Lifestyle Gumbo: Reading Rockstars

Classic literature plus mainstream pop music may seem like a calamity made in Hades, but, as we've recently discovered, nothing could be further from the truth. So, allow us to present our not-at-all definitive list of rockers who read. Enjoy, add, comment and share :)


1. Alice Smith, a relative newcomer with a light and undefinable sound, is a nerd after our own heart. We thoroughly enjoyed reading an interview on Clutch, where she gushed about being an English major in college (see our newest column, "The English Major") and a bookworm.












2. Natasha Bedingfield is most known for her wanderlust anthem, "Unwritten," but her first single, "These Words," is--shockingly!--an ode to writer's block. We heart these lyrics, "Read some Byron, Shelley and Keats, Recited it over hip-hop beats."








3. D.A. Wallach of Chester French's Twitter blog is a-w-esome! He's so clearly a geek (he tweets about reading newspapers, books and annoying language trends) and he's even a grammar Nazi. Who doesn't love updates like this: "I wish I could invest in words or catch-phrases that I see blowing up everyday. Trendy language is a slight pet peeve of mine, nonetheless."









4. The Roots haven't publicly professed their love of the hardback (that we know of), but if their album naming tendencies are any indication, they love books as much as we do. One of their classic albums was named after Chinua Achebe's masterpiece, Things Fall Apart, and a more recent LP was named after a book The Tipping Point: How Little Thing Can Make a Big Difference.







5. Ashlee Simpson, Pete Wentz and Bronx Mowgli Wentz are clearly a reading family--with the baby name to prove it! Pete was quoted saying, “The Jungle Book is something me and Ashlee bonded over. It’s really cool.”And we take that to mean Rudyard Kipling's books--not the Disney flick!







What other musicians are avid readers?

--Whitney Teal