"Green Day: The Ultimate Unauthorized History" by Alan di Perna

Let me start my review by saying that this book is not so much a biography of Green Day, but closer to an analysis of their music.  That said, get this book if only for the amazing pictures and maybe a little less for the reading.  I wanted to love Green Day: The Ultimate Unauthorized History by Alan di Perna.  I noticed that it was on order at the library and checked daily (okay...sometimes hourly) to see when it would be available.  I was the first one to check it out and during my initial flipping through the pages, I was quite impressed.  The amount of memorabilia documented in this book is amazing!  There are images from concerts, flyers, t-shirts...all sorts of awesomeness!  I was even more excited to start reading.  That was when the disappointment began.



I am a huge Green Day fan.  If there is something I can read or something I can watch that talks about this band, you can bet I am going to.  Because of this I assumed that there wasn't going to be a whole lot of new information in this book.  I assumed it would cover all of the stuff I already knew and then maybe have some information about their new albums.  Instead this book focused a lot on analyzing the various songs on each album.  This would be alright except that it happened twice.  Basically there would be a section dedicated to each album that talked about the song writing, recording, and other events going on with the band at that time.  Then there would be a one page dedicated to more or less re-stating the elements of the album.  After awhile my excitement over this book dropped and the reading became dull.  Now don't get me wrong.  I am certain that there are fans out there who would enjoy this writing style, I am just not one of them.  I am more interested in the biographies as opposed to the discussion that is heavily focused on how the music sounds.  After all, I can listen to the music.  I also wish that it had focused a bit more on some of the current stuff such as American Idiot on Broadway.  That section felt really rushed.  Granted, it probably was.

Despite it not being the best Green Day book I have read, I do want to own this book.  Though I doubt it would make it onto my re-read list, I would love to have it just for the pictures.  I am going to hold-off on getting a copy just in case there is a re-issue anytime soon (a lot has happened to them in the last few months, I want documentation of that too!).  If you are Green Day fan this book is definitely worth looking at but maybe see if your library has it before you buy.



Happy Reading!
-Melly