Book description
Previously uncollected nonfiction pieces by Hollywood's ultimate It Girl about everything from fashion to tango to Jim Morrison and Nicholas Cage.
With Eve’s Hollywood Eve Babitz lit up the scene in 1974. The books that followed, among them Slow Days, Fast Company and Sex and Rage, have seduced generations of…
Why read it?
2 authors picked I Used to Be Charming as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?
This woman is a Hollywood icon, and her stories put you smack-dab in the center of every party, every hangout, and every living room, being seen and making the scene. She places you in the center of her head as she tells you her life story and who the players are.
We are center stage, hanging out at the Troubadour bar, a trendy lunch place, and she sets her lap on fire by mistake… all with wit and amazing insight into the time and iconic places surrounding her. I loved seeing these places through her experience and felt like I…
From Heather's list on 60s 70s rock and roll stories.
I don’t remember how I ended up with Eve Babitz’s wry and entertaining memoir on my “to-read” list, but I was so impressed I had to follow it up with a biography of her.
Dubbed the ultimate ‘LA It Girl’, Babitz was an artist, writer, and collector of lovers and friends from every creative corner of the city.
She hung out at the Troubadour with Jim Morrison, played chess (naked) with Marcel Duchamp, dated (ahem) any number of boldface actors, and turned her life into writing that captured the pleasures and absurdities of life in Los Angeles.
From love to…
If you love I Used to Be Charming...
Getting Dressed in the Dark
How do you know the truth after the story you most trust disappears?
Self-betrayal, polyamory, adultery, and an unconventional life in a one-room, rural Maine schoolhouse ends in a crisis mirroring the larger, societal polarization and collapse of meaning. Compass shattered, an artist's wisdom guides a course home, revealing a…
Want books like I Used to Be Charming?
Our community of 12,000+ authors has personally recommended 67 books like I Used to Be Charming.
Share your top 3 reads of 2025!
And get a beautiful page showing off your 3 favorite reads.
1,277
readers submitted
so far, will you?
