The Never Ending Pool

.
...not including Chronicles.

Limit your list to five or less.

In no particular order:

1. Bob Dylan in America - Sean Wilentz
2. Bob Dylan - The Essential Interviews - ed. by Jonathan Cott
3. The Songs He Didn't Write - Derek Barker
4. Million Dollar Bash - Sid Griffin
5. Wanted Man - ed. by John Bauldie

Joan Baez's autobiography, And A Voice to Sing With, also offers some good insights into Bob.

Any and all of the books by Paul Williams are essential

The Old, Weird America / Greil Marcus
On The Road With Bob Dylan / Larry Sloman
Dylan (Visions, Portraits and Back Pages) / MOJO
Performing Artist Vol 1 & 2 / Paul Williams
Watching The River Flow / Paul Williams

For German readers:
Bob Dylan / Detering

In addition to the others already mentioned I'd recommend
Rolling Thunder Logbook - by Sam Shepard
No Direction Home - by Robert Shelton
Song and Dance Man III - by Michael Gray
Like a Rolling Stone: Dylan at the Crossroads - by Greil Marcus

H.

most are packed away right now, so by memory....

A Retrospective, by McGregor (http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2126976,)Bob_Dylan_A_Retrospective, collection of different printed articles on Bob in the 60's. Couple that with Scaduto' 'Bob Dylan: Biography' (up to JWH at least)...http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/132054.Bob_Dylan and you get a nice '60's summary.

Each one of Michael Gray's 'Song and Dance Man' from the mesmerizing first one through to the epic third.
(Song & Dance Man: The Art Of Bob Dylan (1972, 1973); The Art Of Bob Dylan: Song & Dance Man (1981, 1982);
Song & Dance Man III: The Art of Bob Dylan. Continuum. 1999, 2000. ISBN 0-8264-5150-0)

Always fun to pick up Paul William's 'Performing Artist' series and listen to the concerts he writes about.

Best Heylin, for me, was a little small collection of Bob's preacher rants in the born again days (http://www.taxhelp.com/heylin-saved.html) and for actual writing you can't beat his contributions in the Telegraph fanzine edited by the late and much lamented John Bauldie, and collected partly in 'Wanted Man' http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/417926.Wanted_Man and in 'All Along the Telegraph' co-edited by Bauldie and Gray, which is just as great, http://eil.com/products/Bob+Dylan/All+Across+the+Telegraph+-+A+Bob+Dylan+Handbook/Bob+Dylan+All+Across+the+Telegraph+-+A+Bob+Dylan+Handbook%20550643.html. On his own, Heylin seems to 'reach' too far for my liking...better in small doses.

Not much to say about Marcus, and I wish I could have got into Rick's, but so much pretension sinks them both, methinks.

A new Cezanne book looks to be an essential Bob read; so I've added it to the list. Should be interesting:

"Great art is as much the harvest of what came before—angles off precedents, bends in common practice—as individual endowment."


Cézanne: A Life
Author:Alex Danche
http://www.weeklystandard.com/articles/postmodern-c-zanne_665182.html?nopager=1

Good one Chimes.

Cezanne is one of my favorites.
And one of Bob's.

I'd have to suggest reading Suze Rotolo's memoir.
A Free Wheelin' Time.

I think it's amazing that after all the years that passed.
Their voices still seemed so "Simpatico", in terms of their
writing style. It's a good fast read.

May her spirit soar.