Guns N Roses Book:

Editorial Review:
An updated version of the classic rock study that Publishers Weekly calls "a well-researched, deftly reasoned portrait." In this unconventional chronicle of the band, Sugerman uses precedents in literature and philosophy to draw parallels between Axl Rose and Rimbaud and traces the roots of rebellion all the way to Shelley, Nietzsche, and Byron. Photographs and illustrations.

Appetite for Destruction: The Days of Guns N' Roses Reviews:
Save your money
2009-11-07 - I am a die-hard Guns N Roses fan.
I've been a fan since they were a club band playing on the Strip and I've seen them live about 50 times, before and after they made it. I bought this book because it was written by one of the guys who wrote the definitive book on another rock star I liked...Jim Morrison.

There's no "Insider's knowledge" to be gained here. It's all third party sources (he didn't even get the quotes right from the 89 concert with the Stones and Living Color in LA...I was there BOTH nights in question!). Instead you get comparisons to Morrison...psycho-babble about psychology and religion...and pretty much a waste of money. Although the jacket pics of Sugerman trying to look and dress like Morrison are actually quite laughable!

Take $5 out of your pocket and wipe with it for the same effect.

Thank God Sugerman is not writing anymore.

The Days of Wine and Roses
2007-04-06 - Man this book is such a guilty pleasure for me. I love how Sugerman can weave Rimbaud/Baudelaire, William Blake, William Burroughs, Jim Carroll and Axl Rose. A lot of us were living on the nighttrain to the "Palace of Wisdom" back in 1989. That was my season in hell with GNFR as the soundtrack. Although Axl has revamped them as a karaoke group, it makes you wonder what might have been. Guns and Roses was truly onto something legendary if they didn't implode. But hey wasn't it inevitable. No one in music today is even close to the insanity of pre-illusion Guns. Only the Lizard King's Homer could mythologize the late 1980s of the Sunset Strip. RIP Danny

Doesn't do what it says on the jacket
2005-11-10 - I have to agree with the consensus here. This book is not a useful biography of G&R.
As an intellectual analysis of the cultural significance of rock music in general, with special reference to G&R it's quite a good read, in the manner of an enthusiastic undergraduate media studies essay.
Sugerman's style is amusing at times, but usually for the wrong reasons, (eg his frequently 'creative' grammar and the excruciatingly over the top parallels between Axl and a pantheon of historical and legendary greats from gods to poets.
G&R are a great band, you're unlikely to be reading this or the book unless you agree, as to "undoubtedly the best rock band performing in the World today", I'm not sure I'd put it that strongly, especially as the book was written when the band had actually only produced one album!
Of course we now know that after Appetite for destruction the band survived to record more material. I dont think that hit the same heights again since that brilliant debut. So it would appear that G&R failed to live up to Sugerman's predictions for greatness by either burning out in a blaze of glory or by continuing to achieve increasingly spectacular musical triumphs.

awful
2005-05-10 - This is the worst book i have ever read on a autobiography of a band. Just rambles on about nothing. Nothing new in this book to learn. This author should change professions.

This Book Blows!
2003-04-09 - I would highly recomend that any fan of Guns N'Roses do not buy this book. It is a complete waste of money. The book is boring and pointless. The author just rambles on and on, until you don't even know what he is saying anymore. If you are wanting a good book about Guns N'Roses, this is definately not it.