Books

Life

Keith Richards tells his story with humor and aplomb.

Anyone who’s been successful in the arts for so long or negotiated a fragile contract with substances for so long is going to have an interesting story. 

As you’d expect, Keith Richards has an interesting story. 

What you might not expect is how well told it is. He’s smarter, more sensitive, and wiser than I would have guessed. And his ghost writer let Keith’s voice shine through in an authentic way, so the whole thing sounds right. 

You get stories of boyhood, of the rise to fame, of substance abuse, of and of intra-band drama. And a whole lot of deep love for music. 

It’s pretty much pitch perfect. Even if you don’t like the man’s music, it’s just a great book. 

And incredibly, for all that hard living, you get a happy ending. Aside from the occasional fall out of a palm tree or off a bookshelf, he has a nice, fairly mellow life now. He reads a lot, and shouts out the Aubrey-Maturin series, one of my favorites. 

Can’t miss.

Captains Courageous 

Ultra rich kid rescued from North Atlantic by cod fishermen, forced to work for months, receives enough routine psychological wear and tear to grow into a man. 

It’s all so optimistic, sincere, well intentioned that I found it easy to forgive the trite parts. Good medicine for kids and tweens. Nearly but not entirely entertaining enough to hold their interest. 

Read it to your kids if you can, but only if they already love books. Otherwise read whatever they love until you’ve clinched the habit. My boys were neutral to it. 

Not the kind of thing any adult should read independently.

Really appreciate these

Why should an adult not read independently? Not worth their time?

Be specific.    
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d33m:mun

Correct. One of my goals with this book review project is to help people who read a lot pick which books to prioritize. 

I haven’t found a single list that credibly conveys whether classics and other old books are actually fun to read. This series of reviews attempts that. 

Unless you average a hundred books a year and you’ve kept that pace for decades, there’s just no way this book is going to deserve a slot, no matter what your literary tastes are. There are just way too many higher yield choices.