Hello friends, how the hell are you doing?
When Harry Styles named his album Fine Line, I don't think he was referring to the song of the same title on the album, i think that he was referring
to the very fine line there is between enjoying someone's music to a healthy extent and reading
every single book they've ever recommended ... and today we're going to be crossing that line
because recently I have been using my time to research interviews, the internet... pretty much
anywhere possible for books that Harry Styles has personally recommended and
here they are. So, the plan for this week's video is to read all of these books and
let you know what i think, which ones were my favourites, and how i think these have influenced
Harry Styles' music, his fashion, his aesthetic and his attitude to life... so I've got my work cut out
for me. I guess you could say my time is fully booked ...... and with that one, uh, i'm gonna- i'm gonna go...
[intro music]: on tonight's program ladies and gentlemen we have something that's gonna make you sick
okay so let's go, welcome to the challenge, the first book that i read is Love is a Mixtape
by Rob Sheffield. This is a book that Harry Styles has recommended multiple times, in fact here is a
picture of him reading it just in case you weren't convinced. Unfortunately for me i have to say i did
not look like that whilst reading this book -- i wish i did but i didn't. What a sad little
life Jack. Anyways, this is a book all about love and heartache and music. Music is woven into the
fabric of this book and this man's life, and you know what? That makes quite a lot of sense because
Rob Sheffield who wrote this book is actually a contributing editor to Rolling Stone magazine
which i thought was really interesting and the more i researched Rob Sheffield -- firstly he's the
youngest looking 54 year old i've ever seen, like where is that man's time machine and can he help
us skip to the bit where we're not in a pandemic? But also he quite understandably is a massive fan
of Harry Styles and that's interesting because I think having approval by major publications
like Rolling Stone is kind of what cement you as a serious music artist. Like Harry Styles has been on
the cover of the magazine, he's done interviews for them, that kind of thing. And i think that
Rob Sheffield has actually helped Harry Styles a lot because having his approval
as such a huge figure in the music industry has helped Harry Styles be recognized as
the serious musician that he is. Back to this book though. This is a memoir which basically just means
a historical account or biography written from personal knowledge and in this instance it is
about- it's kind of like eulogizing rob sheffield's early wife who unfortunately died very young and
as he experiences life (just like for so many of us) music is a huge influence. It's the soundtrack
to our existences, so he talks about Nirvana, The Beatles, Aretha Franklin, Madonna and so many other
singers, artists, bands and how their songs provide a backing track to so many moments in our lives
that then become memories. And songs become attached to memories. This is a really great book, I
would honestly recommend this as a gift to anyone you know who loves music and reading because it's
awesome. And now you join me over at my bookshelf where i'm about to start my second book which
is My Policeman by Bethan Roberts. Hello there, I am back, and i've just finished this book and oh
my lord this is freaking beautiful. Harry Styles has been spotted carrying this book around with
him, as you can see here. Again, why don't i look that cool? And there are also quite a lot of rumours
that he is going to be in the film adaptation of this book which will be awesome but i'll get onto
that in a sec. It's about a woman called Marion who marries a policeman called Tom who basically has
a gay love affair with an older man. She ends up kind of having to share her husband with this man
but it ends up breaking all three of them in the process. It is incredibly told with scenes both in
retrospect and in the moment. It really emphasizes the importance of different perspectives but also
things like identity, belonging, betrayal and also acceptance (or sometimes the lack thereof). Honestly
i'd recommend this book to anyone. I really enjoyed it, although i will say i do maybe... possibly...
potentially... definitely have a massive soft spot for books about Brighton because i grew
up around there so whenever i read a book about Brighton i feel like i instantly kind of just
love it, especially when it's as well written and captures human beings as well as this particular
book does! Honestly, big fan. [Srens] Not a police car going past as i'm filming a video about a book called
my policeman....? This video is sponsored by the metropolitan police - cheers guys you can- you
can stop now. Like i said before there are rumours that Harry Styles and Lily James are meant to play
the lead roles in the film adaptation and if that is true..... if that is true! Oh my lord that is genius
casting! i can completely imagine those two people playing these roles immaculately, but the fact that
he was spotted carrying it around i think does suggest that maybe there are some sort of truth
to the rumours but, um, fingers crossed and now on to the next book! Okay, i'm not gonna lie, it may or
may not be 3am. I've just finished rereading Susan Sontag's Notes on Camp. I have read this before,I
read it during my degree, at the time of the Met Gala when Notes on Camp was the theme.
And the reason i'm bringing this one up is because Harry Styles was a host of the Met Gala that year
alongside Lady Gaga and Anna Wintour and the theme was Notes on Camp ... and it's just incredible. If any
of you are interested in theory and pop culture you will love reading this book, well it's kind
of more like a big essay -- it's not very long and it's basically about the theory of Camp in art.
So Camp with a capital c. It is incredibly dense theory but i definitely think that a lot of Harry
Styles' art is Camp or campy and this isn't to say anything about sexuality --we're not talking about
sexuality here. Camp is not about sexuality, it's about eccentricity, it's about being daring, it's
about being bold, it's about vulgarity but it's not a joke. Everything is taken very, very seriously so
if you basically are being completely absurd but being completely serious whilst doing it
that is Camp with a capital c, That's like the most simple and concise way of explaining it but it
is so much more complicated than that and it's so fascinating. I'd really, really recommend reading
it. Think about Harry Styles' fashion choice and his aesthetic, it's very like outrageous, bold, colourful.
It makes me think of that suit he wore to the Brit Awards, you know, bright yellow with purple.
It shouldn't work but it does because he wears it with seriousness and it's cool.
And i can completely see why he was chosen as a co-host of the Met Gala when the theme was
Notes on Camp because he embodies Camp. But yeah Camp with a capital c is not about sexuality or
anything like that it's about art and it's really cool it's really interesting and with that my
friends i am going to bed. And we're back! Some time has passed but i have just finished my next book
which is In Watermelon Sugar by Richard Brautigan. Now this title may sound familiar to you... if not
i'm surprised you clicked on the video i'm not gonna lie. Of course Watermelon Sugar was one of
the singles from the Fine Line album and it's also a certified bop. And in Harry's Tiny Desk
Concert he did actually confirm that this book was the inspiration behind the song Watermelon Sugar
or at least the title. He was gifted this book by his ex-girlfriend Camille Rowe. It is very bizarre,
it's surrealist, it's kind of about this utopia where everything is made of watermelon sugar.
It's post-modern, it's post-apocalyptic, it's just really quite weird, and i think it kind of builds
on the pastoral tradition but this book is kind of about a utopia which turns out to not actually
be as perfect as everyone once thought. It's kind of a society where they've got rid of materialism
and consumerism and honestly it just turns out not to be as great as one might originally think.
In the song watermelon sugar Harry obviously talks about 'watermelon sugar high' and how great
it is. It's very euphoric, it's a really passionate, summery, positive, optimistic song. I think
that kind of could be linked to the idea of being so in love at the time and then the breakup sort
of reminding you that actually things weren't perhaps as perfect as they once seemed. That's
just a thought but i think that the allusion to watermelon sugar that Harry makes could be a
reference to how perfection can eventually crumble which is nice and depressing, so sorry about tha.t
The next book is Siddhartha by Herman Hesse and I'm pretty sure that's all about spirituality
so hopefully, you know, things might- things might start looking up from here. Okay, so i have finished
reading Siddhartha although I'm dressed kind of like Sunflower Volume 6. This is a book all
about spirituality, the quest for spirituality, and ultimately finding that spirituality within
oneself. So the eponymous protagonist (which basically just means the character who the
book is named after) his name is Siddhartha and basically this is a narrative all about his
quest for finding a higher state of being and the people and the customs and the cultures that he
encounters along the way. Ultimately what he kind of realises is that organised religion and
other people's interpretations of spirituality are all well and good, and you can learn things
from them, but you need to find a higher state of being within yourself and it needs to come
from you, and you need to find your own perfect way of being spiritual. So yeah it was cool. I didn't
love it. I didn't hate it. If you are into things like spirituality (by the way, take a shot every
time i've said spirituality in the last minute because you're gonna be hammered). If you are into
reading that kind of thing then i'm sure you'll really enjoy this book and Harry Styles himself
has recommended this book alongside Rumi's poetry, which again is very much about spirituality
and kindness and nature. In his interview with Another Man where he spoke about the books that
he couldn't live without and this was one of them. Incidentally, one of the other books he talks about
is Love is a Dog from Hell which i also have been reading today. Today is a Sunday and it's just been
very nice to sit back and read some poetry, eating my crisps and some caramelised onion hummus
...which by the way is god tier. It's really been a fantastic vibe, i'm having a great time.
This is a poetry collection called Love is a Dog from Hell by Charles Bukowski. He was known
as being quite filthy, he referred to himself as a 'dirty old man' and he's not wrong. Some of the
poems at the beginning of this collection are so filthy i felt like i needed to bleach my eyeballs
just after reading them, but there's only a few examples. I think the way Bukowski uses language is
really, really beautiful and it's simple but so effective. But honesty and verisimilitude (which
is basically just presenting things in the most true possible form) ... that's kind of Bukowski's thing.
And Harry Styles has recommended Bukowski's poems so many times and i can really see it. A lot of his
songs like From the Dining Table for instance is pretty much a Bukowski poem set to music. I think
a lot of Harry's songwriting style is definitely highly influenced by Bukowski, not because they're
filthy -- i don't mean that side of it -- I mean more in the sense that they're so realistic and
accurately written to a real lived experience, but yeah i really enjoyed this poetry collection.
I'm so glad that this video led me to Charles Bukowski's poetry because i really enjoyed it.
So that's another two books down, i'm going to carry on eating my hummus and i'm moving on to
my next book which is the Course of Love by Alain de Botton, and i've heard good things about that book
so i'm excited to get started with that one, and as always i'll let you know what i think! Okay guys i
hate to say it, i hope I don't sound ridiculous but I did not enjoy this book ... like, at all. In fairness
i guess this is the first time i've actually been disappointed so far by one of these books in this
video so that's a pretty high success rate, and I can see why people would have enjoyed this
book, especially people who are a bit older than me and maybe have been married and been through
a long love story. It's basically about these two people who fall in love, get married, have kids and
then their lives are just [ __ ] miserable... like that is literally the plot of this book. These
people just are not happy at all. it's quite a bleak representation of love i'm not gonna lie.
i think the idea is it's meant to be realistic and, you know, "cut the crap: this is what real love
is like". But i just found it a bit dull and a bit boring, also I kind of hated .... and by 'kind of' I mean
'really hated' the way it was written. Like, as we go through the narrative quite frequently there are
these interruptions by a kind of omniscient voice which gives these philosophical observations of
love and the concept of love and it was just really annoying. I was like "shut up".
Which i know is really terrible but i just... i didn't enjoy it. I like the cover though, the
cover's very nice. And that's proof you cannot judge a book by its cover because the cover is
actually good. Okay so the next book that i've read for the purposes of --- actually i don't know
what the purpose of this video is. The next book i read was Three Women by Lisa Tadeo. This does
pretty much what it says on the tin, it is a story of three different women. I think that the
author actually set out to write a book about men but ended up always finding the women in
the narratives were always the most interesting characters and as a result we have a book that
is all about women and femininity and sexuality, and it's gripping! It's really hard to put down.
It's about trauma, it's about relationships, but they are all so intricately retold and if you
are a male feminist (as i hope every male watching this video is, and as myself and also Harry Styles
who recommended this book also are) I think that this is really important for understanding-
like, reading things like this, reading things from female perspectives, and reading female experiences
is really important to improving your feminism and improving how much you actually understand
women's issues. So, yeah, I enjoyed it. Thanks Hazza for the recommendation. And that is the
penultimate book! Only one more to go! Okay i just finished reading the final book of the challenge.
I'm standing up! I haven't even put the camera down because i'm just so excited! That book in
question was one of Harry Styles' favourite ever books which he recommends all the time and that is
.... and that is Norwegian Wood by Murakami. This book of course takes its title from the
dreamy song by The Beatles 'Norwegian Wood' and honestly it's one of the most beautiful things
i have ever read... my compliments to the chef. I think it captures young people
and young people's minds so accurately and it's just exquisite to read honestly.
I- I'm converting i'm a fanboy of this. This is my new bible. Again, this is mostly verisimilitude
much like Charles Bukowski's poetry or Harry Styles' writing. It's very similarly written, like
in the sense that it's so honest. It's an authentic human experience and - oh! - I just love it. If I had to
choose which of the books to recommend to you from this whole video I would definitely choose
this one and My Policeman. I think those would be my top two, but this is just fiction at its
absolute best. It's set in Tokyo, it's by a Japanese author and so this is translated and i'm pretty
sure Harry Styles himself has spent quite a bit of time in Tokyo, and i'm not surprised after reading
this book it makes you want to go there so much. Interestingly in his cover shoot and interview
for the Beauty Papers Harry speaks about a lot of people who have influenced him and one of
those people is Murakami but interestingly another one of those is the main character of this book.
Incidentally another one of those is Charles Bukowski. Now that i think about it there are
actually a lot of resemblances between Harry Styles and the way that the central protagonist in
this novel speaks. His name is Toro and he's often praised for the way that he speaks and how bluntly
he puts things but also how kind of poetic he is in a way, and honestly this Youtube channel is
now a stan account of both Harry Styles and this particular book. Wow, oh my god. And that concludes
this week's video! Thank you so, so much for watching. I enjoyed reading the books that Harry
Styles has recommended a bit too much i think and i think the conclusion here is that we can
quite confidently say that Harry Styles taste in literature is immaculate. In fact I accidentally
enjoyed it so much that i ended up making a whole separate video about the poetry that Harry Styles
has been inspired by so that is up on my channel if you'd like to go and watch that video as well.
You know, be my guest. I'm not gonna stop you. Harry, if you're watching this, can i call you
Harry'? I will see you very soon, uh, in court.... when you file a restraining order against me.
In the meantime have a lovely day, my Instagram will be here if you want to go follow me
and i will see you next time! [Outro music[: In case i don't see you, good afternoon, good evening, and good night.