Good writing is addictive — ask Mackenzie Phillips.
“I’m a fool for Philippa Gregory,” she tells The Post’s Barbara Hoffman. “I was in Scotland making a film and came across ‘The Other Boleyn Girl’ and some other great books by her. I’ve pretty much read everything she’s written!”
Phillips, the erstwhile Julie Cooper of TV’s “One Day at a Time,” knows about addiction: Her bare-knuckle memoir, “High on Arrival,” details her hellish descent into heroin, as well as a drug-fueled affair with her father, John Phillips, the late founder of the Mamas and the Papas. And while she’s been on “Oprah” with Kathryn Harrison — whose book “The Kiss” also mines incestuous terrain — she’s yet to read it, though she plans to. Here are a few memoirs that resonated with her.
Scar Tissue
by Anthony Keidis
I love the way this was written. I think I read it twice. I knew Anthony when he was a teenager — we’re both close to the same age — and I’m a big fan of the [Red Hot] Chili Peppers. He had a really intensely difficult time with drugs.
Running with Scissors
by Augusten Burroughs
I loved it so much — it was so on the edge of believability, because so many crazy things happened in his life. I read it when it first came out and there was an e-mail address in the back. I began this e-mail friendship with him and sent him an early galley of my book and he blurbed for it . . . I wasn’t as crazy about the movie [version].
Faithfull
by Marianne Faithfull
Marianne Faithfull is one of the iconic women of the ‘60s and ‘70s, who set the tone for fashion. She was Mick Jagger’s girlfriend and hung out with the Stones — this well-bred English girl [who] went down a dark road and lived on the streets before turning her life around. She captures the glamour of that rock-and-roll scene.
The Heroin Diaries
by Nikki Sixx
This book is the craziest depiction of hardcore addiction that I’ve ever read. It’s written in diary form, and there’s a lot of graphic art and disturbing images. When I was reading that book, I was doing heroin. I still have my copy that’s kind of mangled. It has a place of pride on my bookshelf, having come full circle.