In 2015, I was thinking of writing a book. I told a friend this and he asked, “What’s it going to be about? The Beatles?”  I responded snarkily, “Yeah, because a thousand of them aren’t enough. The world needs another book about The Beatles.”  You can be snarky and true at the same time. It’s hard to find an exact number, but I’ve seen an estimated 2,000 to 10,000 Beatles-related books. If you Google the topic, you’ll find sixty-seven MILLION hits.

Yeah, there’s a lot of print about John, Paul, George and Ringo. And they pretty much cover the same thing. It’s hard to find anything new about them. That’s why whenever I see a new Beatles book, I usually run in the opposite direction.

But, then I saw the book in the photo up top.

I’m a voracious reader. I have tons of free time. Reading is an excellent way to fill it. I usually read a book a week. I’m looking for entertainment more than information so it’s almost always fiction. I tend to read a lot of legal and cop thrillers. James Patterson writes a lot in my favored genres, so I’ve read a lot of his books. When I see that he’s written a Beatles book about the death of John Lennon, I’m at least somewhat intrigued.

Based on the title, “The Last Days of John Lennon, I assumed it would be three hundred or so pages about his final week/month leading up to his death. I assumed it wouldn’t rehash the history of the band from the beginning through the end of The Beatles then, and their solo careers. I assumed that this would be different from the other thousands of  Beatles books. Well….you know what happens when you assume.

For every short chapter about the actual title of the book, there are longer ones about how The Beatles met, formed a band, came to America and so on and so on and so on. Man, talk about false advertising! No wonder it took me three weeks to finish this book.

In conclusion, James Patterson…maybe you should go back to writing fiction about Alex Cross, Michael Bennett and the Women’s Murder Club? I’ll be happy to read those! As for my reading choices, next time I see a new book about The Beatles, I’ll follow my instincts and give it a pass. We’ll both be better off.

Related Post: Peter Asher’s “The Beatles from A to Zed”- It could have been so much more

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