Good Reads

Three Books I Can't Wait to Read

Airports. They captivate me. As a traveller, I feel as excited and oddly comfortable in a new airport as I do a new city. The more you travel through airports, the more you learn their inner workings and understand their unanimous geography (and the less you "hate to travel"). Ladies, the same may be said for you and malls. And just as ladies can intuitively find the Victoria Secret store (so can guys; the 15ft banner of a seductive supermodel in sexy underwear is a bit of give-away), so can the seasoned airport-navigator find his reprieve. For me, that's the book store. In my recent New Zealand layover, perusing titles in the non-fiction isle of one such reprieve, I came across three books that have made it to the top of my reading list. Thought I'd share them.

Welcome To Paradise, Now Go To Hell, by Chas Smith

This book promises to be a good read, a naked exposition of the North Shore's modern surf culture. Depicting a scene of drugs, ego, balls, and brutality, this is not the hippie, laid-back surf culture of Beach Boys songs; it's a culture where Gidget wakes up hung-over, roofied, and ready to party all over again. Opening with the author (and former war reporter) coming-to with the muzzle of an AK-47 glaring at him, kidnapped and self-conscious about being executed with his hideous Ellen DeGeneres haircut, Welcome To Paradise, Now Go To Hell should deliver nothing but decadently unapologetic, egotistically beautiful prose and one hellova story -- de facto Chas Smith. 

My Booky Wook, by Russell Brand

Even for a comedian of such stature and nimble hilarity as Russell Brand, there's nothing funny about the ultimatum of being imprisoned, mental-institutionalised, or dead in six months if old habits don't die hard and fast. Now a recipient of the British Comedy Award's Best Newcomer, and GQ's Most Stylish Man, Russell Brand limns his self portrait up till 2003 as a bulimic twelve-year-old, an addicted sixteen-year-old, a cutter, and a druggy. He had a thing for SoHo prostitutes and once engulfed himself in flames while on crack. Okay, so his story doesn't sound so different from any other Hollywood or Rock N' Roll figurehead, but, as per standard, he promises delivery. His life is as dishevelled as his hair, but his locution, ostensible humility, and grace after adversity make him one of my few celebrity heroes. 

Richard Branson: The Autobiography, by Sir Richard Branson

Few people outside of family receive admiration from me like Richard Branson. They guy has solidified himself as one of history's greatest entrepreneurs -- simply by doing cool shit. Fun shit that pushed boundaries. I think much of success is the direct result of his charisma... I mean, he popularised a business called Virgin. That's a slap in the face to any bullies who picked on him in high school. His adventures have put him and those in his company in some extremely hairy, very compromising situations. Take his hot-air-balloon flight gone wrong over China, for example. That story comes towards the end of the book (I know this, because it's the part I happened to open to casually while scoping out the new addition that explains how September 11th and the global economic crash have affected Virgin), on the coattails of some of the wildest rides non-fiction can take you. And throughout, he's smiling. What a guy. I'm sure any of his other books, especially the popular Like A Virgin, are equally as good.

Happy Reading.