WHAT BOOK would bassist and lyricist of Black Sabbath Geezer Butler take to a desert
WHAT BOOK would bassist and lyricist of Black Sabbath Geezer Butler take to a desert island?
. . . are you reading now?
I chain-read books, so I always have one on the go. I just finished Close To Home by Michael Magee, which I loved, and am currently about three-quarters of the way through Hungry Ghosts by Kevin Jared Hosein, which is set in Trinidad during World War II.
It’s fairly slow reading, as there is a lot of local dialogue and colloquialisms and unfamiliar flora and fauna, but it is a fascinating story of a wealthy couple, Marlee and Dalton Changoor, and the very poor families who live and work locally in the ‘barrack’.
Butler says he always has a book on the go and that he just finished Close To Home by Michael Magee
Dalton mysteriously disappears, possibly kidnapped, and several acts of violence are carried out on the Changoors’ farm, leading to Marlee appointing Hans Saroop, a poor barrack resident, as part-time security guard to protect her from the attackers.
Who are the attackers, and does Marlee know more about her husband’s disappearance than she’s admitting to?
. . . would you take to a desert island?
He says Oliver Twist first gave him the reading bug
My son bought me Paul McCartney’s book The Lyrics for Christmas. It’s a hefty two-volume edition of 960 pages, and as yet I haven’t got around to reading it, so a stint on a desert island would be a perfect time and place to read it.
As a lyricist myself, I look forward to learning McCartney’s methods of writing, and some of the stories behind the songs.
. . . first gave you the reading bug?
The first book that I actually enjoyed reading was Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens. As a child I related to Oliver’s plight and the circumstances of his life, which were not too far removed from my experiences in post-war working-class 1950s England.
. . . left you cold?
A recent book that left me cold was Ragnar Jonasson’s Outside. I was a fan of his previous books, so was eager to read this one.
Usually, if I don’t get into a book in the first 50 pages, I’ll abandon it, but I gave this book the benefit of the doubt, assuming something would happen as I ploughed through it.
Unfortunately, it was very disappointing, and I felt I’d wasted a week of my reading time.
- Into The Void: From Birth To Black Sabbath — And Beyond, Geezer Butler’s autobiography, is out now (HarperCollins, £25).