One of my favorite books is "Bel Canto" by Ann Patchett. One of the themes of the book is how powerful music can be, even in the most difficult of circumstances. It is about a hostage situation, an opera singer, a linguist, and even Stockholm syndrome. I think you would enjoy reading this book. And then, just for fun, a mystery/thriller called "The Good Guy" by Dean Koontz. It is good for the airplane, or when you want something entertaining. A real page turner with surprising plot twists.

I call it my Bible,as it has answered so many questions about why am i here and what is this earthly life about and much..much more..I beleive that you may find it at least interesting :D

yes, i suggest "broken music 2" ,if you read it ,my dear Sting; i will be able to read it too!! Me and the whole Sting universe fans,want to know the most popular part of your life! ps. you should read something about Erma Bombeck, she's absolutly so sensitive and she can go staight to your heart.

This is one of my favorite books, a novel by the italian Giorgio Faletti! I love also Broken Music! :)

A fascinating study on the development of literacy against that of the image and the effect on our culture, creativity and inter relationships. Finishes with some interesting thoughts on the future too. I thought it was rather amusing that the first written law, some 3000 odd yrs ago, stated something to the effect that women shall not denounce the male ... such was their priority! ;) Check out the web-site: www.alphabetvsgoddess.com Pilgrim - Chris J Dean (Canterbury Tales)!

My pick is a series. By Louis L'Amour Any book written by this man is worth reading..but especially the ones dealing with a family called The Sacketts. They begin as a family from England,living in a marshy area called The Fens during the 1600's. Later, many of them end up in the U.S., some in search of the vast open land they had heard of,and some, to escape a Queens warrant! Much of his writings, including those of "Sacketts" center around the old American West. No one captures the spirit of early American Western culture like L'Amour!! :) His stories are filled with history, and people with a strength of character and goodness so seldom seen. His themes include- legends of pride and honor, sacraficing for those you love,betrayal, and courage. L'Amour published over ninety novels, and twenty-six short story collections. There are over 270 million of his books in print! The reason for this is simple, his beautiful talent with honest words, and good story telling that while straightforward..still makes you think. You wont be able to put them down!!

This book (original "Das Herzenhören") by Jan-Philipp Sendker is about a boy in Burma whose reaction to abandonment by his mother is: He gets blind. With loosing one of the senses and the help of people who love him, he learns to find inner strengh, discovers the world of sound and eventually that he can also hear the heartbeat of living beings. Years later in New York, his adult daughter Julia is looking for him since he has disapeared one day without leaving a note. Her mother gives her a loveletter he wrote to a unknown Burmese woman and Julia decides to fly to Burma where she learns the tender, touching story of her father. I had a exraordinary, wonderful time reading this book!

The narrator and his plane makes emergency landing in the middle of the Sahara, "a thousand miles from any inhabited area away". Then he meets a strange boy, who tells him that he was a prince of a small star With "The Little Prince", leaving Antoine de Saint-Exupery, a magical and wonderfully narrated story. The tale tells of the greatest goods of the earth: friendship, honesty and humanity. As well as innocence and discovery. It further stimulates to dream to and inspired the imagination. The universe - no, life - is a charming place, especially in common with the little Prince. First edition 1943, New York who has not read it at school, should make up for it necessarily.

An astonishing book from the master, Orson Scott Card. It makes us understand why we do, and why we don't, comprehend just exactly what is intelligent life.

I recommend this book from Farid Ud-Din Attar because I know Sting has the key to understand about Sufism and inner truth. Love!

This is my favorite book ever. It is biography of Michelangelo Buanarotti by Irving Stone.

I'd recommend Sting read Andy Summers' book One Train Later. Well written and a good read too. Hope we get a second volume of memoirs one day from you Sting! Hopefully with a an audio version too.

Forget the film and Mel Gibson! This lovely story by Colleen McCullough (Thorne Birds, First Man In Rome, Magnificent Obsession)is touching from beginning to end. When a financially secure spinster helps a mentally challenged young man, a friendship developes and it leads to a very different kind of love that saves them both from life of loneliness. Keep a hankie at hand when you read this book.

This 1953 novel by Alejo Carpentier translated from the Spanish is a book I read in my youth and it moved me even though its complexity overreached my complete understanding. It is a book of a journey of many levels, and of the many subjects involved, music and the Indigineous South American culture are two. It is on my bedside table to reread and rediscover. It is difficult to choose only one book, so I will add Snow Country by Yasnuari Kawabata an early favourite of mine and one that deals with the concept of mono no aware. I realise that Sting may very well know these works, but such are my choices. Cheers.

Hi there my book isn't as profound as most of these books, but it makes you really wonder what your faithful companion thinks. My book is : The Art of Racing in the Rain By: Garth Stein It's a wonderful book.

Dearest Sting, as an alien abductee married to a famous astrologer, I have read many mystical texts. I would recommend the "Ringing Cedars of Russia" series by Vladimir Megre, about his encounters with a Siberian mystic named Anastasia. This is a non-fiction series that has sold over 20 million copies in 20 languages. "Anastasia" is the first of a set of nine books. They are life-changing. She has wisdom on how to live simply, grow your own food programmed to heal you, raise children, empower societies, etc. She is a Vedic Russian, with all of the siddhis. She can teleport, and she remote views and helps people all over the wold. She claims that being in nature, or Pristine Origins, is how she cultivated her skills. She also comments on extraterrestrials, veganism, and much more. You would be inspired to write a song about her! Also, Happy Birthday! See you in Phoenix the day after my birthday!

the only force to pass the fronteers of death is love. could life be meaningful without love? maybe, if one doesnt want to take the risk of falling into the abyss of the other´s soul. As Dracula says" a happy man is the who finds true love". So, then the persue of love is more magnificent when the victim is free to choose, even knowing she would be condenmed for etrnity,to become one of his kin or save her soul. As Sting song if u love somebody let him free

Purge wins the European Book Prize Sofi Oksanen’s prize acceptance speech at the ceremony in Brussels 8.12.2010 : Messieurs les presidents, messieurs les ambassadeurs et monsieur Delors, mesdames, messieurs, "It’s an honour to be awarded with this European prize. Especially because of being a half Estonian, a half Finnish author. I have been brought up at the border of East and West, at the border of totalitarian system and a democratic one. After that Estonia has regained its independancy and has become a member of European Union. It has become again a part of Europe, yet there’s still a gap between Eastern European and Western European countries and in my work I try to make the recent past of former Soviet countries understandable to others. For Purge I used material which during the Soviet period was considered dangerous. That is women’s magazines from the 20s and 30s, from the period of the first independancy of Estonia. Today this kind of material sounds innocent but when I was a child it wouldn’t have been possible to take these magazines with me when I left my Estonian grandparents to go back to my home in Finland, because everything related to free Estonia was criminal and Estonian freedom fighters were considered criminals, enemies of the state. For the novel I also used material from KGB- archives, reports, documents that have been published in Estonia after regaining the independancy. Those documents reveal cruel measures and tools KGB used against people who in the eyes of Soviet Union were criminals, dangerous for the security of Soviet Union. During the Soviet period I became very familiar with the censorship, what’s it like to live without freedom of speech and what’s it like to live in a country where official truth has little to do with the real life events in the state. The official truth that made crimes againts humanity disappear. The official truth that made victims disappear. That official truth justified occupations, crimes against humanity and fabrication of the facts. Official truth that was justified by the security of the state. At the moment we are living a revolutionary period in journalism, thanks to Wikileaks and Julian Assange. This is a moment when we are testing the limits of free word in countries that consider themselves democratic and free. We are testing how much these countries are respecting the attempts to reveal human rights crimes. We are testing how much do we respect truth. Shame on them who try to ban Wikileaks - banning Wikileaks and manhunting Assange is not very European. Future generations will watch these events with scornful eyes and they will spit on those who try to hide crimes againts humanity and corruption. I appeal to all the nerds in the world to save Wikileaks. I appeal to all the Europeans to support Wikileaks. For the sake of transparency for the sake of free word for the sake of justice for the sake of European values, freedom of speech and human rights. European Parliament: Oksanen and Saviano win the European Book Prize I think Sting would like that book because itś about history an Sting is interested in human rights

Life in India is depicted through the vulnerability of several unforgettable characters. It engenders empathy and a sense of gratitude. By Rohinton Mistry, this remains in my mind after 10 years. NF would be "Guns, Germs and Steel." (I have many more.) Thanks for "Broken Music", a favorite read this summer!

I have this poster hanging in my school office! A great way to encourage reading and easy on the eyes as well! My fave is a book written by my friend, Sharon Shinn, entitled "Archangel"....I've always thought that if, made into a movie, Sting would have been the perfect singing angel to play the lead role.

By Stacy Schiff. I believe the title speaks volumes. I see a correlation between the mastery of the art of Sting and the statesmanship of Benjamin Franklin, both flexible and without end. Ms. Schiff intertwines historical facts and the ruminations of Mr. Franklin’s personal letters to friends, weaving an interesting and insightful look into what his genius truly was. Regards-Pamela

I'd recommend The road by Cormac McCarthy. I absolutely love it as it gives a great message of hope even in terrible times and the relationship father and son is amazingly described

I read Mika Waltari`s Sinuhe the Egyptian when I was only 19 years old. Since then I have read many books that have affected me. Sinuhe is after all a book that I can`t forget. It`s about life... Maybe there are too many pages, but after all it`s a book that is worth reading.

Since Sting makes so very beautiful love songs, I would like to recommend him the book called Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez, if he hasn't read it already. It is one of the best love stories I have ever read. Even though it is story about the enduring power of true love, there are other (and maybe more interesting) themes too. As García Márquez himself said in an interview, "you have to be careful not to fall into my trap"...

I highly recommend this book from Pablo Neruda, "Confieso que he vivido - Memorias" (I confess that I lived - Memories). I am sure it must have been translated, and it is the autobiography of the author, until near the time of his death. It is an incredible interesting and almost enviable life, which told by this Nobel Prize in Literature, makes you understand that he enjoyed of every little moment in his life, as very few humans could do.

I would not recommend my favorite book to Sting. A good recommender is like a talented matchmaker, seeking to choose a good fit for the recommendee rather than extol their own idiosyncratic treasures. My favorite book is Goedel, Escher, Bach: The Eternal Golden Braid. Booksellers and librarians never know where to categorize this book, because the book excels in music, art, mathematics, philosophy, linguistics, and artificial intelligence. It interweaves the topics together in the lives, thoughts, and creations of three brilliant men. Sting's deep intellect is a very different flavor than this book.

Diane Ackerman has a knack for writing lyrically about non-fiction topics. In this book she describes in decidedly painful terms the journey that she and her husband make as he recovers from a disastrous stroke that causes global aphasia. Reading this book one can feel her terror as she considers all that she and her fiction-writing husband have lost. She unfolds the course of his recovery of language as well as her own emotional recovery. This is a gorgeously written book about love that continues to grow throughout the loss of a fundamentally human characteristic and recovery.

Not to be confused with the Art of War. And this book is not about war. It's about creating. And the battle against procrastination. And how the almighty has not only an intense interest in us mortals creating works that will outlive ourselves, but that the supreme being sends angels and acolytes to help us achieve immortality through creative works (sculpting, painting, songwriting, etc). I gave this book to Danny Q at St John's Cathedral before a Winter's Night performance, with the promise that Sting would receive it...shortly thereafter, we hear that Sting is writing again. A connecting principle? Causally connectible? You decide...LOL. Seriously, if you've ever struggled with the notion of doing something creative, read this book. It's a swift kick in the bum to get you "creating" -- and how. Fondly, Tom

I think Sting would enjoy "Life of Pi" by Yann Martel. Yann is a Canadian writer. You can take Life of Pi on the surface as hilarious but definitely Sting would dig deeper for the religious meaning!

from Alexandre Soljenitsyne is my favourite book, an exceptional book which I read several times.."..it's not the standart of living which makes the happiness of people, but indeed the connection of hearts and our point of view on our life.Now both of them are always in our power and people is always happy if he wants and noone can prevent it.."

Bel Canto is a beautiful book, where music plays as much of a role as the characters in a compelling novel which takes place during the Lima Crisis in Peru. The words of the book sing almost as beautifully as the central character. I bet Sting has already read it, but if not I think he'd enjoy it. :)

I recommend "Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal" by Christopher Moore. It is intelligent and hilarious.

There is one book that I call "my favorite", it is Karleen Koen's [Through a Glass Darkly]. It is set in Victorian Era England and encompasses all the beauty, hatred, love, whimsy and forbidden desires of the time. It is a rather intimidating book for most but I also share a love for James Joyce and know that my dear Sting could excel at its challenge. As a historian I deem it technically superb, as a woman with desires of my own - it is utterly perfect.

Misprint... too poor :)

"And Quiet Flows the Don" (1934) by Mikhail Sholokhov (originally in Russian, but there are several translations into English). It was in our school program, and I remember it as one of the most vivid and strong artistic creatures... or even the most... The author won the Nobel Prize in 1965. My English is too pure to describe this book, just get and read it... I'm sure, You'll enjoy :)

Although I'm sure Sting has read it, I would recommend 'Our Mutual Friend' by Charles Dickens. I was reading this at a strange time in my life and finished it while staying in a bunk house on a horse ranch one evening. I was laughing and crying, not something many books can make me do so easily, but Dickens made it happen.

I would like to recommend a children's book The Invention of Hugo Cabret. The book is over 500 pages but more than half are illustrations drawn by the Caldecott winner Author Brian Selznick. It is a very unique format that tells a story that weaves an orphan, magic, clocks, a paris train station, and the silent movie creator Georges Melies into an unforgettable tale. The illustrations are very much a part of the story and are viewed like an old silent film. Very creative and intriguing.

http://community.sting.com/index.php?/topic/7189-the-first-book-that-you-fell-in-love-with/ This is one of the top 10 "non- Sting" threads in the past year. Dave and Wendy even got in on it. : ) One of my favorites besides the one I mentioned in that discussion is The Snow Leopard by Peter Matthiessen. He makes a pilgrimage to Nepal to search for the ever elusive snow leopard while dealing with the loss of his wife to cancer.

Having always appreciated the transcendent quality and spiritual undertones of Sting's music, I would recommend " The Ragamuffin Gospel" by Brennan Manning. This book effectively cuts through man made religious nonsense and illustrates a sincere and clear treatise of the genuine heart of the matter. In a totally non preachy and non judgmental manner, Brennan shares his expanding and broadening understandings which challenge and invigorate both the heart and mind. My personal best read ever.

Sting, read books by Michael Ende! This German author wrote Jim Button and Lukas the Engine Driver, Momo and The Neverending Story. They mix fanstasy und philosophy with a twist. I love them to death. Recommendation for a German classic is anything by Erich Kästner;-)Goethe and Schiller you probably read at college so that's too obviuos! Otherwise I always have been inspired by your choices of books!

"The Art of Racing in the Rain" by Garth Stein It's about the life of a race car driver, the struggles he faced through the loss of his wife and to gain custody of his daughter. The unique part of the story is that it's told from the perspective of his dog. It really has little to do with racing. I think it's a great story for anyone who loves dogs.

I think Sting would enjoy "April Blood: Florence and the Plot Against the Medici" by Lauro Martines. It's a history of 15th century Florence and the rivalry between the Pazzis and the Medici's. I think it would appeal to his sense of history and would also be fascinating to him because of his links to Florence and Tuscany.

Sting, you should read books by Michael Ende! He is a German author who wrote a.o. Momo, Jim Button and Lukas the Engine Driver and the Neverending Story....you will love it...his books mix fantasy and philosophy with a twist. Just great stuff. I have all his books and love them to death:-)

I would recommend "Revolution In The Head" by Ian McDonald: a captivating and very entertaining explanation of the Beatles songs' musical and cultural relevance. The book also surprised me and got me thinking with its very convincing argument why the sixties' "counterculture" is in fact not responsible for the negative, individualistic / disconnected aspects of today's society at all. Also, I would recommend "Island" by Aldous Huxley, just because I would recommend that to absolutely everyone who hasn't read it yet. But I'm quite sure that Sting must have read that one.