My Booky Wook (2007)

Thoroughly enjoyable! Brand writes with the same breezy tone he uses for stand up. There are some darkly funny moments peppered into Brand's fairly dark exploits along the path of Brand's frank memoir. Like the man, the book is suprisingly smart, witty, rarely sappy, and (thankfully) never self-flagellant. ( )

Much better written than I expected! But my god, what a terrible person.

I was, however, charmed by the footnotes he apparently added for the US edition, explaining various UK cultural references. I ( )

I don't particularly care for the autobiographies of people who aren't dead, but since this reads as the autobiography of a person who could quite easily have been dead, it more or less fits my prerequisite for biography reading.

I find Russell Brand very funny. He has a smart and irreverent sense of humour, which is present in this well-written and not surprisingly erudite book. Brand talks candidly about his drug problems and sex addiction as well as his his formative years and thirst for fame.

You can't read this book without feeling a little sympathy for Brand as he just spirals further and further out of control, but you also can't escape really disliking this egotistical and self-destructive character who doesn't give a shit about the impact of his actions on others, or possibly doesn't care if he comes across as unapologetic.

Overall, it was a funny read and I still have a lot of time for Brand's off-kilter humour and think it's awesome that he's clean and sober and speaks out for addiction as an illness. The book certainly didn't make me dislike him (beyond certain moments).

Though, three stars because I can't seem to want to give it more than that. ( )

Funny and poignant. I REALLY good read.

http://wp.me/p20PAS-gj ( )

My primary take-away from My Booky Wook is to never invite Russell Brand to any party I'm throwing. All that other stuff about how heroin is a bad idea, as well as cocaine and indiscriminate sex, I'd pretty much already figured out.

Still, if not instructional (not many people are in danger of wanting to do the things Brand gets up to on an ordinary afternoon), it is entertaining. Brand has a charming, self-effacing wit that extracts sympathy through some very extreme examples of poor impulse control. He knows he's being an enormous jerk, but still, it's all a bit funny, isn't it? And it generally is, not as it actually happened (I suspect), but in how Brand tells the story afterward. The result is a sort of odd mix of Sid Vicious and Michael Palin; debauchery written about by a guy who really loves his Mom and his cat. ( )