I was looking up the lyrics of 'Warning Sign', which seem to be the only 'gem' the band are performing consistently on the leg so far, on a site called songmeanings.net and this one guy left an interesting comment that impressively described Chris' formidable emotional intelligence. It read;

 

"Jesus... this is my situation at the moment...it describes conceited intransigence... a false sense of flexibility...pride...stubbornness...indecision...paranoia hermetically sealed behind some elaborate self-righteous defence mechanism... blameless blame games...the maze of inconsitencies left in the wake of misunderstandings...tiredness...irratability...impatience...misunderstandings...crossed wires...inaction...blindness...fault...destroying love through anger and laziness and insecurity..."

 

I mean, what water have they been drinking?

Who taught them to be articulate in this way?

 

Has Chris' suggested or revealed any books or authors that may have provided him this gift? Do you have any suggestions?

 

I'm kinda jealous haha :)

 

(Of course, I have no trouble understanding it. But the level of engagement in his speech sort of caught me off guard.)

He has a gift, which means nothing has provided him with that. Except Nature/God/whatever your belief is. Maybe genes have something to do with it, but no book or author has "provided" him. Of course, he worked a lot to get to that level, and that must be part of the equation. If it was your question, then I don't know. I just know that he found some support from a teacher when he was a teenager, that told him to continue playing & writing music.

 

As for inspiration, well that's something else.

 

As a kid, he loved reading Sherlock Holmes' stories though...maybe you can try :lol:

That hard work is what I'm interested in.

In the 80s and 90s, Bono always recommended poets, books and authors he had read that dealt with religiosity and I was wondering if anyone knew if Chris had liked and learnt enough from any literature to recommend it at any press conferences, or something like that.

He constantly gets criticised for his lyrics, so I was wondering what he does to develop his skills. Whether reading lots of literature or taking classes in psyc,soc,philosophy.

I want to know his secret!!!

That hard work is what I'm interested in.

In the 80s and 90s, Bono always recommended poets, books and authors he had read that dealt with religiosity and I was wondering if anyone knew if Chris had liked and learnt enough from any literature to recommend it at any press conferences, or something like that.

He constantly gets criticised for his lyrics, so I was wondering what he does to develop his skills. Whether reading lots of literature or taking classes in psyc,soc,philosophy.

I want to know his secret!!!

Oh. I don't really know about that, sorry.

He studied Ancient languages (or something like that) at college.

I don't think he takes any class, I've never read/heard anything about that.

Since VLV, he's tried a lot to write from another character point of view.

He reads a lot of different stuff, I guess. I think there's a quite detailed interview they did months ago about the making of MX, maybe there's something there. But it would mostly be about inspiration. And I can't remember for which magazine :bomb:

 

You could listen to his interview of November 9th 2011 with Howard Stern. He opens a lot, talks about how he writes songs, I can't remember but maybe he also speaks about how he's trying to improve his lyrics.

 

I can tell you one thing: he has no secret, he just works a lot. He often says that the songs we get to hear are the good songs among the thousands of crappy or not really good songs he/they have written.

Yeah, I guess he would have THOUSANDS of songs that have 'missed the mark'.

He gets payed a lot of money and gets to live a fantastic life from performing his own songs. So he must have quite a handful and a lot of experience.

I'll keep on looking for revealing interviews though.

Hopefully someone on here knows.

It's really inspiring stuff.

one of the his favorite books are Don Quixote and Sherlock Holmes series, . I wanted to read a book lately, so I asked Debs wild if she could tell me what was Chris's fav. books, and she wrote me this :

 

The band are all readers and so there will be hundreds but two I can think of - hopefully you will easily find in Turkish - are "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" by Douglas Adams and "Don Quixote de la Mancha" by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra.

He also likes Les Miserables by Victor HUgo ! He based the song 'Viva La Vida' on it!

one of the his favorite books are Don Quixote and Sherlock Holmes series, . I wanted to read a book lately, so I asked Debs wild if she could tell me what was Chris's fav. books, and she wrote me this :

 

The band are all readers and so there will be hundreds but two I can think of - hopefully you will easily find in Turkish - are "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" by Douglas Adams and "Don Quixote de la Mancha" by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra.

 

I can highly recommend The Hitchhiker's Guide and Sherlock Holmes. 2 of my favourite books.

 

Chris has also mentioned The Road by Cormac McCarthy, Les Misérables and I saw him read both David Copperfield by Charles Dickens and Quicksilver by Neal Stephenson in a picture of R#42's blog.

 

I guess being on the road a lot, he just reads loads

 

edit teernabh5 beat me to it with Les Misérables ;)

Thanks a lot people, I appreciate all your suggestions :)

I want to fill my empty book case with anything that might help me along the path.

There are some other suggestions in this thread: http://www.coldplaying.com/forum/showthread.php?t=59822 :)

He has said in an interview that some of his favourite books are Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks, The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway and Sherlock Holmes. He also loves the poem Guest House by Rumi and says it has helped him get through some dark times.

He metioned a lot of books that inspired him both artistic and personal life. I guess one the biggest is "Kiss of God: The Wisdom of a Silent Child". He wrote the introduction for the 20th anniversary release. *link here: https://www.amazon.com/Kiss-God-20th-Anniversary-Wisdom/dp/1682613100/ref=pd_sbs_14_t_0?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=3G8APMEYWDMKWRRBP4SS

From this AHFOD era he mentioned "Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl", "The Grapes of Wrath" (there is a reference to it in the Up&Up lyrics), "The Conference of the Birds by Farid ud-Din Attar" (there is reference to it in A Head Full Of Dreams lyrics).

Man's Search for Meaning : [MEDIA=amazon]080701429X[/MEDIA]

Mobile Link: https://www.amazon.com/Mans-Search-Meaning-Viktor-Frankl/dp/080701429X

The Grapes of Wrath: [MEDIA=amazon]0143039431[/MEDIA]

Mobile Link: https://www.amazon.com/Grapes-Wrath-John-Steinbeck/dp/0143039431

 

The Conference of the Birds: [MEDIA=amazon]0140444343[/MEDIA]

Mobile Link: https://www.amazon.com/Conference-Birds-Penguin-Classics/dp/0140444343