Music

The humorist asked his readers to share their least favorite tunes and chronicles the hilarious responses.

*Shortlisted for the PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay*Selected as a Book of the Year 2016 by the Financial Times, Guardian, New Statesman, Observer, The Millions and Emerald Street'Fl neuse [flanne-euhze], noun, from the French.

In Eminent Hipsters, musician and songwriter Donald Fagen, best known as the co-founder of the rock band Steely Dan, presents an autobiographical portrait that touches on everything from the cultural figures that mattered the most to him as a teenager, to his years in the late 1960s at Bard College, to a hilarious account of a recent tour he made with Boz Scaggs and Michael McDonald.

How do you make a song into a global smash hit that is guaranteed to make millions?

In this delightful sequel to her bestseller Tender at the Bone, the beloved food writer Ruth Reichl returns with more tales full of love, life, humour and marvellous meals.

'My music is the spiritual expression of what I am: my faith, my knowledge, my being.

The future of modern music began in Dusseldorf in 1970, when an avant-garde German band, the Organisation re-invented themselves as Kraftwerk and set in motion a train of events which introduced a whole new language into popular culture.

Despite many wanting him to fail, Piers Morgan took over from US TV legend Larry King at CNN in 2010 and went on to cover some of the most shocking news events in recent US history, such as the killing of Osama bin Laden, the devastation caused by Hurricane Sandy and horrific shooting rampages including the Newtown school massacre.

Since forming in 2007, JLS have achieved everything they'd hoped for and more.

You probably know Simon Napier-Bell as the manager of the Yardbirds.

Sunday Times BestsellerWith a brand new introduction for 2020.

Born in Moscow, Wladimir Kaminer emigrated to Berlin in the early '90s when he was 22.

Fast approaching his fortieth birthday, Andrew is cornered at a family gathering by the nine-year-old son of his brother-in-law's sister.

Mark Wallington has a dream.

The Vintage Collected Edition of Angela Carter's works continues with THE CURIOUS ROOM, which contains her dramatic writings, including several previously unpublished plays and screenplays.

London during the Blitz was a time of hardship, heroism and hope.

Nothing in the history of recording approaches Decca s mammoth venture in producing Wagner s Ring complete for the first time.

Yes, it was be there or be square as, clad in the slum chic of the hipster, he issued the slang anthems of the zip age in the desperate esperanto of the bop.

Alan Root is one of the great wildlife pioneers.

As heard on Radio 4 Book of the WeekLina Prokofiev was alone in her Moscow apartment one night when the telephone rang.

Every inch of Grayson's childhood bedroom was covered with pictures of aeroplanes, and every surface with models.

It s the late 1970s and 20-something Christopher Fowler is a film freak, obsessively watching lousy films in run-down fleapit cinemas.

The intimate - and surprising - autobiography of Britain's most adored bandPrepare to meet the real McFly In 2003, Tom Fletcher, Danny Jones, Harry Judd and Dougie Poynter came together and formed what would become one of the most popular and successful bands in the UK.

Katie Price: model, businesswoman, author and Celebrity Big Brother 2015 winner, tells all in this explosive autobiographyThe last three years of Katie Price's life have been as dramatic as ever.

The Number One Sunday Times BestsellerForty years after his death, Elvis Presley remains one of the world's most beloved and iconic figures.

When David Lines first heard This is the Modern World by The Jam, it sparked off a love affair that continues to this day.

In 2002, Just For The Record was the book that everyone was talking about.

** Shortlisted for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award **Fanatical about cricket since he was a boy, Miles Jupp would do anything to see his heroes play.

Corey Taylor has seen a lot of unbelievable things.

Known for his intelligent and often surreal humour, Paul Merton s weekly appearances on BBC1 s Have I Got News For You as well as Radio 4 s Just A Minute and his travel documentaries have seen him become an artfully rebellious fixture in our lives for over 25 years.

In 2010, Alan Rusbridger, the editor of the Guardian, set himself an almost impossible task: to learn, in the space of a year, Chopin s Ballade No.

When Fred Dibnah debuted on television in 1979, British audiences immediately embraced a new cultural icon: a steeplejack from Bolton who fell in love with England's decaying industrial landscape and an exhaustive storyteller whose charm and wit was matched only by his down-to-earth manner.

For the kings and queens of England, a trumpet fanfare or crash of cymbals could be as vital a weapon as a cannon.

Bob Dylan.

SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2012 WELLCOME TRUST BOOK PRIZEHow do you lose music?

There is and could only ever be one Billy Bob Thornton: actor, musician, Academy Award-winning screenwriter, and accidental Hollywood badass.

In June 1994, Michael Barrymore, television celebrity and gameshow host, checked himself out of an American clinic where he was receiving treatment for alcohol and drug abuse.

THE #1 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER'Ridiculously funny and astonishingly candid, Rod Stewart's memoir is the rock autobiography of the decade' DAILY MAIL'One of the most entertaining, revealing, captivating books of the year' INDEPENDENT___________________________________________Rod Stewart was born the working-class son of a Scottish plumber in North London.

A marvellously funny and sharply observed account of a journey to Russia by one of Britain's most talented young writers.

The reigning queen of Albert Square, Laila Morse shares her incredible story for the first time.

Dave Thompson, author of Virgin's acclaimed Red Hot Chili Peppers biography, takes a new and very detailed look at the creation of one of the world's most influential bands.

Chelsea Handler is a woman on a mission.

There are model agents and there is Carole White Every decade in Carole White s life has been extraordinary, from her childhood in Colonial Ghana, her rebellious teenage years and own modelling career, to spending 30 years at the helm of her iconic London agency Premier.

Have you ever been stitched up to the national press by your best mate?

No other city in the world is as well known or loved for its vibrant and definitive musical history as Liverpool.

The Sunday Times bestseller.

A first of its kind collection, How to Rap is an insightful and intelligent breakdown of the elements of rap for anyone wanting to learn the art form or understand the principles behind it.

Ambitious and groundbreaking, Electric Shock tells the story of popular music, from the birth of recording in the 1890s to the digital age, from the first pop superstars of the twentieth century to the omnipresence of music in our lives, in hit singles, ringtones and on Spotify.

*** Accompanies BBC2's major new TV series and The Story of Music in 50 Pieces on Radio 3 *** In his dynamic tour through 40,000 years of music, from prehistoric instruments to modern-day pop, Howard Goodall leads us through the story of music as it happened, idea by idea, so that each musical innovation harmony, notation, sung theatre, the orchestra, dance music, recording, broadcasting strikes us with its original force.

Through nigh-on forty years of laconic brilliance on Radio 1, a musical taste which defined a culture and his wildly popular Radio 4 show, Home Truths, John Peel reached out to an audience that was as diverse as his record collection.