: The Celebrated life of the Golden Dragon, by John Little
Elia Kazan: A Life, by Elia Kazan
Songs My Mother Taught Me, by Marlon Brando
Steps In Time, by Fred Astaire
My Autobiography, by Charlie Chaplin
Goldwyn: A Biography by A. Scott Berg
Kindly Leave the Stage: Story of Variety, by Roger Wilmut
Duse: A Biography, by William Weaver
The Elephant Man and Other Reminiscences, by Sir Frederick Treves
The Soulful Divas: Personal Portraits of Over a Dozen Divine Divas, from Nina Simone, Aretha Franklin & Diana Ross to Patti Labelle, Whitney Houston & Janet Jackson
HISTORY
White Nights: The Story Of A Prisoner In Russia, by Menachem Begin
The Rest Of Us: The Rise Of America’s Eastern European Jews, by Stephen Birmingham
MUSIC
Blues Who’s Who: A Biographical Dictionary of Blues Singers, by Sheldon Harris
The Billboard Illustrated Encyclopedia of Rock: Expanded and Updated Edition, by Colin Larkin
Stravinsky In The Theater, by Minna Lederman
Recording Studio Design, by Phillip Newell
DISNEY
The Art Of Walt Disney: From Mickey Mouse To The Magic Kingdoms
Walt Disney’s Treasury of Children’s Classics
Mickey Mouse by Pierre Lambert
The Quotable Walt Disney
Discover Walt: The Magical Life of Walt Disney
Disney’s World: A Biography, by Leonard Moslev
Walt Disney: An American Original
Walt Disney: Famous Quotes
Of Mice And Magic: A History of American Animated Cartoons, by Leonard Maltin
The Updated Official Encyclopedia: Disney A to Z
ABOUT MOVIES
The Complete Films of Cecil B. Demille, By Gene Ringgold
A Pictorial History of Horror Movies, by Denis Gifford
Acting Class, by Milton Katselas
MGM’s Greatest Musicals, by Hugh Fordin
70 Years of the Oscar: The Official History of the Academy Awards by Robert A. Osborne
COSTUME
Costumes By Karinska, by Toni Bentley
Stage Costume Advice
Love of a Glove, by CC Collins 1945
Scenic design
Costume Cavalcade
The History Of Costume
NATURE AND ANIMALS
Animal Language, by Michael Bright
PHOTOGRAPHY AND ART
Kids at Work: Lewis Hine and the Crusade Against Child Labor Paperback, by Lewis Hine
Lewis W. Hine: The Empire State Building by Lewis Hine
Planet Vegas : A Portrait of Las Vegas by 20 of the World’s Leading Photographers: Rick Browne, James Marshall
Hurrell Hollywood: Photographs 1928-1990
The Art Book, by Phaidon
Going East: Two Decades of Asian Photography, by Max Pam
Skinhead (1982), by Nick Knight
The Art of WALL.E, by Tim Hauser
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