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A Year with Swollen Appendices: Brian Eno's Diary
The diary and essays of Brian Eno republished twenty-five years on with a new introduction by the artist in a beautiful hardback edition.
At the end of 1994, musician, producer and artist Brian Eno resolved to keep a diary. His plans to go to the cinema, theatre and galleries fell through quickly. What he did do – and write – however, was ruminations on his collaborative work with artists including David Bowie, U2, James and Jah Wobble, interspersed with correspondence and essays dating back to 1978. These ‘appendices’ covered topics from the generative and ambient music Eno pioneered to what he believed the role of an artist and their art to truly be, alongside razor-sharp commentary on his day-to-day tribulations and happenings around the world.
A fascinating, candid and intimate insight into one of the most influential creative artists of our time, A Year with Swollen Appendices is an essential classic, reissued for a new generation of readers.
This beautiful 25th anniversary hardback edition has been re-designed in A5, the same size as the diary that eventually became this book. It features two ribbons, pink paper delineating the appendices (matching the original hardback edition) and a two-tone cover on boards that pays homage to the original design.
At the end of 1994, musician, producer and artist Brian Eno resolved to keep a diary. His plans to go to the cinema, theatre and galleries fell through quickly. What he did do – and write – however, was ruminations on his collaborative work with artists including David Bowie, U2, James and Jah Wobble, interspersed with correspondence and essays dating back to 1978. These ‘appendices’ covered topics from the generative and ambient music Eno pioneered to what he believed the role of an artist and their art to truly be, alongside razor-sharp commentary on his day-to-day tribulations and happenings around the world.
A fascinating, candid and intimate insight into one of the most influential creative artists of our time, A Year with Swollen Appendices is an essential classic, reissued for a new generation of readers.
This beautiful 25th anniversary hardback edition has been re-designed in A5, the same size as the diary that eventually became this book. It features two ribbons, pink paper delineating the appendices (matching the original hardback edition) and a two-tone cover on boards that pays homage to the original design.
480 pages, Paperback
Published May 9, 2023
61 people are currently reading
429 people want to read
About the author
Brian Eno
67 books144 followersBrian Peter George Eno, also mononymously known as Eno, is an English musician, songwriter, record producer and visual artist. He is best known for his pioneering contributions to ambient music and electronica, and for producing, recording, and writing works in rock and pop music. A self-described "non-musician", Eno has helped introduce unconventional concepts and approaches to contemporary music. He has been described as one of popular music's most influential and innovative figures. In 2019, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Roxy Music.
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
August 18, 2024
completely delightful and far exceeded my (already very high) expectations—probably most interesting for people who like some or all of the following:
aesthetic theory, details of what Eno cooked for his daughters, ‘90s-era meditations on software, the role of art and artists, music industry gossip and/or playing around with synthesizers, actually very good book recommendations on philosophy, political science, and cybernetics (turns out Eno is obscenely well-read)
aesthetic theory, details of what Eno cooked for his daughters, ‘90s-era meditations on software, the role of art and artists, music industry gossip and/or playing around with synthesizers, actually very good book recommendations on philosophy, political science, and cybernetics (turns out Eno is obscenely well-read)
July 11, 2025
10:1 Googling to reading ratio
October 6, 2024
“I notice two things about Belgians. First, they only get wild with their spectacle frames - Belgian spectacles are spectacular - second, they seem almost universally tainted (blessed?) with personal, regional and national self-doubt - reservation, detachment, melancholy. Almost universally, because the woman in the museum (mid 30s, looked a little like Jill Phillips) had the most genuine and deep smile for all her children (dozens of them) - a smile that only issues from complete sweetness and confidence. What a person to have as a mother. I bet Belgians have very complicated affairs and tortuous, heart-searching marriage breakups.
But all the same I enjoy these spuddy, craggy, torn-by-conflicting-emotions Flemish faces. When they smile it's like sun in a cold country
- so welcome, so sweet. Some fabulous noses. Proposal: A Book of Flemish Noses - coffee-table type, like Roadside Shrines of India.
The subway here is so civilized, so sensible and boring. If you could keep everything else the same but then import some NY graffiti artists... I keep wondering, can you have this degree of security and civilization without cutting away the sensuality and colour and experimentation of say New York? Is there anywhere that doesn't happen? (Barcelona?
Dublin?)”
“No one really minds too much what happened to Bosnia. It isn’t European or Muslim enough for either to really rally to it. Has it ever struck you as odd that you are always hearing about Muslim Bosnia, but never about CATHOLIC Croatia or ORTHODOX Serbia? And did you know that, while there are bishops and priests and primates at the highest levels of both those governments, there is not a mullah to be seen anywhere in the Bosnian government?
Muslim Bosnia is a media myth: the truth is that they are the only ones NOT fighting a fundamentalist religious war.
The Israelis ought to be helping out more, since Bosnia has been a traditional refuge for the Jews since Ferdinand and Isabella.”
“The paradox of modern painting: the message, again and again, is ‘Hey look - anyone can do it!’ But the market of course depends on exactly the opposite message: ‘Hey look - this is special!’
“I thought, I want to make a kind of music that prepares you for dying - that doesn’t get all bright and cheerful and pretend you’re not a little apprehensive, but which makes you say to yourself, “Actually, it’s not that big a deal if I die.” Thus was born the first Ambient record - Music for Airports - which I released on my own label (called Ambient Records, of course).“
But all the same I enjoy these spuddy, craggy, torn-by-conflicting-emotions Flemish faces. When they smile it's like sun in a cold country
- so welcome, so sweet. Some fabulous noses. Proposal: A Book of Flemish Noses - coffee-table type, like Roadside Shrines of India.
The subway here is so civilized, so sensible and boring. If you could keep everything else the same but then import some NY graffiti artists... I keep wondering, can you have this degree of security and civilization without cutting away the sensuality and colour and experimentation of say New York? Is there anywhere that doesn't happen? (Barcelona?
Dublin?)”
“No one really minds too much what happened to Bosnia. It isn’t European or Muslim enough for either to really rally to it. Has it ever struck you as odd that you are always hearing about Muslim Bosnia, but never about CATHOLIC Croatia or ORTHODOX Serbia? And did you know that, while there are bishops and priests and primates at the highest levels of both those governments, there is not a mullah to be seen anywhere in the Bosnian government?
Muslim Bosnia is a media myth: the truth is that they are the only ones NOT fighting a fundamentalist religious war.
The Israelis ought to be helping out more, since Bosnia has been a traditional refuge for the Jews since Ferdinand and Isabella.”
“The paradox of modern painting: the message, again and again, is ‘Hey look - anyone can do it!’ But the market of course depends on exactly the opposite message: ‘Hey look - this is special!’
“I thought, I want to make a kind of music that prepares you for dying - that doesn’t get all bright and cheerful and pretend you’re not a little apprehensive, but which makes you say to yourself, “Actually, it’s not that big a deal if I die.” Thus was born the first Ambient record - Music for Airports - which I released on my own label (called Ambient Records, of course).“
June 7, 2025
Continuing my trend of reading the works of my favorite musicians, I actually find it a wonder that Brian Eno gets anything done! I was disappointed by the lack of coverage regarding some of his projects, but then again, the 90s were not a fertile time for his solo career! While it is also interesting hearing about the ins and outs of his domestic life alongside professional, it is frustrating to not hear all that much about his creative processes beyond a handful of pithy axioms. The appendices in the back of my copy were actually more worthwhile than his diary…!
January 30, 2025
Scary, scary book - what Brian Eno might do in one week, in terms of work, or just pure thought, might be more than us commoners do in our whole lives. Moving to read how much time he spent on discussing, travelling, reading about the war in Bosnia, there are striking entries about the massacre in Srebenica. He always seems to be on the right side of history.
"Bono drives with the sort of abandon that suggests he really believes in an afterlife. This is the kind of driving you see in Thailand or Greece."
"Suppose you made a mediocre record and it went to the top of the charts. How would you feel?
"Bono drives with the sort of abandon that suggests he really believes in an afterlife. This is the kind of driving you see in Thailand or Greece."
"Suppose you made a mediocre record and it went to the top of the charts. How would you feel?
November 29, 2024
This isn't to say that Eno isn't an introspective person, but his diary entries are only about the actual facts of his day and nothing about his interior life.
I sort of want to give this book a higher rating because there is a bias towards only publishing content which is expected to be good, and it's good that Eno published something that is unique, and could have some value to some, but is predictably not going to be good.
The only three things I found interesting in the book are:
1) Eno, Kevin Kelly and Stewart Brand are close friends and engage in all sorts of intellectual conversation, in a way that could have only happened in the pre-internet era. Eno is creatively important, but as a thinker, he is shallow — in the age of blogs and twitter, the modern day equivalent of these three would be getting their intellectual consumption online.
2) Eno was very moved by what was happening in Bosnia and felt compelled to do whatever he could to help (and correctly identified that most left-wing ambivalence or opposition to the situation in Bosnia was largely due to reactionary anti-USA/pro-Russian sympathies), but in the modern context, it's surprising that his support for Ukraine is so weak.
3) It's very clear that the Holocaust is the most significant moral issue in Eno's life and driving his politics. Many Jews claim that a lot of anti-Zionism is from Christians who want to offload their guilt of historic anti-Semitism onto Israel to make themselves feel better about their past. Eno is a noted Israel hater going back a long time, but I don't think he hates Israel due to wanting to alleviate his guilt for the Holocaust, but rather, his takeaway from the Holocaust is that you always need to help victims and fight against those with power (irrespective of the specific context) — and then has extra emotional flare because he thinks Jews should have internalized this lesson, and then feels hurt that in his eyes, they didn't. It stood out to me that Eno thought Israel should have intervened in 1994 to help Bosnia, due to the Holocaust.
It's also nice this book served as a time capsule and helped me feel immersed in the pre-internet/smartphone world.
I sort of want to give this book a higher rating because there is a bias towards only publishing content which is expected to be good, and it's good that Eno published something that is unique, and could have some value to some, but is predictably not going to be good.
The only three things I found interesting in the book are:
1) Eno, Kevin Kelly and Stewart Brand are close friends and engage in all sorts of intellectual conversation, in a way that could have only happened in the pre-internet era. Eno is creatively important, but as a thinker, he is shallow — in the age of blogs and twitter, the modern day equivalent of these three would be getting their intellectual consumption online.
2) Eno was very moved by what was happening in Bosnia and felt compelled to do whatever he could to help (and correctly identified that most left-wing ambivalence or opposition to the situation in Bosnia was largely due to reactionary anti-USA/pro-Russian sympathies), but in the modern context, it's surprising that his support for Ukraine is so weak.
3) It's very clear that the Holocaust is the most significant moral issue in Eno's life and driving his politics. Many Jews claim that a lot of anti-Zionism is from Christians who want to offload their guilt of historic anti-Semitism onto Israel to make themselves feel better about their past. Eno is a noted Israel hater going back a long time, but I don't think he hates Israel due to wanting to alleviate his guilt for the Holocaust, but rather, his takeaway from the Holocaust is that you always need to help victims and fight against those with power (irrespective of the specific context) — and then has extra emotional flare because he thinks Jews should have internalized this lesson, and then feels hurt that in his eyes, they didn't. It stood out to me that Eno thought Israel should have intervened in 1994 to help Bosnia, due to the Holocaust.
It's also nice this book served as a time capsule and helped me feel immersed in the pre-internet/smartphone world.
September 24, 2024
Not sure what prompted me to dive into this… I wouldn’t consider myself a big Eno fan beyond Roxy Music (and Viva la Vida tbh). Ultimately it was my indiscriminate nosiness that had me committed to reading a year of this man's life.
Sadly there wasn’t anything too scandalous in here aside from the odd horny segue or casual mention of drinking urine.
I related his concurrent commitment to deadlines and wanting to be left tf alone. He seems to genuiely love his wife and kids. Also he taught me to cook with oyster sauce. It's interesting that the book covers what could be seen as a lull in his career—the U2 and Bowie albums he was working on were both kinda duds—but his overall vibe is always exploratory and psyched, with the occasional descent into despair.
He really do be brimming with ideas a freaky new ways of doing thing, which feels a bit exhausting when you consider that his best production work was in assistance of great songs to begin with…im looking at you “Viva la vida”!
Sadly there wasn’t anything too scandalous in here aside from the odd horny segue or casual mention of drinking urine.
I related his concurrent commitment to deadlines and wanting to be left tf alone. He seems to genuiely love his wife and kids. Also he taught me to cook with oyster sauce. It's interesting that the book covers what could be seen as a lull in his career—the U2 and Bowie albums he was working on were both kinda duds—but his overall vibe is always exploratory and psyched, with the occasional descent into despair.
He really do be brimming with ideas a freaky new ways of doing thing, which feels a bit exhausting when you consider that his best production work was in assistance of great songs to begin with…im looking at you “Viva la vida”!
August 22, 2024
One of the most prescient and insightful books I've ever read, Eno writes with such incisive lucidity and has the most fantastic little turns of phrase which jump out at you. I had to stop every few pages to look up some utterly fascinating thing he mentioned. He spends a lot of time in the appendices trying to answer the three questions: What is art, what gives something value? Also basically a guide on how to live your life - so much travel, music, art, food, wine, family...
March 7, 2024
This is my first time reading a diary and I got super lost and uninterested. There are too many names and too many abbreviations of names I was confused throughout. Could be me tho, who knows. I’m sure it’s a good book objectively but overall not for me. I would like to revisit it eventually
May 18, 2024
There’s some really magical sentences in here like: “To deliver a mythic depth…”
There were scattered parts here in there / everywhere that gave me the feeling of “there are times where we should know less about each other.”
But this is also what I get from reading a diary
There were scattered parts here in there / everywhere that gave me the feeling of “there are times where we should know less about each other.”
But this is also what I get from reading a diary
Read
October 9, 2025While I hoped this would be a fascinating look into the mind and creative process of Eno, whose music and production I love, it’s just been kind of mundane. I should probably just read the appendices but for now it’s going back on the shelf.
July 10, 2023
It's hard to believe this was written nearly 30 years ago. So many prescient and timely ideas presented. The diary was fascinating but the appendices are where it is at!
October 1, 2023
A beautiful, sophisticated mind, an inspiring book.
November 21, 2024
Some funny good takes. I love these diaries. More British media elite diaries.
August 16, 2025
One of the best books I’ve read about art music and living. Highly recommend. Will change how you think.
September 10, 2025
Not sure why anyone would publish a diary or why anyone would read a diary but you should read this published diary.
February 26, 2025
This book made me feel like I had missed out on so much of life. On the 7th January 1995, Brian Eno had done more in seven days than I typically did in a month.
I found his musings on music, war, technology, advancement, purpose etc to be relatable in such a strange way. How could a man so far removed from my own reality think so similarly?
I realised he is not special and we are all so painfully human. And yet he is so intriguing.
This book made me look at myself and decide to live a life I could enjoy. I decided to continue to read this year, to step away from social media, to exist in the here and now.
And whether it was borne of misguided nostalgia for a time I would never experience, or just a fascination with the idea of how my own diary could look in 365 days time… it has only had the positive effect of making me want to live life again. So, no scathing commentary on this one. Just a good, hearty dose of “remember why you’re here”.
I found his musings on music, war, technology, advancement, purpose etc to be relatable in such a strange way. How could a man so far removed from my own reality think so similarly?
I realised he is not special and we are all so painfully human. And yet he is so intriguing.
This book made me look at myself and decide to live a life I could enjoy. I decided to continue to read this year, to step away from social media, to exist in the here and now.
And whether it was borne of misguided nostalgia for a time I would never experience, or just a fascination with the idea of how my own diary could look in 365 days time… it has only had the positive effect of making me want to live life again. So, no scathing commentary on this one. Just a good, hearty dose of “remember why you’re here”.
July 8, 2024
check the appendices section first, esp. 'CD- ROMS', 'Generative Music', and, 'Ambient Music', Eno writes concisely on these subjects.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews