The public library is a great equaliser.” He has declared: “When you are growing up there are two institutional places that affect you most powerfully: the church, which belongs to God, and the public library, which belongs to you. In his autobiography, Life, due to be published in October, Richards will reveal how, as a child growing up in the post-war-austerity of 1950s London, he found refuge in books before he discovered the blues. And, like the Queen at Balmoral, he leaves favoured books by the bedside for guests staying at Redlands, his moated Elizabethan farmhouse near West Wittering in West Sussex and in Weston, Connecticut. Richards has also acted as a public library, lending out copies of the latest Bernard Cornwell or Len Deighton novels to friends without much hope of getting them back. The guitarist started to arrange the volumes, including rare histories of early American rock music and the second world war, by the librarian’s standard Dewey Decimal classification system but gave up on that as “too much hassle.” He has opted instead for keeping favoured volumes close to hand and the rest languishing on dusty shelves. He has received a reported advance of $7.3m (£4.8m) for it. He has even considered “professional training” to manage thousands of books at his homes in Sussex and Connecticut, according to publishing sources familiar with the outline of Richards’s autobiography, which is due out this autumn. After decades spent partying in a haze of alcohol and drugs, Richards will tell in his forthcoming autobiography that he has been quietly nurturing his inner bookworm. SHHH! Keith Richards, the grizzled veteran of rock’n’roll excess, has confessed to a secret longing: to be a librarian. It’s only books ’n’ shelves but I like it Publisher: Little, Brown and Company (October 26, 2010) Keith Richard brings us the story of a life we have all longed to know more of, unfettered, fearless, and true. Marriage, family, solo albums and Xpensive Winos, and the road that goes on forever. Bitter estrangement from Jagger and subsequent reconciliation. Tax exile in France, wildfire tours of the US, isolation and addiction. Creating immortal riffs like the ones in "Jumping Jack Flash" and "Honky Tonk Women." Falling in love with Anita Pallenberg and the death of Brian Jones. The Rolling Stones' first fame and the notorious drug busts that led to his enduring image an outlaw folk hero. Listening obsessively to Chuck Berry and Muddy Waters records, learning guitar and forming a band with Mick Jagger and Brian Jones. Now, at last, the man himself tells his story of life in the crossfire hurricane. With the Rolling Stones, Keith Richards created the songs that roused the world, and he lived the original rock and roll life.
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