Why am I passionate about this?

I’m an Australian author, staring down the barrel of middle age. I’ve been writing about music for the past 30 years. I’ve written 25 books; my subjects have included Keith Urban, the Bee Gees, Angus and Malcolm Young, Daniel Johns of Silverchair, among others. During my career, I’ve also had interesting encounters with such legends as Aretha Franklin, Patti Smith, Bob Dylan and Helen Reddy. I live (currently in lockdown, yet again) with my very tolerant wife, my two children, and a house full of animals. (Real animals, that is, not the kids.)


I wrote

Bad Boy Boogie: The true story of AC / DC legend Bon Scott

By Jeff Apter,

Book cover of Bad Boy Boogie: The true story of AC / DC legend Bon Scott

What is my book about?

You’re not a fully-fledged music writer in Australia until you’ve had a crack at the Bon Scott story. Bon was…

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The books I picked & why

Book cover of No One Here Gets Out Alive

Jeff Apter Why did I love this book?

This was the book that inspired me to start writing. It’s a page-turning bio of the short life and very fast times of Jim Morrison from The Doors, and it made me realise you could write about music without resembling some giddy fanboy — Morrison comes off as a rock and roll poet and a drunken bozo. It rates with the best biographies I’ve read, regardless of topic or genre.

By Jerry Hopkins, Danny Sugerman,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked No One Here Gets Out Alive as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A portrait of Jim Morrison is based on seven years of research and tells the story behind his musical genius, worship of darkness, rejection of all forms of authority, and tragic death when his life spun out of control. Reissue.


Book cover of On the Road with Bob Dylan

Jeff Apter Why did I love this book?

For me, it’s the ultimate snapshot of what it’s really like to be a writer on the road with a band (in this instance Bob Dylan’s remarkable Rolling Thunder Revue of 1975). Sloman documents it all: the editorial pressures, the hassles of trying to gain access to Dylan, the egos, the enablers, the claustrophobic hotel rooms, wacky ole’ Alan Ginsberg — and the exhilaration of seeing a legend, on a creative high, from close range, night after night. Not a bad gig, all things considered.

By Larry Sloman,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked On the Road with Bob Dylan as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Hailed as “the War and Peace of rock and roll” by Bob Dylan himself, this is the ultimate backstage pass to Dylan’s legendary 1975 tour across America—by a former Rolling Stone reporter prominently featured in Martin Scorsese’s Netflix documentary Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story.
 
In 1975, as Bob Dylan emerged from eight years of seclusion, he dreamed of putting together a traveling music show that would trek across the country like a psychedelic carnival. The dream became reality, and On the Road with Bob Dylan is the behind-the-scenes look at what happened when Dylan and the Rolling Thunder…


Book cover of Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung: The Work of a Legendary Critic: Rock'n'roll as Literature and Literature as Rock 'n'roll

Jeff Apter Why did I love this book?

Lester Bangs was a great writer: funny, erudite, fearless — to be honest, he was probably slumming it writing about rock and roll in the 1970s. But his one-on-ones with Lou Reed, who Bangs revered and despised in equal proportions, make for some of the best rock writing of Bangs’, or any other, generation.

By Lester Bangs,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Until his death aged thirty-three in 1982, Lester Bangs wrote wired, rock 'n' roll pieces on Iggy Pop, The Clash, John Lennon, Kraftwerk, Lou Reed. As a rock critic, he had an eagle-eye for distinguishing the pre-packaged imitation from the real thing; written in a conversational, wisecracking, erotically charged style, his hallucinatory hagiographies and excoriating take-downs reveal an iconoclast unafraid to tell it like it is. To his journalism he brought the talent of a great a renegade Beat poet, and his essays, reviews and scattered notes convey the electric thrill of a music junky indulging the habit of a…


Book cover of The Mansion on the Hill: Dylan, Young, Geffen, Springsteen, and the Head-On Collision of Rock and Commerce

Jeff Apter Why did I love this book?

It’s a real insider’s view of what it took to make turn such artists as Bob Dylan, Neil Young, and Bruce Springsteen into money-spinning superstars. Interestingly, some of the back-room kingmakers — Albert Grossman, David Geffen, and the rest of them — prove to be just as interesting and complicated as the music makers they represented.

By Fred Goodman,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Mansion on the Hill as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

In 1964, on the brink of the British Invasion, the music business in America shunned rock and roll. There was no rock press, no such thing as artist management -- literally no rock-and-roll business. Today the industry will gross over $20 billion. How did this change happen?

From the moment Pete Seeger tried to cut the power at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival debut of Bob Dylan's electric band, rock's cultural influence and business potential have been grasped by a rare assortment of ambitious and farsighted musicians and businessmen. Jon Landau took calls from legendary producer Jerry Wexler in his…


Book cover of Dirty Deeds: My Life Inside/Outside of AC/DC

Jeff Apter Why did I love this book?

Mark Evans was the bassist for AC/DC and played on such classics as ‘Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap’ and ‘Long Way to the Top’. He was a resident of the ‘Prahran Hilton’ — a public housing estate in Melbourne — when he joined the band, and within a year he was in London mixing it up with Ozzy Osbourne (‘the plumber of darkness’), Marc Bolan, the Sex Pistols and the rest of them. This is a real boy’s own, working-class, rock and roll adventure.

By Mark Evans,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Dirty Deeds as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Mark Evans joined AC/DC in 1975, at only nineteen years old, when they were one of the hardest working and loudest rock bands in Australia. In the next few years AC/DC recorded four bestselling albums, and Mark found himself headlining world tours and living the life of a bonafide rock star. His memoir, Dirty Deeds: My Life Inside and Outside of AC/DC, is the first book written by an AC/DC insider, giving fans insight into the life of not only Evans, but also singer Bon Scott, who died tragically in 1980. Rock and roll icons like George Harrison, Gene Simmons,…


Explore my book 😀

Bad Boy Boogie: The true story of AC / DC legend Bon Scott

By Jeff Apter,

Book cover of Bad Boy Boogie: The true story of AC / DC legend Bon Scott

What is my book about?

You’re not a fully-fledged music writer in Australia until you’ve had a crack at the Bon Scott story. Bon was the swaggering, hairy-chested frontman of rock legends AC/DC, and he died in 1980, just as the band was about to explode internationally. It may sound like a tragedy, and ultimately it is, but Bon squeezed more living into his 33 years than most of us will manage in our allotted three score and ten. When once asked if he was AC or DC, Bon smiled and replied: ‘Neither. I’m the lightning flash in the middle.’

You can buy this book only in Australia currently

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Tap Dancing on Everest: A Young Doctor's Unlikely Adventure

By Mimi Zieman,

Book cover of Tap Dancing on Everest: A Young Doctor's Unlikely Adventure

Mimi Zieman Author Of Tap Dancing on Everest: A Young Doctor's Unlikely Adventure

New book alert!

Why am I passionate about this?

I’m an OB/GYN, passionate about adventuring beyond what’s expected. This has led me to pivot multiple times in my career, now focusing on writing. I’ve written a play, The Post-Roe Monologues, to elevate women’s stories. I cherish the curiosity that drives outer and inner exploration, and I love memoirs that skillfully weave the two. The books on this list feature extraordinary women who took risks, left comfort and safety, and battled vulnerability to step into the unknown. These authors moved beyond the stories they’d believed about themselves–or that others told about them. They invite you to think about living fuller and bigger lives. 

Mimi's book list on women exploring the world and self

What is my book about?

Tap Dancing on Everest, part coming-of-age memoir, part true-survival adventure story, is about a young medical student, the daughter of a Holocaust survivor raised in N.Y.C., who battles self-doubt to serve as the doctor—and only woman—on a remote Everest climb in Tibet.

The team attempts a new route up the East Face without the use of supplemental oxygen, Sherpa support, or chance for rescue. When three climbers disappear during their summit attempt, Zieman reaches the knife edge of her limits and digs deeply to fight for the climbers’ lives and to find her voice.


Tap Dancing on Everest: A Young Doctor's Unlikely Adventure

By Mimi Zieman,

What is this book about?

The plan was outrageous: A small team of four climbers would attempt a new route on the East Face of Mt. Everest, considered the most remote and dangerous side of the mountain, which had only been successfully climbed once before. Unlike the first large team, Mimi Zieman and her team would climb without using supplemental oxygen or porter support. While the unpredictable weather and high altitude of 29,035 feet make climbing Everest perilous in any condition, attempting a new route, with no idea of what obstacles lay ahead, was especially audacious. Team members were expected to push themselves to their…


5 book lists we think you will like!

Interested in rock music, rock and roll, and Bob Dylan?

Rock Music 242 books
Rock And Roll 78 books
Bob Dylan 38 books