Mick Jagger gets real satisfaction from reading great books
Rolling Stones frontman and his fiancée back our Get Britain Reading campaign

Link to the article:

[www.thetimes.com].

Nice one Beast!

Just wish the picture editors could get the info correct as that pic from '84 obviously is from '76.
Good to see he had the same first love as me, Defoe's Robinson Crusoe. I must've read it about four times before my sixth birthday.

Interesting article. I recall Jerry Hall once stated that she had never met someone who read as many books as Mick.

From the article —

[Speaking of books in his childhood, Jagger said: “It’s hard to pick out one book that influenced my life but I think the book that got me started in my reading was Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe when I was very young. After that I starting reading science fiction and I loved reading The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury and A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess.”]

When Mick visited Japan for the promotion of Freejack, the sci-fi flick starring him, he told to the press that he was a keen reader of science fiction as a young boy and subscribed to a science fiction magazine. I also recall that in an interview taken sometime in the 90s or early 2000s, he said he read all the works by Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke. Mick also mentioned somewhere that in preparation for the stage set of the Steel Wheels Tour (which a Japanese journalist described, “looks like a factory from the near future”), he got inspiration from the film Blade Runner and William Gibson’s seminal ‘cyberpunk’ novel Neuromancer, providing his input into the design and production. Mick Jagger as a sci-fi geek!

A total contrast to Liam Gallagher’s wise word, “Books are for losers.”

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RisingStone
Interesting article. I recall Jerry Hall once stated that she had never met someone who read as many books as Mick.

From the article —

[Speaking of books in his childhood, Jagger said: “It’s hard to pick out one book that influenced my life but I think the book that got me started in my reading was Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe when I was very young. After that I starting reading science fiction and I loved reading The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury and A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess.”]

When Mick visited Japan for the promotion of Freejack, the sci-fi flick starring him, he told to the press that he was a keen reader of science fiction as a young boy and subscribed to a science fiction magazine. I also recall that in an interview taken sometime in the 90s or early 2000s, he said he read all the works by Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke. Mick also mentioned somewhere that in preparation for the stage set of the Steel Wheels Tour (which a Japanese journalist described, “looks like a factory from the near future”), he got inspiration from the film Blade Runner and William Gibson’s seminal ‘cyberpunk’ novel Neuromancer, providing his input into the design and production. Mick Jagger as a sci-fi geek!

A total contrast to Liam Gallagher’s wise word, “Books are for losers.”

All the great writers of books and music, and artists, love reading books.

So it's obvious where Liam falls in.

..very interesting but did he read " Life " by Keith Richards....?

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jp.M
..very interesting but did he read " Life " by Keith Richards....?

I´m sure he is allergic to any kind of book in this genre. Keith had to apologize to him about some snide remarks in the book though so I guess people close to him informed him about the content.

mick has similar taste to me

i also love sci-fi

particularly sci-fi from the 50's-70's

In Liam's case: Being working class is part of his image so I think his remark comes from that. People not reading books is not uncommon though. Even among people with degrees and fancy job titles.

I read Bulgakov's "The Master and Margarita" quite recently and enjoyed it. I know it's one of Jagger's favorites (visibly so in SFTD).

I'd read all 3 of those books if my attention span wasn't so fried. I did just finish the oral history of Lollapalooza. And ordered The Dope: The History Of The Mexican Drug Trade though I have one I have an Afghanistan I read a few pages thru and forgot about.

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Stoneage

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jp.M
..very interesting but did he read " Life " by Keith Richards....?

I´m sure he is allergic to any kind of book in this genre. Keith had to apologize to him about some snide remarks in the book though so I guess people close to him informed him about the content.

Up and down with the Rolling Stones - Tony Sanchez.

Speaking of Life — there is information around that, in the book, Keith writes about his love of books and that he wanted to be a librarian when he was a child. Does anybody enlighten me as to the whereabouts, chapter, pages etc?

[librarynews.northeastern.edu]

[erikamansson.wordpress.com]

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RisingStone
Speaking of Life — there is information around that, in the book, Keith writes about his love of books and that he wanted to be a librarian when he was a child. Does anybody enlighten me as to the whereabouts, chapter, pages etc?

[librarynews.northeastern.edu]

[erikamansson.wordpress.com]

i remember that too but can't find it in life

maybe he said it during one of his appearance or interviews he did to promote the book

did find this in life though in chapter thirteen

Aside from poaching, which I haven’t done since then, I lead a gentleman’s life. Listen to Mozart, read many, many books. I’m a voracious reader. I’ll read anything. And if I don’t like it, I’ll toss it. When it comes to fiction, it’s George MacDonald Fraser, the Flashmans, and Patrick O’Brian. I fell in love with his writing straightaway, at first with Master and Commander. It wasn’t primarily the Nelson and Napoleonic period, more the human relationships. He just happened to have that backdrop. And of course having characters isolated in the middle of the goddamn sea gives more scope. Just great characterizations, which I still cherish. It’s about friendship, camaraderie. Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin always remind me a bit of Mick and me. History, in particular the British Navy during that period, is my subject. The army wasn’t up to much then. It was the navy and the guys that got roped into it against their will, the press-gang. And to make this machine work, you had to weld this bunch of unwilling people into a functioning team, which reminds me of the Rolling Stones. I’ve always got some historical work on the go. The Nelson era and World War II are near the top of my list, but I do the ancient Romans too, and a certain amount of British colonial stuff, the Great Game and all that. I have a fine library furnished with these works, with dark wooden shelves reaching to the ceiling.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2025-11-24 03:42 by ProfessorWolf.

I like to read literature. Over the past few years, I have attempted to read more of the classics. Right now, it’s Dickens’ Little Dorrit.

It’s absolutely an important thing to get more Britons - and people globally - reading. When onboard the train every morning, I would estimate that 95% of my fellow commuters onboard the carriage are glued to their phone, scrolling through ‘social media’

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Big Al
I like to read literature. Over the past few years, I have attempted to read more of the classics. Right now, it’s Dickens’ Little Dorrit.

It’s absolutely an important thing to get more Britons - and people globally - reading. When onboard the train every morning, I would estimate that 95% of my fellow commuters onboard the carriage are glued to their phone, scrolling through ‘social media’

well a lot of people read on there phones nowadays too

i know i do

dickens i haven't read in a long time and have been meaning too again

i remember enjoying reading him at school

Many thanks, Prof, for taking time to try to locate it.
These two articles linked in my post suggest that the young Keith aspired to be a librarian is stated in Life for sure. But where..?

Looks like Keith is no less bookworm than Mick. In some alternative reality or parallel world, Mick could be an established science fiction writer and Keith, sitting behind the counter, might lend a book to a customer at a local branch of a public library.

In the timeline where The Rolling Stones as we know them don’t exist…

“People who write books are @#$%& idiots.” — Noel Gallagher

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ProfessorWolf

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Big Al
I like to read literature. Over the past few years, I have attempted to read more of the classics. Right now, it’s Dickens’ Little Dorrit.

It’s absolutely an important thing to get more Britons - and people globally - reading. When onboard the train every morning, I would estimate that 95% of my fellow commuters onboard the carriage are glued to their phone, scrolling through ‘social media’

well a lot of people read on there phones nowadays too

i know i do

dickens i haven't read in a long time and have been meaning too again

i remember enjoying reading him at school

Yeah, I have the Kindle app on my phone, admittedly. It is true that many read that way, yet so many are merely scrolling through TikTok, or whatever it is. There’s plenty of articles out there about people’s attention-span shrinking through social media media usage and a lack of reading.

Yes, get back to Dickens if you have time!

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Stoneage
In Liam's case: Being working class is part of his image so I think his remark comes from that. People not reading books is not uncommon though. Even among people with degrees and fancy job titles.

I think Liam went on to state that he enjoy’s non-fiction.

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Big Al

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ProfessorWolf

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Big Al
I like to read literature. Over the past few years, I have attempted to read more of the classics. Right now, it’s Dickens’ Little Dorrit.

It’s absolutely an important thing to get more Britons - and people globally - reading. When onboard the train every morning, I would estimate that 95% of my fellow commuters onboard the carriage are glued to their phone, scrolling through ‘social media’

well a lot of people read on there phones nowadays too

i know i do

dickens i haven't read in a long time and have been meaning too again

i remember enjoying reading him at school

Yeah, I have the Kindle app on my phone, admittedly. It is true that many read that way, yet so many are merely scrolling through TikTok, or whatever it is. There’s plenty of articles out there about people’s attention-span shrinking through social media media usage and a lack of reading.

Yes, get back to Dickens if you have time!

oh i agree that's why i avoid the stuff

that and it sounding boring and stupid

but still i'm sure at least some of them are reading

it's very bizarre to me they hold in there hands a way to access the near totality of the collected knowledge and art of ten thousand years of human civilization

and do they use that in the logical way to expand there knowledge and better there minds?

nope they have to look at pictures of there friends food and people dancing like morons

i'll definitely get to dicken's eventually but i've never read robert louis stevenson and wanted to read some of his books first



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2025-11-24 06:30 by ProfessorWolf.

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Stoneage

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jp.M
..very interesting but did he read " Life " by Keith Richards....?

I´m sure he is allergic to any kind of book in this genre. Keith had to apologize to him about some snide remarks in the book though so I guess people close to him informed him about the content.

Keith had to apologize to Liam?

That's something. It's called "weak".

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ProfessorWolf

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Big Al

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ProfessorWolf

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Big Al
I like to read literature. Over the past few years, I have attempted to read more of the classics. Right now, it’s Dickens’ Little Dorrit.

It’s absolutely an important thing to get more Britons - and people globally - reading. When onboard the train every morning, I would estimate that 95% of my fellow commuters onboard the carriage are glued to their phone, scrolling through ‘social media’

well a lot of people read on there phones nowadays too

i know i do

dickens i haven't read in a long time and have been meaning too again

i remember enjoying reading him at school

Yeah, I have the Kindle app on my phone, admittedly. It is true that many read that way, yet so many are merely scrolling through TikTok, or whatever it is. There’s plenty of articles out there about people’s attention-span shrinking through social media media usage and a lack of reading.

Yes, get back to Dickens if you have time!

oh i agree that's why i avoid the stuff

that and it sounding boring and stupid

but still i'm sure at least some of them are reading

it's very bizarre to me they hold in there hands a way to access the near totality of the collected knowledge and art of ten thousand years of human civilization

and do they use that in the logical way to expand there knowledge and better there minds?

nope they have to look at pictures of there friends food and people dancing like morons

i'll definitely get to dicken's eventually but i've never read robert louis stevenson and wanted to read some of his books first

I read 'Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde' last year. If you pick-up the Penguin Classics edition, you'll get lots of nice extras. Personally, although a short novel, I found it a little hard going. I'm not sure if it's Stevenson's writing-style, but I didn't entirely get on with it. As you are a sc-fi lover, though, I reckon it will be entirely up your street. There is Treasure Island too, of course.

Edit: my ultimate 'never again' moment from my classic literature reading, is Mrs Dalloway, by Virginia Woolf. Again, although a short book, her 'stream of consciousness' 'style' is, for me, more infamous than famous. I finished the book, but found it thoroughly frustrating.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2025-11-24 11:19 by Big Al.

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Big Al
I read 'Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde' last year. If you pick-up the Penguin Classics edition, you'll get lots of nice extras. Personally, although a short novel, I found it a little hard going. I'm not sure if it's Stevenson's writing-style, but I didn't entirely get on with it. As you are a sc-fi lover, though, I reckon it will be entirely up your street. There is Treasure Island too, of course.

Edit: my ultimate 'never again' moment from my classic literature reading, is Mrs Dalloway, by Virginia Woolf. Again, although a short book, her 'stream of consciousness' 'style' is, for me, more infamous than famous. I finished the book, but found it thoroughly frustrating.

oh yeah i'm definetly gonna give dr. jekyll and mr. hyde a read and i'll look for the penguin classics version like you suggest

but looking over his books the ebb tide looks interesting to me and i was gonna try that first

as for your frustrations i had similar ones in my aborted attempted to read william s. burroughs naked lunch

meanwhile....in the US we are banning books.....

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Rip This
meanwhile....in the US we are banning books.....

No book should be 'banned' or altered for any reason. There was such an uproar when Penguin decided to 'modernise' the Roald Dahl books a few years back, that they relented and agreed to publish both versions: the 'child friendly', 'inoffensive' versions under the Puffin wing, and the 'adult' version under Penguin. It's utterly ridiculous. Ian Fleming's Bond novels have ben altered, too. The solution? Just buy earlier editions. Thankfully, I have all the Dahl novels as nature intended!

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ProfessorWolf

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Big Al

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ProfessorWolf

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Big Al
I like to read literature. Over the past few years, I have attempted to read more of the classics. Right now, it’s Dickens’ Little Dorrit.

It’s absolutely an important thing to get more Britons - and people globally - reading. When onboard the train every morning, I would estimate that 95% of my fellow commuters onboard the carriage are glued to their phone, scrolling through ‘social media’

well a lot of people read on there phones nowadays too

i know i do

dickens i haven't read in a long time and have been meaning too again

i remember enjoying reading him at school

Yeah, I have the Kindle app on my phone, admittedly. It is true that many read that way, yet so many are merely scrolling through TikTok, or whatever it is. There’s plenty of articles out there about people’s attention-span shrinking through social media media usage and a lack of reading.

Yes, get back to Dickens if you have time!

oh i agree that's why i avoid the stuff

that and it sounding boring and stupid

but still i'm sure at least some of them are reading

it's very bizarre to me they hold in there hands a way to access the near totality of the collected knowledge and art of ten thousand years of human civilization

and do they use that in the logical way to expand there knowledge and better there minds?

nope they have to look at pictures of there friends food and people dancing like morons

i'll definitely get to dicken's eventually but i've never read robert louis stevenson and wanted to read some of his books first

For me the smartphones is maybe the most important development during my lifetime (obv would not exist without internet though). Having been an avid reader all my life, especially History & other non fiction, the smartphone made all information possible while being on the subway, waiting on a friend or basically everywhere. I spend 4-5 hours daily reading still.

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tiffanyblu

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ProfessorWolf

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Big Al

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ProfessorWolf

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Big Al
I like to read literature. Over the past few years, I have attempted to read more of the classics. Right now, it’s Dickens’ Little Dorrit.

It’s absolutely an important thing to get more Britons - and people globally - reading. When onboard the train every morning, I would estimate that 95% of my fellow commuters onboard the carriage are glued to their phone, scrolling through ‘social media’

well a lot of people read on there phones nowadays too

i know i do

dickens i haven't read in a long time and have been meaning too again

i remember enjoying reading him at school

Yeah, I have the Kindle app on my phone, admittedly. It is true that many read that way, yet so many are merely scrolling through TikTok, or whatever it is. There’s plenty of articles out there about people’s attention-span shrinking through social media media usage and a lack of reading.

Yes, get back to Dickens if you have time!

oh i agree that's why i avoid the stuff

that and it sounding boring and stupid

but still i'm sure at least some of them are reading

it's very bizarre to me they hold in there hands a way to access the near totality of the collected knowledge and art of ten thousand years of human civilization

and do they use that in the logical way to expand there knowledge and better there minds?

nope they have to look at pictures of there friends food and people dancing like morons

i'll definitely get to dicken's eventually but i've never read robert louis stevenson and wanted to read some of his books first

For me the smartphones is maybe the most important development during my lifetime (obv would not exist without internet though). Having been an avid reader all my life, especially History & other non fiction, the smartphone made all information possible while being on the subway, waiting on a friend or basically everywhere. I spend 4-5 hours daily reading still.

Well, I use my iPad predominantly at home, with the phone only seeing occasional usage; step-monitoring; the daily whatsapp to those indoors, etc. I do see where you are coming from. I'm sort-of addictd to Wikipedia.