The New York Times best-seller list has been looking of late like an old issue of Rolling Stone magazine. In fact, for several weeks this summer it featured the biography of an actual Rolling Stone, Keith Richards, as well as memoirs from other rockers such as Steven Tyler and Patti Smith. Even Sammy Hagar's Red was a Times No. 1 best-seller when it debuted last spring (granted, his tales of alien abduction might have had something to do with that). And the hits may keep on coming. Legends such as Pete Townshend, Gregg Allman, Jerry Lee Lewis and Linda Ronstadt have now signed with publishers to tell their stories.

"The authors' songs were the soundtracks to people's lives, and their stories act as lenses to look at our own lives and histories," says Allison Hill, president of Vroman's, a prominent independent bookstore in the L.A. area. "It helps that they're entertaining stories about sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll; it makes for some good guilty pleasure reading."'

For some current guilty pleasure reading of your own, try one of these:

Keith Richards' Life

"Believe it or not, I haven't forgotten any of it." That's what Richards scrawled on the dust jacket of Life. From the detailed and sprawling story he tells, it sure seems as if one of the hardest-living rockers ever still has his memory fully intact. His compelling narrative voice is what gets you. For 500 riveting pages, it's as if the most rolling of Stones plunked himself down on the next barstool and gave it to you straight, with advice on everything from guitar tunings to strategies in a knife fight.

Next: Patti Smith's Just Kids. >>