Binge reading

I've spent the weekend switching between Jay Z's Decoded and Steve Martin's Object of Beauty. They don't have a terrible lot on common in terms of tone and subject matter but they're both easy reads are beautifully designed; Jay Z's is a full colour scrapbook and Steve's includes reproductions of art works connected to the story.

I'm not a huge Jay Z fan and this book sums up the reason why quiet nicely, he just takes himself so damn seriously. If there is any humour in it at all it's lost on me. In short staccato sentences he takes credit for a whole lot of things, (including getting Bono to go back in to the studio to perfect U2's last album) and then there's just an awful lot of name dropping and pages and pages of lyrics and personal photos. I know it's been a hard knock life and all but the ego in this just KILLS me. It's one for the die hard fans only (I preferred Robbie William's picture book at least it was self deprecating and fun, but then I guess that's the difference between pop and rap). I'm reading it for work so I'll persevere and hope that it grows on me. Steve's book seems good so far. I'll write  a proper review when it's over.