Journals

Rating:
Summary: simply amazing
Review: I know it simply contains ones diary. however, arent diaries some of the most fascinating pieces of literature ever? havent you wanted to just sneak a peek into someones diary before? still, for all nirvana fans, this is a must have. i guarantee every time you read it, you will learn something new about the twisted and beautiful mind of kurt cobain. this book is a beautifuly crafted piece of art on the insight into the feelings and life of the grunge king. never before has anyone quite understood what was going through his head, now we have at least an idea. once again, i love this book, i can not put it down(and i rarely ever get past the first 50 pages of a book) YOU MUST BUY THIS BOOK!

Rating:
Summary: Pisces-Jesus Man
Review: Aside from the obvious questions of the intrusive nature of reading this book, as well as the obvious monitoring of Courtney Love over all of the book's contents, "Journals" is absolutely fascinating. I feel that reading alot of things from Kurt as opposed to a journalist's point of view is very satisfying when pertaining to his art. I believe that, for Kurt, his art was the focal point for the bulk of his life. And I also think that once you understand his art, you begin to understand him. In that respect, I give "Journals" beyond 5 stars.
Within the book, Kurt depicts himself as he was: a sensitive, artistic punk rocker. You read many letters to people such as Dale Crover from "The Melvins" and Mark Lannegan from "Screaming Trees". In a letter to Lannegan, he shamefully admits to copying their album onto a cassette tape. This only enforces the punk rock ethic that Kurt held for most of his life.
The term "punk" for Kurt Cobain didn't necessarily mean pierced nostrils or multi-colored hair. Punk rock meant "freedom". It was back to the roots of musical expression: syphoning yourself through an instrument. It wasn't an image, and it wasn't a trend. There were no blinders towards the audience. It was be-yourself-do-it-yourself. It spoke to many people in an inaudible, enticing scream, and it definitely spoke to Kurt Cobain. It basically offered Kurt his way out from the blantant faccade of machismo and the ignorance of homophobia and sexism that he witnessed constantly. It sparked a flow of creative abandon and artistic defiance in Kurt. That raw, unbridled human emotion is very poignant and refreshing even ten years after his death. And the fact that real emotion is so void in music today, only lures people in to experience it for themselves.
It's impossible to read this book and not get somewhat melancholy over what a sensitive, outspoken, brilliant artist we lost in Kurt Cobain. We have the music, we now have his journals, and we have the memories.

Rating:
Summary: []
Review: The publication of this book was a violation of Kurt Cobain's privacy; Courtney Love is reaping the benefits of his thoughts, and no true Nirvana fan would support her endeavor to exploit her husband and keep the earnings.

Rating:
Summary: Fascinatingly diguieting
Review: I'll be the first to admit I was a little uneasy about buying this book,due to the fact I felt reading it could be wrong.However I did buy this book,possibly out of nothing more than pure curiosity. I must say if you are a true heartfelt fan of Kurt Cobain,you should go out and buy this book.If you are not a true fan I will advise you to leave this book alone because as one of the covers states "If you read you'll judge". This book is not written in bland computerized letters,but printed in Kurt's own handwriting,page for page exactly how Kurt wrote it.Much of what is in this book is fascinating.Cobain's cartoons,sketches and doodles,like his music,blend disturbing imagery with humor.Would Kurt Cobain,grunge anti hero,be horrified to see these thoughts published? Nevermind Kurt.Here we are now.Entertain us.

Rating:
Summary: You know you want to read it
Review: Yes, there's the moral corundum of disrespecting a dead man's wishes and invading his privacy to make an easy buck off him, but Journals is an interesting read. I'm not a huge Nirvana fan, but I did get a voyeuristic kick out of perusing his handwritten rants, unsent letters, drafted lyrics, rambling diary entries, and assorted scribbles and doodles.

That is not say Journals is essential in understanding Kurt - his music was just as effective in that regard. There's nothing in this book to shed any new light on his complicated personality, though time will tell if that's just a result of Courtney Love's selectivity.

Journals is put together nicely and works as a really morbid coffee table book. But to ease your guilt of exploiting Kurt's death to make Courtney's wallet thicker, while still satiating your curiosity, I would recommend simply borrowing it from a library.

Rating:
Summary: Insight to life...
Review: Many readers will have a different viewpoint on Kurt's diaries. This book is subject to personal taste. Regardless of your viewpoint, I believe that this can be considered one of the greatest autobiographies ever written. Nothing can give us an insight into one's life better than that one's own personal writings.

Throughout this book, we read the story of his life. His own writings let us see into his mind. We see his thoughts and hear his voice. The book starts off by telling us the story of an aspiring songwriter, lost in the world. Kurt is in the process of trying to start up his band. His sounds are "rough" sounding, his lyrics lack that certain punch necessary. It was a tough time. The record industries wouldn't notice him. After all, he was on the verge of developing a whole new era of music, the grunge era. This was new to the world, and Kurt struggled to make it visible.

The book continues on, as Kurt's lyrics begin to increase in strength. His band forms, and demos are made. From this point on, the plot of his diary is difficult to interpret. Some may even say there is none, I say otherwise. In my eyes, the plot of this story is simply the plot of life. It shows us that life isn't always easy. As we read about Kurt's struggles with music, love, and family, we learn that life isn't a piece of cake. We are shown that with hard work and determination, one can achieve anything they desire.

Later on in Kurt's diaries, we see him change the world. We see him overcome his struggles and completely change the music industry, as the world once knew it. His life was a success, but for some reason, it wasn't good enough for him. This is where the conflict comes into play. He was unable to accept the things that he did for the world. Perhaps it was invisible to him at this point; perhaps it was something that would take time to understand. Sadly, this was time that Kurt would not give himself. He committed suicide.

I found it very interesting to be there right along with Kurt's thoughts throughout his story. It really is incredible to look into Kurt's mind and be able to read what he was thinking, to be able to see his world. His world was an incredible place. His attitude, slightly hard to understand, is also quite out of our world.

If you've ever wanted to know what it would have been like to have been somebody famous, this book won't tell you. This book will teach you a valuable lesson though. It will teach you some lessons about life, and it will bring you closer to understanding why Kurd did the things he did. To put it simply, this book just might enable you to look at the world from Kurt's eyes, and that truly is an amazing thing. Definitely worth reading.

Rating:
Summary: Kurt would've been sick/kind of a guilty pleasure
Review: I am a self-confessed maniac when it comes to Kur(d)t Cobain, I am eager to accept conspiracy theories on possible involvement of Courtney Love in his death, (mostly to soothe my own personal feeling of loss) I believe it was a selfish and greedy move of marketing to sell these copies of eclectic journals to a still-mourning public, but the thing is: we're told to get over it, and we just can't. These journals can help condole the Cobain fan, it also offers insight into his life.
First of all, this book is filled with handwritten journals, (easily read if you are a chicken-scratcher like me) full of humor, depression, and early song lyrics, (see the early version of 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' (would it have been a hit had it been released with the given lyrics?)) and irony.
One of the most fascinating things in this book is that you really get an insight into how much he dreamed of Nirvana becoming stars, (ironical, because Cobain supposedly hated stardom).
The only bad thing about this book, is it feels like you're reading your best friend's journal, and while you know you won't get caught, you secretly wonder whether he'd be mad. Also, I believe Courntey f'in Love has probably tampered with these writings.
This book is an insight into Generation X's John Lennon. If you read it, you'll judge.

Rating:
Summary: It's OK to exploit him as long as his words aren't printed
Review: All this crap about how Journals is an "invasion of privacy" is a load of bull. The same fans that complain about how Journals "violates" Kurt Cobain have rushed out to buy the distasteful "Greatest Hits" CD just for "You Know You're Right", which was posthumously released just to cash in on the dead musician. Apparently, these hypocrites think it's OK to profit off Kurt's personal feelings and words, but only if they are set to music instead of paper.

Even though I'm not a Nirvana fan anymore, I think this book gives readers an insightful look into Kurt Cobain and his life. In the earlier letters and notes before became famous, he clearly stresses (and obsesses) over minute details of unimportant everyday things, while at the same time seeming to neglect the general everyday things that people are supposed to keep up with (like having a steady job, cleaning house, going out during daylight hours, and even hygiene). Some people interpreted his focusing on minute, unimportant details as perfectionism, but he is no perfectionist, and he himself comments on how he regularly does certain things halfarsed to spite people he doesn't like (even if it ends up hurting him in the long run). It seems like he didn't see himself as being able to attain certain goals, so he just didn't try. I think he was more than capable, but his self-image was so poor that it hindered him from becoming anything more than he thought he could be-- which, in his eyes, was not much. One of his earlier letters to a friend that details one of his many suicide attempts-- one that involved a cinder block and train tracks. He wrote of it so casually that it was quite unnerving. More than anything though, Kurt seemed angry at himself rather than sad for himself. He didn't have much of a regard for his own well-being even in when he was in his late-teens, early-twenties, and that disregard for his body and his life became even more extreme as the years progressed. During his famous "rock star" years, Kurt Cobain sounded like a b*tch to be around. His writing from this period was so vengeful and angry (especially towards his fans and the media) that it verged on the hateful. His writings from this period also show the major shift in his behavior; he was no longer the simple stoner kid that could live off $2.00 a day and a little bit of pot. No, he was now a heroin-fiend who was spending up to $400 for his drug habit alone. No matter how much Kurt denied it (and he denied many, many things), money was obviously a very important part of his now-pathetic life. He began shutting everybody out, and then he ended everything. Other than the personal letters that Kurt wrote, there isn't much else that a Nirvana fan hasn't heard seen before. There are some handwritten lyric sheets, but many fans have seen them in CAYA. This is a pretty good read, even for non-Nirvana fans as well (Kurt's vitriol-filled later writings confirm the fact he wasn't as kind as Rolling Stone and MTV tried to make people believe). Anyway, I recommend this book, but it's not something so good you'll want to read twice. Most public libraries stock Journals, so I say go for it.

Rating:
Summary: Like Reading a Friends Diary
Review: "Journals" contains reproductions of some of Kurt Cobain's journals - so you are reading his handwritting, seeing his drawings. This makes it much more powerful than just typed words on a page. At times I had the feeling that someone was going to burst into the room and bust me for reading their diary.

"Journals" shows that Kurt had a great business mind and big plans for Nirvana from the beginning. The cover of Nevermind was conceived way before the recording. Videos laid out, letters to friends detailing his plans. It is all really fancinating. But, for how interesting it was to read, I couldn't shake the feeling that I was seeing things I wasn't meant to see.

Rating:
Summary: Invasion of privacy
Review: I was foolish enough to buy Kurt Cobain's journals. My curiosity got to me, and I regret it. The last thing this man would ever want, was us raping his inner thoughts by reading his journals. Needless to say, I never finished this book...