Nerd Girl Rocks Paradise City…Aka Story of my Life

As some of you know, I’m about to embark on a really crazy trip to Krakow on Tuesday. And I will be living there, 10 minutes walk from the old town historic district, for the next FOUR MONTHS. keep in mind that I have never been to Krakow before, know no one, and don’t speak Polish. In between the spazzing and stressing I’ve done over the past week, I decided to take time to calm myself by reading a book. I feel like I haven’t had a moment to spare in a long time…you’ve noticed I haven’t been blogging much lately…so this was a treat.

Nerd Girl Rocks Paradise City, A True Story of Faking It In Hair Metal LA. wow, just by reading the title I knew this was a book about me. First of all, Anne Soffee grew up in Richmond Virginia, which I know is about as boring as Raleigh North Carolina. So she came from the same background I’ve come from. Good liberal arts education, worrying parents, and an insatiable love of rock n roll…not quite understood by anyone else in the area. The whole time I was reading I was thinking “Is it possible to have a twin sister who is 20 years older than me??” No, but hey, why not dream. The only thing she did that I didn’t do is I haven’t actually moved to LA yet (would love to visit, of course, but the scene has dried up now…) and I haven’t slept with a certain unidentified editor from SPIN Magazine (though she didn’t mention a name I think I’ve got a good idea of who the editor was…Legs McNeil, maybe? the original punk? that’d be pretty amazing, anyway…). But seriously…all the other craziness is prettymuch my life, or has potential to be my life.

I don’t care a whole lot for the conversation-like style of writing (even though I’m well aware my style is probably similar), but considering the fact that the book really isn’t serious literature, the style almost seems more suiting.

I really do wish that the book branched out to talk more about the bands and the scene as a whole…it tends to revolve mainly around her life. Which is fine…it IS her memoir, afterall…but a little discussion about the music that impacted her so profoundly, and maybe some more of her insights into punk and hair metal would have been interesting to read and appreciated. I guess really, I want her book to be another Fargo Rock City, or Hell Bent for leather…partly a memoir, partly a been-there account of the music scene as a whole. Really, when I read a book like this I want to feel like I was there too…since I was born too late to really experience hair metal when it happened.

Other than that, this book was a fun, entertaining and easy read. Definitely worth picking up if you find it!

~ by r0ck0n on February 22, 2009.