Showing posts with label READERS REACTIONS. Show all posts
Showing posts with label READERS REACTIONS. Show all posts

Saturday, September 26, 2026

STILL IN A DREAM AUTUMN EVENTS - Bratislava! Walthamstow! Bruxelles ! Den Haag! (plus a medley of reviews + reactions) (plus translation news)



! UPCOMING EVENTS! 


Saturday October 3 - NOVOTVAR FESTIVAL, Bratislava, Slovakia

Conversation with Miloš Hroch

Time: 5pm

Location: V-klub

Free and open to the public


Tuesday October 20 - ROCK AND ROLL BOOK CLUB,  Walthamstow, London

Conversation with Daniel Avery + Kitty Empire

Time: 6.30pm

Location: Walthamstow Trade Hall 

Tickets


Wednesday October 21  -  TROPICALL RECORDS, Bruxelles, Belgium

Conversation with Simon Taylor

Time: evening

Location: Rue Haute 235, 1000


Friday October 23 -  BORDERKITCHEN, Den Haag, Nederlands 

Conversation with Lee Brackstone 

Time: 8pm

Location: BorderKitchen, Kerkstraat 13 

Tickets

 

A MEDLEY OF REVIEWS + READER REACTIONS


"One of the finest music books of the year" - Jonathan Wright, Classic Pop

"Both eulogy and manifesto, Still in a Dream is an enthralling, nostalgic meditation on formative, lost-in-music moments and an eloquent, enduring argument for an art of bliss and bewilderment" - - Declan Long, ArtReview

"Read it for Reynolds's argumentative vigour and his enthralled immersion in the music he adores"
- Teddie Jamieson, The Herald, 12 best music books of the year so far

"An insightful history, mixed with fond memoires of writing for Melody Maker, one of the weekly "inkies" in the UK's exuberantly opinionated music press" ― Financial Times, Best Books of the Summer

"What a fantastic book this is! It is, I think, the finest work by the best living music writer." -  Martin Raybould, Goodreads

"An absolutely sublime lovesong to the era, could read over and over" - Jazmine, Goodreads

"A pleasure to read!" -  Iggy Pop Barker, amazon.co.uk

"Despite being 464 pages, it breezed by...  It might be the most brisk, easy read of any of his books, and I enjoyed it immensely" -  Fast and Bulbous blog

"Surprised even myself by how much I enjoyed and devoured this book. Just loved it...  Over 400 pages and I wished it was longer" -      Robert, Goodreads

"I read this in two days flat: that's how much I enjoyed it.... It is more personal than his other books, but without being self-indulgent." - William, Goodreads

"As blissful as the cover, as wondrous as the swathes of music Simon Reynolds goes into detail on.... a glorious celebration of music." - Top10Nathan

“My final verdict is that the book is so readable I want to re-read a few chapters again, just live in all this music and splendor...  A lot of humor and wit, some post-40 wisdom that only comes from looking back…"  WaneLietoc, r/indieheads

"Still In A Dream is at once erudite and expansive - it does what the most convincing bands he's writing about managed to pull off: open doors to other worlds" - Miloš Hroch, The Wire

"A perfect accompaniment to  Rip It Up and Start Again. Thank you Simon for bringing back so many memories"  -- Bookends (Amazon.co.uk reviewer)

"I've never dropped everything so fast to read a book immediately after receiving my pre-order.... It met my sky-high expectations" - Richard Balmer (Goodreads)

"These years clearly have much fondness attached to them from him which makes this a joy to read." - Aaron Hodgetts (Goodreads)

"Reynolds is a great writer. Many visceral, haptic descriptions of music that made me immediately put the book down and look up whatever song he was waxing lyrical about.... A lot of this reads like an impassioned plea for the value of criticism " -  Luke McCarthy (Goodreads)

"A very fun and approachable writer " - Ben Yaxley, Goodreads

"I have never gone to the bookstore and bought a book as fast in my life" -  Jo, Goodreads

"One of the best things about Still in a Dream is the many descriptions of the material conditions under which the music – and Reynolds’ own journalism – came into being….  A small gap exists in time where they can create a life outside the demands of society. There is room to dream, and thus the music also sounded floating and yearning" - Susanne Christensen, Vagant

"Still in a Dream is at times dizzying non-fiction about the most wonderful and dreamy music that was created in the alternative rock era 30–40 years ago.... You also have to dig out old LPs, CDs, seven-inches and maxi singles, not least Youtube videos, to get this music straight into your veins again. Thus, a very inspiring book." - Audun Vinger, DNHelg

"Highly enjoyable blend of memoir, history, anthology. Reynolds never really fails."-  Stagger Lee, Goodreads

"A brilliant, bittersweet chronicle of what happens when six-string romanticism finally hits its sonic end of the road and has nowhere left to go but pure noise."- Ilya Miller, Goodreads

"Reynold's prose is as sharp as ever, and his connections to the milieus and awkward network of slackers is heartfelt and never crosses over into sappy territory." - Maldini Damas, Goodreads

"Although with Energy Flash, Rip it up and Start Again, and Shock and Awe he's set impossibly high standards, this might be his masterpiece" - Ingram, Amazon.co.uk

"Simon Reynolds is the kind of music writer who makes you want to rush out and listen to a hundred bands you have either never heard of or heard of / meant to check out / never got round to.... Still in a Dream is as entertaining, informative and combative as a night out with your gig going buddies." - Bookmunch

"Simon Reynolds, you have outdone yourself"- James Marples, Instagram

"A masterwork" ― Neil Mason, Moonbuilding, Book of the Week

"Still in a Dream acts beautifully as a thorough, thoughtful examination of the many featured bands and their music, as an encapsulation of the societies in which they emerged, and as a memoir of the formative years of Reynolds' adult life" -- David Pollock ― Record Collector

"His writing is passionate. . .  it's a thrill ride. If you weren't there, you'll wish you had been" - Uncut

"It’s an extraordinarily detailed work, nostalgia for a pre-Internet age.  It will be of interest to anybody interested in the music of the period" -  No More Workhorse

"A masterful cultural and social archaeology"- Richard Imrich, Fullmoon

"Pretty good" - Kieran Press-Reynolds, GQ



EDITIONS IN OTHER LANGUAGES + COUNTRIES


German translation from Ventil Verlag -  December 2026

American publication from Da Capo -  January 12, 2027

Spanish translation from Caja Negra Editora - 2027

Italian translation from Minimum Fax - 2027

Turkish translation from Ayrinti -  2027

French translation from Audimat - 2028


HIGHLIGHTS FROM EARLIER COVERAGE 

In-depth review at London Review of Books by Chal Ravens

Rock’s Back Pages podcast  Barney Hoskyns, Jasper Murison-Bowie + William Pike.

Kieran Press-Reynolds chats with  Dad for GQ -  rambling, goofy colloquy with my firstborn

Interview for Rock N Roll Book Club Music Maps podcast 

909Originals interview with Stephen Wynne-Jones

To Here Knows When podcast -  with Paul McDermott 


FURTHER READING + LISTENING + WATCHING

Still In A Dream Footnotes

Chapter by chapter footnotes + bonus material will start going up in February. In the mean time, check out these early posts -  The Lost Epigraphs and Lodestar Quotations - and look out for an Auto-Interview in the next month or so. 

Instagram.com/simonreynoldswriter/ for the latest news 

Baker's Dozen on Reinvention of the Guitar at The Quietus - with a YouTube playlist to accompany

Still In A Dream YouTube playlist