I can't believe how much more I enjoyed this upon re-reading it. The years grow on you and Patti Smith's writing grew on me too; I admire her so much and this book, though a bit listless, is so beautifully written. Her sentiments are profound and admirable, and though I could never truly take a look insider her head this feels, for only an instant, that I can. 4.5 stars---Original review:In M Train, Patti Smith creates something deeply personal and lyrically beautiful, but not something that wil...

It’s not so easy writing about nothing. Words caught from a voice-over in a dream more compelling than life. I scratch them over and over onto a white wall with their chunk of red chalk. I’m sure I could write endlessly about nothing if only I had nothing to say. This is Patti Smith’s peripatetic memoir, an account of her life’s journeys, written 5 years after her first, widely successful attempt at autobiography with Just Kids. By the time she writes it in 2015 she’s 66, she’s had her fair shar...

I listen to Patti Smith's audible. The very first thing I notice was her voice. Her raspy eastern accent was mesmerizing. As I was walking, I could picture Patti in the cafe she sat drinking coffee. She says..."It's not so easy writing about nothing". Easy or not ...I had a warm smile on my face listening to everything she had to say - at times aching -and soooo loving this woman. There is a mystery about Patti Smith... which adds to her beauty. Her mind is fascinating. A coffee drinker, loner,

Reading the lovely Proustian interlude that is M Train, I felt like a shadow-angel trailing Patti Smith, from Café 'Ino down the block from her New York apartment to the far-flung places in her past and present that twirl like ribbons in her poetry, her songs, her art. M Train is a meditation on this artist's life, more kaleidoscope than memoir, a shifting wonder that spills pieces of colored glass memories. The clarity of Patti Smith's language, the fragility of her voice, made me want to wrap

Patti Smith is precious. She is not a writer - but she's also a writer. She's a rock star but of an unusual kind. She's a poet but also a photographer and visual artist. She's that person that elides all these categories revealing possibilities that eschew the usual "she's this or that". Patti Smith is this and that, and many other things besides. More importantly, she's this and that (girl but also tomboy, woman but also an androgynous person) without being someome out there that has nothing to...

What's the point of reading books? Do they really help? Sometimes – compulsively turning pages to lift your mood – you have to wonder. I think often of a line I read once in an Orhan Pamuk novel: ‘Books, which we mistake for consolation, only add depth to our sorrow.’ That hurts so much that you feel there must be something to it.It's been quite some time now since the fascination and joy I get from books could be ascribed to youthful enthusiasm, but I still worry that I'll reach some older, wis...

Oh Patti! you didn't half give me the munchies whilst reading this. Lost count of the amount of times brown toast dipped in olive oil was mentioned. That happens to be one of my favourite snacks! And what about the craving for coffee. A girl after my own heart is she! Bucket loads of coffee! Apart from a cup of sake, there wasn't much mention of alcoholic. Which for me was a good thing, as I didn't have any in at the time and the last thing I wanted was to read this licking my lips at the mentio...

I remember this tv commercial where a guy comes down the stairs, he is dressed and has his luggage in hand. He stops in the foyer, picks up a dart and throws it at a map of the world on the wall. The idea being that he has the time and resources to travel anywhere at any time. Well, that's Patti Smith, but instead of darts she uses random thoughts, or passages from books, or memories. She is always on the move, both physically and spiritually, seemingly trying to soothe her battered and tortured...

"Life is at the bottom of things and belief at the top, while the creative impulse, dwelling in the center, informs all." - Patti Smith, M Train My second Patti Smith memoir. This one was more experimental and nonlinear than Just Kids (which still wasn't exactly linear). It was filled with dreams, detective shows, talismans, cats, constant travels, coffee, more coffee, missing things, memories, loose threads, graveyards, hotels, photographs, and miles and miles of beautiful, lyrical Patti Smith

A very quiet, elegiac book, memories linked one to the next--that's the train, the M train. In tone it reminded me more of the works of W.G. Sebald than of her earlier book Just Kids. It has none of the exuberance of that memoir of youth--in which she recaptured the tone, the feeling, of youth. This is the voice, the mind, of an older person looking back through a tangible scrim of loss. And yet, her memories are very much a child showing you the contents of his pockets, his array of child-treas...

"M Train" is perhaps one of the most romantic books of being a writer, and those who likes to read. What can be better than reading and writing in a small hip cafe, and watching the world go by. And on top of that, visit every cool writer's grave site - from Europe to Japan. Patti Smith is not a hard person to figure out. She conveys the spirit of being a book nerd as well as a rock n' roll lunatic. In many ways, it's a very simple image of a writer/artist. Yet it is the simple aspect of it that...

I can't believe Patti Smith wrote a book about drinking black coffee and watching serial crime dramas and it's the best thing I've ever read.

Filmmaker Jim Jarmusch once said in an interview that if all culture breaks down, he's following Patti Smith. Much of the pleasure of reading Smith's nostalgic M Train is that it offers fascinating insights into her interior life, her dreams, her quixotic travel adventures, her literary obsessions (listed in my Comment below), and her minimalist, bohemian tastes for such things as black coffee, brown bread with olive oil, Polaroids, word games, moleskines, detective stories, and her favorite bla...

Poetic, Meandering Meditation on Loneliness, Love, and LossPatti Smith's latest memoir, M Train, is more rambling and poetic, less coherent and focused than "Just Kids". Yet, I found it almost as moving, but in an entirely different way. "Just Kids" was an emotional tribute to a beautiful connection between two twin souls, Patti Smith and Robert Mapplethorpe. "M Train" covers wider ground.The M train actually exists in the NY City subway. I'd forgotten it. I may have ridden it once (if ever). It...

I thrived on this one as she shared how she was influenced by certain books that I favor and suceeded in engaging me on surprising adventures and missions, even ones I would I never consider for myself. She believes in details of writings and specific places as portals that allow one to channel people one cares about. That was a thrill when it came to elements of books I loved like Bolano’s “2666” and Murakami’s “Windup Bird Chronicle” and appetizing for others not yet read, like Bulgakov’s “Mas...

Sometimes the right book finds us at the right time. For me this was the book. No linear, no plot to speak of, just musings and meanderings of a creative woman. Search for the perfect coffee, cafés, Hurricane Sandy, her obsession with detective shows and the way she enters into the lives of authors and novels. At times her writing is poetic, at others very poignant, especially when thinking or remembering her husband, Fred and her children when they were young. Her photography, travels, conferen...

My 2nd audiobook and it was Patti Smith again... I just love listening to her. We are taken around the globe 🌎 in her memories and reflections of the past and I especially enjoyed the memories of her husband Fred Sonic Smith and her life here in Michigan.

‘I’m sure I could write endlessly about nothing. If only I had nothing to say.’ Patti Smith carries us through her esoteric stories of the past and present in this short story/essay collection. M Train reads like an internal journey, a solo exploration. She recalls cafes visited all around the world, writing or simply sitting and reminiscing while drinking an insane amount of coffee that makes my own addiction to caffeine seem laughable. While Smith seems completely content with her own compa

In my life I have had various musical periods where I would want to listen to one artist exclusively for a period of time, exhausting myself on listening over and over again to all the media I could get. There was a long Led Zeppelin period back in HS, also a Doors period and The Police. In college I had a REM period and U2. At other times, sporadically over the years I have experienced this binge listening and I always enjoy the time, its like meeting a new friend and wanting to spend all of yo...

I saw Patti Smith speak about this book on her book tour. At the event, I got a copy of the book. In fact, some how I ended up with two copies. And then, I carried that book with me everywhere. I traveled a lot for work, always taking this book, starting it, getting distracted, and then it sat there. I hesitated on the audio book since I have the print. But honestly, there is no better way to 'read' a Patti Smith book that to have her narrate it to you. So I finally caved, audio it was, and it w...