John Lennon

I am reading a massive biography on John Lennon's life.

Wait, what? Are you kidding me?

I have read so many books on The Beatles as a group and individually you would think my appetite would be sated.

I thought so myself.

The book is titled "Lennon: The Man, The Myth, The Music - The Definitive Life", by Tim Riley.

It was written in 2011. I have had the book for a year or more. Walking by it, staring at it, putting off reading it.

Because I thought it would be more of the same, and one thing I despise, cannot tolerate, is being bored when I read.

Even though I did my homework. I don't just run right out and buy every Beatles retrospective. Everything I read said the book had more to offer, that it was above and beyond.

All true. I have read details I never read before. There are even pictures in the book I have never seen before.

Tim Riley is an NPR music critic. Described as "the eminent NPR critic."

How can you go wrong?

The book seems to be feeding into my mood right now. The perfect book for the perfect moment.

It is so well written that there has been excitement building in me as if I had been transported back to the early sixties and were witnessing the birth of The Beatles.

From the formulation of the group through the early reputation building gigs in and around Liverpool to the wild and crazy Hamburg days and back to their triumphant domination of The Cavern Club in Liverpool.

I am over 200 pages in, and they haven't even made it to America yet.

My impression is that the book was objectively written. Riley speaks highly of Lennon; he also reveals nastier sides of John's personality.

But he dives deeply into John's life and background and tries to find explanations for his multifaceted personality.

I am raw emotionally now. I have also always been emotionally tied up in the history of The Beatles.

You know that. I have babbled incessantly about them over the years.

I won't belabor the point.

The Beatles had an enormous impact on my life and still inspire promise and hope in me.

Reading this book is making me nostalgic. Reading this book is giving me hope.

Coming up on 51 years after The Beatles appearance on The Ed Sullivan show. And John Lennon is still instigating for me to get up off me arse and do something.

I appreciate the perseverance.