Your MJ Book Collections?

Moviefan2k4

Proud Member
Joined
Oct 28, 2013
Messages
449
Points
43
Location
Montgomery, TX
I tried searching for a thread about this before posting, and no luck. So, here's my collection so far, with my faves probably being Michael Jackson Conspiracy and My Friend Michael. Which books are your favorites about Michael, and why?

2415a31006520254.jpg
 
I've only ever been interested in Dancing the Dream and Moonwalk. Most of the others honestly make me sick. 'My Friend Michael' is such a spit in the face.

The Michael Jackson Conspiracy is a good book though, I believe that was published while he was alive and made genuine effort to inform people of the truth. Most of the others are just capitalistic attempts of making a few pennies on their 'friend'.
 
I think many people dismiss My Friend Michael, just because it was written by Frank Cascio. They tend to forget it was his brother Eddie who worked with the disputed tracks from the Michael album. Frank even details his own falling out with Eddie, and how it impacted his friendship with Michael, toward the end of the book. Overall, I found it to be refreshingly honest, instead of a trash piece or mindless fluff. I agree there's many terrible works out there, but I do my best to find the most objective ones.
 
I've the following MJ books. Also I give my brief review of each book.

1) Michael Jackson Conspiracy by Aphrodite Jones- A great book that describes the 2003 allegations in great detail. A must for every fan and for every hater who believes in the allegations.

2) Moonwalk- Michael in his own words. The best Michael Jackson book.

3) The Magic, The Madness, The Whole Story by Randy Taraborrelli- Pure garbage. Nothing but tabloid sensationalism.

4) Xscape Origins by Damien Shields- Great book written by a fan. It offers great insight into every song that ended up on the Xscape album. A must for every fan.

5) Man In The Music by Joseph Vogel- A good book but don't offer as much insight on creation of songs/albums as I was hoping for. Still a solid book.

6) You Are Not Alone by Jermaine Jackson- A good book from a perspective of a brother. But it doesn't add anything new.

7) Defending a King, His Life & Legacy by Karen Moriarity- Honestly the best MJ book that isn't written by MJ himself. The book goes into detail on Michael's final years and where he lived and how he lived his life. It gives great insight into MJ, the man and not MJ, the entertainer. It humanizes Michael in a way. A must read for every fan.

So these are all the MJ books in my collection for now. I would like to buy Redemption and Dancing the Dream next. I wanted to buy My Friend by Frank Cascio but after the whole Cascio songs saga, I ain't buying that garbage.
 
I've the following MJ books. Also I give my brief review of each book.

1) Michael Jackson Conspiracy by Aphrodite Jones- A great book that describes the 2003 allegations in great detail. A must for every fan and for every hater who believes in the allegations.

2) Moonwalk- Michael in his own words. The best Michael Jackson book.

3) The Magic, The Madness, The Whole Story by Randy Taraborrelli- Pure garbage. Nothing but tabloid sensationalism.

4) Xscape Origins by Damien Shields- Great book written by a fan. It offers great insight into every song that ended up on the Xscape album. A must for every fan.

5) Man In The Music by Joseph Vogel- A good book but don't offer as much insight on creation of songs/albums as I was hoping for. Still a solid book.

6) You Are Not Alone by Jermaine Jackson- A good book from a perspective of a brother. But it doesn't add anything new.

7) Defending a King, His Life & Legacy by Karen Moriarity- Honestly the best MJ book that isn't written by MJ himself. The book goes into detail on Michael's final years and where he lived and how he lived his life. It gives great insight into MJ, the man and not MJ, the entertainer. It humanizes Michael in a way. A must read for every fan.

So these are all the MJ books in my collection for now. I would like to buy Redemption and Dancing the Dream next. I wanted to buy My Friend by Frank Cascio but after the whole Cascio songs saga, I ain't buying that garbage.

Number 7 - who is she? Just sounds like a woman who decided to defend MJ after he died and make a book about it. How on earth would she know anything about how he lived or who he was as a person?

It's a good thing she's defending MJ but just wondering who she is and how she'd know that sort of stuff.
 
I think many people dismiss My Friend Michael, just because it was written by Frank Cascio. They tend to forget it was his brother Eddie who worked with the disputed tracks from the Michael album. Frank even details his own falling out with Eddie, and how it impacted his friendship with Michael, toward the end of the book. Overall, I found it to be refreshingly honest, instead of a trash piece or mindless fluff. I agree there's many terrible works out there, but I do my best to find the most objective ones.


Was Frank Cascio on Oprah in 2010? I believe he was. Therefore, I couldn't support the book and don't see how anyone could. I've read parts of it and he makes himself the centre of every story - he said he saved MJ from YRMW disaster for example
 
Was Frank Cascio on Oprah in 2010? I believe he was. Therefore, I couldn't support the book and don't see how anyone could. I've read parts of it and he makes himself the centre of every story - he said he saved MJ from YRMW disaster for example
Yes, Frank was on stage with his family (including Eddie) on Oprah Winfrey's TV show...but that doesn't mean his writing is automatically false. For one thing, I don't see why Frank would have any motive to lie; he and his family kept their secret about befriending Michael for over 20 years. Any one of them could have spilled the beans during that time frame, but no one did. The family only got into trouble when Eddie & James Porte included three debatable songs on the Michael album...which is a completely separate situation from Frank's friendship with Michael over the years. As for making himself the center of the story, that's only natural - he was writing of those events from the way he experienced them. I haven't read the book in about 3 years, so I can't comment on "You Rock My World"...but I do recall David Gest having to drag Michael out of bed for the 30th-anniversary special in 2001. That was detailed in his documentary Life of an Icon.
 
My favorites are Moonwalk and Dancing the Dream. They tell you all you need to know about Michael really. I also have (some in physical form and some are ebooks)

Michael Jackson's Dangerous by Susan Fast
Life Commerorative
The Rolling Stone book (plan on getting rid of it)
The Opus
Michael Jackson Treasures
M Poetica by Willa Stillwater
The King of Style by Michael Bush
Man in the Music by Joe Vogel
Behind the Mask by Craig James Baxter
For The Record
Michael Jackson Conspiracy
The Taraborrelli book (yeah I know)
Before He Was King by Todd Gray

I think I've had my fill of Michael Jackson books though. Not much interests me anymore. Maybe if they wrote a book about his charity work.
 
I tried searching for a thread about this before posting, and no luck. So, here's my collection so far, with my faves probably being Michael Jackson Conspiracy and My Friend Michael. Which books are your favorites about Michael, and why?

2415a31006520254.jpg

I saw this same post on the Blu-ray forums!
 
I can't remember all of the MJ books that I have. Since I don't even bother looking at them anymore. Or any of my other MJ collection. My depression is bad enough without looking at my MJ collection. Any way here are some that I still consider my favorites.

Dancing The Dream
The Moonwalk
Moonwalker (This is just the book version of the movie.)
For The Record
Opus (I am so very glad I got this book when I did.)
Michael Jackson Treasures
Michael Jackson Platinum Edition Collector's Vault
 
Moonwalk
Remember the Time: Protecting Michael Jackson in His Final Days
The King of Style: Dressing Michael Jackson
Man in the Music
Program books for both Cirque shows
A bunch of magazines from after he passed on. I can't recall the exact ones but I can recall that many of them are sensationalized, biased bullshit. I actually kind of feel ashamed for owning some of these now. >.
 
Moonwalk
Dancing The Dream
Xscape Origins
Remember The Time
For The Record
The Maestro Vol 1 and 2
Making Michael
All The Top 40 Hits
The Making of Thriller
Man In The Music
Michael Jackson Treasures
 
I've read below books

1. Michael Jackson Conspiracy - by Aphrodite Jones , Great book, I love it . It's with real facts from court transcripts and it gives real justice to Michael in his innocence during 2003 Trial.

2. Moonwalk- The best Michael Jackson book as it has been written on his own words.

3. Remeber the time: Defending Michael Jackson in his Final days - by his personal body guards - It's an intersteing reading.

4.My Freind Michael - by Frank Cascio , Again it's an interesting reading

5. Michael Jackson: Songs & Stories from the vault -By Damien Shields- Great book and can guarantee on the facts in it as it discloses all the sources and it has written after interviewing the real Mucians, Engineers, producers etc who have worked with michael. It really helps to understand the creative process of Michael and how he dealts and raise the bar for fellow workers while working with them and what a musical genius he was.

My next book in line to read will be " Redemption" & "Dancing the dream"
 
Redemption is a tough one to read, because the author keeps using long phrases instead of proper names. For example, Jordan Chandler is rarely mentioned properly, instead described as "the boy who accused Michael Jackson". It gets old after the first couple of times. Also, the first couple of chapters are mostly dedicated to the work environment of Geraldine Hughes (she was a secretary for one of the main conspirators in Evan Chandler's goal to extort Michael).
 
Hey, everyone. I know its been a long time since my last post here, but to be honest I'd forgotten all about it (had a ton of real-life concerns going on). I haven't bought any more Michael Jackson books recently, or any others for that matter - its become very difficult for me to slow my mind down, so I can actually enjoy a book. I've still kept my collection though, fully intending to finish them one day.
 
I don’t have any collection as I’m a minimalist. I have read a lot of them though (probably too many).
the only one I own today is nelson george’s original ‘the michael jackson story’ from 1983💜the uk edition, with the still image from the ‘billie jean’ short film.
 
Ive got a few mj books but the one i really want is the opus
 
Ive got a few mj books but the one i really want is the opus
I'd love to have a copy of the Opus, but they initially only made a limited number of them, and when it first came out it was very expensive. Now, the price has become completely insane, so I don't know if I'll ever be able to own one.
 
From the picture from above, I have Moonwalk, The Magic The Madness, The Whole Story, and the Man In The Music. I way more but no the ones shown in the pic
 
Moonwalk
Dancing the Dream
The Michael Jackson Tapes
For the Record
Redemption
On Michael Jackson (Margo Jefferson)
 
ohhh interesting!!
To be honest, I'm shocked that no one here has the book. Most have Moonwalk, which was written by a ghostwriter, but they don't have The Michael Jackson Tapes. Understand that whoever wants.
 
To be honest, I'm shocked that no one here has the book. Most have Moonwalk, which was written by a ghostwriter, but they don't have The Michael Jackson Tapes. Understand that whoever wants.
I found it [MJ Tapes] on amazon for 15 bucks. Also I thought Moonwalk was written by Michael but then tweaked by some else in '09..
 
I never really heard about this book what is it?
To be honest, I'm shocked that no one here has the book. Most have Moonwalk, which was written by a ghostwriter, but they don't have The Michael Jackson Tapes. [...]
Problem is, Rabbi Shumley Boteach is a controversial figure. Some people feel that he exploited his connection with Michael. I haven't read either of his MJ books so I can't speak with any authority on this. I've read lots of comments over the years saying that if you read Michael's comments used in The Michael Jackson Tapes and ignore the stuff written by Rabbi Boteach you'll mostly be OK. But the consensus seems to be that you'd be well advised to skip anything written by Boteach. @Hot_Street, I don't know what you think of this. Presumably you've read the whole thing?

I'm not criticising anyone who has bought or read the Boteach books. Some people are comfortable reading these books, others prefer to avoid them. I've heard a few fragments from the MJ tapes but don't have any interest in reading the books. 🤷🏽‍♀️
 
I found it [MJ Tapes] on amazon for 15 bucks. Also I thought Moonwalk was written by Michael but then tweaked by some else in '09..
What are you memories of working on Moon Walk?
I was in California, and I was working on a book with Fleetwood Mac at the time. And my agent called me up and said that Jacqueline Kennedy Onasis had hired Michael Jackson to write his autobiography and was having trouble — they’d assigned a couple of writers already, and Michael either didn’t like them or, well, I don’t know what happened. I was the third writer on the project. And I had some of their previous transcripts, and they weren’t very good. And I’d been interviewing Mick Fleetwood a lot and living with my family in Malibu and they said, “Well, we’d like you to go over and have an audience with Michael Jackson and see if he likes you, and the deadline is approaching.” So I went there to his house in Encino, California. And the zoo was there, and the candy store and all this stuff.
 
Problem is, Rabbi Shumley Boteach is a controversial figure. Some people feel that he exploited his connection with Michael. I haven't read either of his MJ books so I can't speak with any authority on this. I've read lots of comments over the years saying that if you read Michael's comments used in The Michael Jackson Tapes and ignore the stuff written by Rabbi Boteach you'll mostly be OK. But the consensus seems to be that you'd be well advised to skip anything written by Boteach. @Hot_Street, I don't know what you think of this. Presumably you've read the whole thing?

I'm not criticising anyone who has bought or read the Boteach books. Some people are comfortable reading these books, others prefer to avoid them. I've heard a few fragments from the MJ tapes but don't have any interest in reading the books. 🤷🏽‍♀️
who cares about Shmuley? This book is Michael in his own words.
 
Back
Top