@zinniabooklover - as a fellow book lover, have you ever read any book MJ was spotted with or recommended?
One of Michael's fave books was Jonathan Livingstone Seagull which came out in the 70's. It was dead popular, I couldn't be doing with it. Last year I bought it and finally read it. I can see why Michael liked it. I didn't love it, too whimsical for me, but it is sweet and quite emotional and there are proper life lessons in there. The
experience of reading it was lovely, kind of felt like being connected to Michael for a little while. Different than being connected via his music - that did feel nice. There is a French academic called Isabelle PetitJean who now owns Michael's first edition of JLS. There is a lovely little segment with her in a French fan-made documentary about Michael's dancing. She shows the book onscreen and you can see Michael's notations in the margin. It's also nice looking at those beautuful Michael photos by Dilip Mehta bc a couple of them seem to link into his love of that book. So that's wonderful.
I believe he read The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene. I've dipped in and out of that over the years. Not really my thing but, again, I can see why Michael would be intrigued by it.
Then there is To Kill A Mockingbird which I believe he leaned on quite heavily during the trial which makes sense. I can't stand the book myself. We did it at school, I've tried to read it since, can't do it. But, if you haven't read the book, it makes sense to give it a go while bearing in mind what Michael went through. There is a thread here on the board comparing Michael to Boo Radley.
Okay, so it probably sounds random, but I recently read the book in school. I thought of Michael the entire time. :( I mean, Boo is judged by Scout and Jem in the beginning (and the rest of Maycomb). Although he is the object of their cruel judgements, he still loves them as his own children...
www.mjjcommunity.com
I might have read Peter Pan when I was a kid. Or maybe I didn't, lol. It doesn't really grab my imagination. I did see the play and quite liked that but was quite content to not take it any further.
I've seen photos of books allegedly from his library, books on African American history and Black politics that look amazing - I'm more into non-fiction than fiction. I would love to read some of those.
There used to be a little blog where someone went through the list of some of Michael's fave books and she did a little synopsis of each book. Now I cannot find the thing!
I did find this although this is not the one I found before. I can't vouch for this, haven't read it in full, just took a quick glance:
<p>On the fifth anniversary of his death, we take a look at the King of Pop’s collection of books.</p>
airshipdaily.com
There is also this Goodreads list, supposedly his top faves:
98 books based on 3 votes: The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway, The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein, Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie, Jonathan Livingsto...
www.goodreads.com
No idea how accurate that list is although I do recognise quite a few of the titles from other lists I've seen plus those photos from his library.
Here's another link:
“I love to read. I wish I could advise more people to read. There’s a whole new world in books. If you can’t afford to travel, you travel…
medium.com
What else? Emerson I really like. I believe Michael liked the poetry of Rumi which I do, too. Also, Rabindranath Tagore. I've never read Tagore properly, just random jumping around like a mad flea. Here is one of his famous quotes which I think is very Michael - ish ...
There's various other lists online which you can find easily - which isn't what you asked for but I am now losing the plot, lol. Most of the classic self-help books that Michael read, I've read them back in the day but nothing that I loved. I think the history and politics books he had would be more my thing.
This post is a figment of your imagination! I'm supposed to be offline today, lol. It's going well, as you can see.