Bob Dylan-"Chronicles: Volume One"
Simon & Schuster
September 13, 2005

I saw this autobiography at Borders and decided to read a few pages to see if I liked it. The next thing I knew, I had read the entire first chapters and was in line to purchase it. Dylan's style of writing prevents any page from becoming boring, giving insight to the man that (whether he wanted to or not) became the voice of a generation that was dying to hear what he had to say next, and his personal stories and antecdotes are outstanding.

A few portions of Dylan's life are covered here, including his arrival in New York City with the intentions of meeting his hero, Woody Guthrie, his time in Minnesota which led to him discovering Guthrie, his recording of Oh Mercy in New Orleans, and what led to him recording his first album for Columbia Records. Each chapter Dylan writes takes the reader on an extraordinary journey, mixing many other shorter stories and, at times, being all over the timeline. Dylan would go off on tangents, telling one or two other antecdotes before returning to his original thought. This became bothersome at times, especially when I became really interested in what he was saying, but I got used to it and actually started to enjoy it as the pages turned.

Dylan paints himself as a genuine figure, someone who didn't expect to become what he did, and had trouble dealing with people hanging on his every word and interested in his every action. He became trapped in his fame, which hurt both his psyche and creative process for a time. Everything is written in such vivid detail, giving every word on the page a special meaning in regards to this legendary artist.