Can you imagine finding out you had a year to live and thinking, “I think I’ll spend it at work”? Credit: GEORGE CLERK/ISTOCK

Can you imagine finding out you had a year to live and thinking, “I think I’ll spend it at work”?

Can you imagine finding out you had a year to live and thinking, “I think I’ll spend it at work”? GEORGE CLERK/ISTOCK

Though many of us were moved to type a few words when we learned that David Bowie had died, Rob Sheffield went the distance.

The Rolling Stone journalist started writing on January 10, the night the dreadful news arrived, and didn’t stop until he had written a book. On Bowie, published late last month, isn’t an exhaustive biography, nor a discography, nor an exegesis. It’s a book about how and why the correct response to Bowie was, and will remain, obsessive love. It’s about what it is like to spend your whole life thinking intensely about Bowie’s decisions, vicissitudes, triumphs, and failures as if they were integral facets of your own psyche. And now, half a year later, it’s also about missing him, still missing him, even after all that love and intense thought…

Sean Nelson has worked at The Stranger on and off since 1996. He is currently Editor-at-Large. His past job titles included: Assistant Editor, Associate Editor, Film Editor, Copy Editor, Web Editor, Slog...