Who Is Andrew Beattie?

Dearest people,

I hope you are just damn swell.

It’s Friday evening, I’m sober, and at home and my mind appears just about clear enough to get a smattering of words down onto this little blog/diary thing that I do every once in a while and so I’ll grab the bull by the horns, and pull its fucking head off. Jesus where did that come from? Where does any of this shit ever come from? Ole.

World book day, a day that before this year I never knew existed. A day that a couple of years back I’m not sure if I’d have cared existed. Evidently,  a couple of years back I was a massively ignorant twat, because the way I see it now world book day is possibly the best day of all, after Christmas. I do love me a good book.

I don’t really remember reading a great deal, not nearly in the same ferocious manner in which I do presently, before around this time last year. I mean I read before then but only very occasionally, holiday times with my ex-girlfriend spring to mind but then that may have been just to fill the many hours of extreme tedium. Around this time last year though, at least that’s when I seem to remember it, something changed. I was suddenly transformed into a book whore, a hoarder of the bound works and words of great authors and some of the not so great also but most of which I’d never heard of at that point. I had changed and seemed to be spending money almost constantly on amazon.com to acquire new reading materials. I was suddenly doing, on average, about 2 new books in a week and I haven’t stopped. When will this stop? For the love of God, when will this madness stop?

So when I remembered that yesterday was world book day I decided almost immediately that I would dedicate my next little journey into the very depths of my fractured and cluttered mind to books. A website about me, and by me, literally would not be complete without it.

What follows from here then is a little list of the books that I truly, deeply love, the books that have changed my perception of literature with each reading, the books that have inspired me to write more than any others, and the books which I treasure the most amongst the others on my shelves. I’ve also included a little explanation and a link to amazon.com so that you can buy them immediately. Here we go:

1. Peter Pan – J. M. Barrie

This is my favourite book and story of all time. A boy who could fly and desired never to grow up, pirates and Indians are just a few of my favourite things. Buy this and you’ll read it cover to cover in a couple of days. Then buy Peter Pan in Scarlett and support Great Ormond Street Hospital.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Peter-Pan-Penguin-Popular-Classics/dp/0140621415/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1267873920&sr=8-1

2. On the Road – Jack Kerouac

I had been told by friends that I wouldn’t like this book and after reading the first 5 pages 20 or so times within a couple of months I was inclined to believe them. We were both so very wrong, I know this now. Pure prose and energetic poetic commentary follow Jack Kerouac’s Sal Paradise across 1950’s America along with Dean Moriarty (Neal Cassady) in a tale of Jazz, booze, sex, drugs, love and longing. I could write all day about it. I won’t. Just go buy it. See also Howl, Kaddish and other poems by Allen Ginsberg.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Road-Penguin-Modern-Classics/dp/0141182679/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1267874228&sr=1-1

3. The Smoking Diaries – Simon Gray

The book that took my 24 year writing block away is an autobiographical, memoir, diary, and the first in a 4 part Series by Simon Gray. The thing I love about this book and series the most is Simon Gray’s absolute honesty to his story which make the book hilarious in parts and moving in others. This book is absolutely the reason that I do this blog at all and is a must buy for any collection.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/product-description/1847080545/ref=dp_proddesc_0?ie=UTF8&n=266239&s=books

 4. Exploration Fawcett – Percy Fawcett

I read this book almost immediately after reading the Lost City of Z by David Grann which is an account of both the story of our hero Percy Fawcett’s pursuit of what he believed to be the centre of an ancient civilisation deep in the Amazon, Z,  and the subsequent failed attempts to find it. Exploration Fawcett then is the actual diary kept by Percy Fawcett in the build up and during his failed adventure which cost both his life and the life of his Son Jack and his friend Raleigh. I’m not sure whether the book appealed mostly to my inner child’s sense of adventure or whether it’s the era and story that I find most interesting. Either way, it’s a ‘wonderful’ adventure story.  A new version of this book was released this year but I’d strongly suggest buying an old copy as its both cheaper and its age, for me at least, adds a little something to the story.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/EXPLORATION-FAWCETT-LT-COL-P/dp/B000NTT7RK/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1267875490&sr=1-4

5. The Rum Diary – Hunter S. Thompson

Hunter S. Thompson’s Paul Kemp, Puerto Rico, a failing newspaper, a few crazy journalists and a shit load of rum – I was always going to love this book long before I ever read it. The story is both twisted and fast paced and so I can almost guarantee that you will blast through it in minimum time on several occasions for the rest of your life. I will anyway. See also, me being super excited about 2010 The Rum Diary Film starring Johnny Depp as Thompson’s Paul Kemp.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Rum-Diary-Bloomsbury-Classic-Reads/dp/074757457X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1267875631&sr=1-1

6. I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell – Tucker Max

A guilty pleasure that I dip in and out of on a weekly basis and I consider myself very fortunate indeed to have picked up on the last day of a holiday in Canada a couple of years back. There are a million reasons why you or anyone shouldn’t like this book, or rather the stories it contains, but a million more why you will probably laugh out loud in between wincing at the Stories. The true stories are written by Tucker Max, about Tucker Max, and are probably best summed up by the product description found on Amazon. If you are easily offended then do not buy this book but I would strongly suggest that you get a fucking life then pick up a copy.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Hope-They-Serve-Beer-Hell/dp/0141029455/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1267876119&sr=1-1

The books that never made it but were gosh darn close: Three men in a boat, The Vesuvius Club, 20,000 leagues under the sea, The Glass book of the dream eaters, McCarthy’s bar, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.

And so there it is guys my little list of books that I love. The thing I think that excites me the most about books is that there are a million more in existence, and even more unwritten in the minds of the world, that could, would and will make this list in future. The reality, for me at least, is that I’d love to write one myself that make’s someone else’s. In fact, I’m going to.

And so, what’s left in store for me this weekend. We’ll I’m going to try and make the most of the sober head and mind and get some more writing done. I’ve one or two little projects on that I will reveal to you in fullness of time that will require my mostly complete dedication. As such, I will sleep now, then have a fry up and go to the cinema to watch Alice in Wonderland before I start tomorrow. I am nothing if not dedicated to my cause.

Thank you for stopping in again to read. I promise I’ll be back before the weekends out. Do check back as I’m going to attack religion and politics next time and tell you a story about a polar bear in a trilby. Most probably anyway. Until then,

Go read, and do it every day.

Yours,

Andrew Beattie

P.S. I make no money from you clicking the above amazon links and buying the books so if you find them cheaper elsewhere then get them there. The amazon comments I’ve found to be pretty useful though in the past although not always 100% accurate.