Dylan wins Nobel Prize in Literature

Mapman, thanks for that.  You've reminded of a little-known Dylan work, "Last Thoughts on Woody Guthrie,"  which you can read here:

http://bobdylan.com/songs/last-thoughts-woody-guthrie/

or you can hear Bob himself read it aloud (which is better) here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0OdNY8Aybw

Was the award given for his recent book, or for his music/lyrics? Everyone seems to think that it is for his music, but since it is a literary award, I would think it was for his book...

I'm pretty sure it's for his lyrics, not his music or his books.

Perhaps it has been noted and I missed it. Read the words of Johnny Cash about Dylan on the back of the Nashville Skyline LP.

I agree with @jesusa0 and others. Look, I appreciate what Dylan has done for culture, for zeitgeist, for capturing and creating and extending through his lyrics what culture could only embody as an inchoate creation without him.

But really? Dylan over Borges, Cormac McCarthy, Philip Roth, Oates, Murakami?

Without the stage and the studio as his media, his lyrics would never have had the impact they had. He had tools at his disposal these other far more deserving writers never had.

I vote next year the Nobel Committee consider Springsteen, Ice Cube, and Neil Peart among their shortlist for the Nobel Prize in Literature.

What a joke.