Exploring a musical obsession

It's hard to resist a book that starts like this: "It's okay with me if you hate karaoke. But ask yourself: Do you really want to be like Don Henley?"

That's how Brian Raftery opens his 2008 book "Don't Stop Believin': How Karaoke Conquered the World and Changed My Life." And those two sentences set the tone for a delightful exploration — part memoir, part cultural history — of Raftery's obsession with karaoke.

Raftery begins by defending his favorite pastime against sneering naysayers like Henley, the Eagles co-founder who achieved lasting notoriety by forbidding karaoke companies to record songs from his catalog, whether from his solo career or the Eagles era. (Raftery says that Henley's arrogance and inclination to take his music seriously inspired Mojo Nixon's 1990 song "Don Henley Must Die," not to mention a karaoke compilation including several Henley songs called "Hits of the Don & Friends, Vol.1.")

From there, Raftery launches into a chronicle of his lifetime fascination with karaoke, mixed with tales from his globe-trotting search for the roots of the phenomenon. He packs his story with plenty of hilarious anecdotes, told with a  wry good humor that never condescends to either his subject or his fellow obsessives. Best of all, his joy in karaoke shines through on every page.

"Don't Stop Believin'" is by turns funny, touching and exhilarating — a great karaoke performance, told in pitch-perfect prose.