a) The Geto Boys, by Rolf Potts
As someone who's familiar with the Geto Boys' and Scarface's output from We Can't Be Stopped onward, I was surprised to see that 33 1/3 had a book on one of the group's earlier albums. I guess I didn't realize just how much national media coverage and outrage the Geto Boys whipped up for Grip It! On That Other Level and the subsequent remixed Def American re-release of the album as The Geto Boys. But Potts, who was so obsessed with the album in the early '90s that he actually made a pilgrimage to Fifth Ward, unfurls the history and context around the album really well, and I'm glad it gave me a reason to check out the album, which of course leans on shock value content but is musically much closer to the quality level of We Can't Be Stopped than I'd expected.

b) Horses, by Philip Shaw
As someone who loves music and is largely indifferent to poetry, I've never really thought too much about Patti Smith through the lens of poetry; to me Horses is just a great rock record that happens to have been made by someone who was a poet before she was a singer. But I found myself enjoying Shaw's literary analysis of Horses more than I thought I would. Smith's early music career was one of the main storylines of Love Goes To Buildings On Fire but the 33 1/3 book managed to flesh out her journey into music via poetry with a lot of background that I hadn't read before.

c) Fear Of Music, by Jonathan Lethem
I haven't read any of Lethem's novels and am wary of 33 1/3 books written by people who are well known for something besides music writing. But Lethem's recollections of hearing this album as an adolescent and his reflections on it as an adult are pretty passionate and enjoyable to read, even if I feel like he falls victim to a bit of the chronic throat-clearing about his subject matter that are one of the most common pitfalls of books in this series.

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