In this article, you’ll discover 5 fascinating books about the incredible life John Lennon lead.
For a man once told he wouldn’t make a living out of a guitar (his mother when he was five)…..John certainly did that and so much more.
As one of the most influential people the world has ever known, John’s life is one of the most captivating stories you’ll ever hear.
He swayed the hearts of many with his music. Some even say he was more popular than Jesus. (He said this as well in an interview once, which caused quite a controversy)
Fun Fact: John was actually so influential that even Richard Nixon once went on a campaign to try and have him deported. The campaign was ultimately unsuccessful, but Richard did stoop low enough to even attack Lennon’s immigration status. Why did Richard Nixon want him deported? Because Nixon believed that he could get enough people to the polls to vote for the anti war movement.
There’s really so many truly fascinating things about Lennon, learning about his life is incredibly inspiring.
If you’re interested in Lennon’s life, you should find these 7books I chose interesting.
I’ve read a few of them, and the rest are ones I plan on getting soon. (I’ve got a lot to read at the moment,I’m kind of a bookaholic of sorts)
Many of these books have uncommon knowledge about Lennon’s life, it’s very interesting to get a peek behind the curtain into what it was like to be John.
1. John Lennon the life Phillip Norman
This book is probably the most popular, of all on the list.
With three years of full blown extensive research that went into this, Phillip Norman really went deep into johns life. He was given access to all sort of people and things in johns life, and because of this we’re now getting to see into johns life deeper than ever before.
It’s a really interesting read. Phillip’s writing style is like a breeze to follow along. So easy.
Out of all the people interviewed, and there were tons of interesting people interviewed such as Sean(his son), and Paul McCartney…..the most interesting interviews are definitely with his wife yoko ono.
She really doesn’t seem to want to leave anything out. She’s very open.
The book in general though is very open, they talk about absolutely everything you can think of about Lennon and so much more, it makes you wonder how someone could have this much going on in their life. Especially a life that was tragically cut short.
If you only want to get one book, this is probably the one to get.
Small note: This book is the best one to get if you don’t know much about what was going on politically around these times. The book goes into detail about the current events as well, which is helpful.
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2. The John Lennon letters
This is simply a collection of letters John sent out to different people throughout his life.
Thankfully they were kept for this book, because these letters give a different type of insight into how Lennon thought and spoke to those he cared for.
There are 285 letters total, which show a very gentle side of Lennon.
These letters were very personal, and a lot of people find that them being published is wrong because of privacy issues. Honestly, that’s a whole subject that can be debated a ton of different ways. I feel however, that Lennon probably would’ve wanted people to read them if they got some good out of them. Lennon seemed to always want to make others around him happy. Then again, you never know.
This book will bring you on a roller coaster of emotions so be prepared. You will laugh, feel incredibly sad, and even angry reading these. I definitely recommend it. P.S. If you don’t feel like buying the book, you can find some letters online. They’re not annotated, but still pretty cool.
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3. John Lennon the collected artwork
I understand this is not directly a book about John Lennon’s life, but do hear me out on this one.
This particular book gives insight into his life by showing some of his artwork to Ono, artwork that he gave to her to profess his love. The whole book has tons of different incredible pieces, that are definitely worth framing and do in fact show his character in an unexpected way.
Some things to note about the book however, is that this does not actually include all his artwork (even though there is a ton of artwork in there) but this is actually a large coffee table style book, which is very cool. This is a better way to admire art in my opinion than if they had put the art in a normal sized hardcover or paperback.
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4. Can’t buy me love
This is probably the best book out there on the Beatles, and for this reason it’s a great read to get a different angle on the group.
A lot of the other books specifically about John Lennon will actually bash and be very biased against the rest of the Beatles. They’ll praise Lennon and acting as if he was basically all the group was.
This is honestly just ridiculous, but it’s definitely the angle that you’ll see in many of the biographies about John Lennon. So, this book gives a great unbiased look into Johns life while in the Beatles, it’s very well written and goes extremely in depth.
This book is also pretty funny and very enjoyable to read through, while at the same time giving tons of great information about the group and Lennon.
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5. “John” by Cynthia Lennon
This book almost reads as if his ex wife wrote it so she could give herself some therapy.
But, she did this in a positive way. You don’t find her bashing John at all. The story of her and John should really be the title, even though the book does tell about his early life and give insights to him.
This is honestly a guy wrenching book, you can tell she went through a lot of pain with this man.
In the end, the marriage between her and him probably was a complete mistake. It should’ve just never happened. Not one of those…………good while it lasted type situations. The perspective is very fresh coming from his first wife. Because of this it’s definitely very interesting and worth checking out.
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6. Lennon the man the myth the music
Man was this book tough. I actually picked this up at a book sale(highly recommend you check these out, you can find tons of great books for a dollar or even less sometimes).
It’s written by a guy who is simply a wordsmith. It’s actually pretty good, even though it’s hard to read, I haven’t gotten through all of it, but there’s not as much being written about Lennon as much as it’s a book about analyzing the man, his behavior, his lyrics and some of the things happening in the world because of his behavior.
It’s a good read, but it’s very different than most biographies out there that’s for sure. If I was to summarize, it’s that the book is more about what’s going on around Lennon than Lennon himself. Even though it is talking about him as well, just not as much.
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7. The last days of John Lennon: a personal memoir
This was written by johns personal assistant, and kind of seems to be trying to show a darker side of John.
You get to find out more about how John was interested in the occult, and how he over indulged in different things.
You find out about yokos battle with heroin, and the fights John and her had as a couple.
Honestly the book makes yoko out to not be a very great wife, and I honestly feel like seaman (the author and assistant) is really biased in this view. Other authors don’t bash her the way he seems to. Overly critical. Then again, that seems to be what he’s going for in the book, a critical view of Lennon and yoko.
Personally, I’d say he just doesn’t like Yoko because she did charge him with stealing Lennon’s diaries. (Which he served probation for but swears he is innocent). Anyways, if you’re looking for something a bit more critical of Lennon’s life, this is probably your best bet.
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