Ladies and gentlemen, the Rolling Stones

Just in time for the holidays, the Rolling Stones have released a $40 coffee table book, According to the Rolling Stones. Joe Queenan’s review of the book is the lead review in tomorrow’s Sunday Times Book Review: “Please allow us to introduce ourselves.” Queenan provides a serious account of the book — I don’t think it will make the Power Line Christmas list — without shortchanging the humor inherent in the subject.

Inspirational quote: “Starting out as young English urbanites who borrowed from old rural Americans to create a hybrid genre that is still immensely popular with middle-aged suburbanites everywhere, the Stones have become the equivalent of the Himalayas: very old, very imposing, very resistant to change and dwarfing everything else in the landscape. In fairness to Mount Everest, its northern face has aged slightly better than [guitarist Keith] Richards’s has.”