Bowie, Ep. 23 - Billy Liar by Keith Waterhouse & Why Two Ways of Thinking Aren't Better Than One

We typically split our reads in half and record two episodes per book here on the pod, but Billy Liar by Keith Waterhouse was such a quick read that we felt one episode would do the job.

The story is in the title, Billy is a liar. He’s a 19 year old who is living at home with his parents and grandmother, working at a job he hates, dreaming of being a comedy writer. Even though this book was published in 1959, it sounds like your typical kid of today. But, the thing that sets Billy apart is that he just can’t tell the truth. To anyone. About anything. And eventually, he gets found out. He finds his own life so mundane and so miserable that he escapes to a world he’s created in his mind, and he does so quite often. He even has two types of thinking, once that’s factual and one that’s pure fantasy.

Will Billy finally be true to his family? Will he finally be true to either of his fiancés? Will he finally be true to the girl he loves (not a fiancé, by the way)? Will he finally be true to himself? Listen to the pod, and find out!

Oh! And April found a brilliant Bowie song to pair with this book! It’s perfect! And we are almost certain that Bowie had this book in mind when he wrote it. What song, you ask? Have a listen, and let us know what you think!

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P.S. As Halloween approaches, suddenly Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s Eve all come in rapid succession. This is our last episode of the year! Thank you so much for listening and being a part of our book club. We are having so much fun making our way through Bowie’s reading list, and we hope you are too! We’ll be back with a new episode featuring All The Emperor’s Horses by David Kidd on January 7th! Until then, we hope you have a wonderful holiday season!