Our Origin, Our Mission

It’s Alright Ma (I’m Only Reading): A Bob Dylan Book Club was founded by Peter White and Annie Burkhart in the Summer of 2023 to connect with fellow enthusiasts through shared interest in Bob Dylan and the desire to discuss his life and work through books. We meet monthly by Zoom—if you want to receive club news, special content, and Zoom links, join us through the link on the homepage.

Our mission is to cultivate a positive space to discuss books about Bob Dylan over his sixty plus years of artistic creation, his cultural context, and his artistic expressions, mainly in song but also his visual art, films, and other art forms.

Don’t think twice: it’s all right: This is a NO-GUILT and FREE book club! You don’t need to read the book to join our meetings. Come and get inspired to read the book under discussion…or, use the discussion to evaluate whether you want to read the book! In short, we aspire to be a place for Dylan-interested folks to hang out, meet like-minded others, and talk about Dylan, while also giving you a reason to read the books that are accumulating on your book shelves.

In the liner notes for Joan Baez In Concert Part 2, Dylan wrote “An mystery's all too involved/It can't be understood or solved/ By hands an feet an fingertips/An it shouldn't be called by a shameful name/By those who look for answers plain/ In every book cept themselves”—we certainly won’t find answers plain and, with Dylan, we too hope discussing Dylan’s work also leads you into self-discovery (in the book that is you) and deeper understanding of the mysteries he writes about.