BTT: It's All About Me
November 5, 2009 by Pete
Comments (4)
Which do you prefer? Biographies written about someone? Or Autobiographies written by the actual person (and/or ghost-writer)?
I think that both have benefits, but I really love Autobiographies - if the person is a natural raconteur it really gives them an opportunity to give anecdotes and things that really couldn't be related as well by a third person. I read The Moon's A Balloon at the start of this year and it was fantastic, David Niven's natural wit and humour shine through all the way. I also read Errol Flynn's My Wicked, Wicked Ways and, though apparently he was prone to stretch the truth a bit, it was very entertaining and the 'look at me I'm fynn'-ness of it was curbed at other times by admittance of faults.
However, I think that a big reason that those books were so entertaining was because the people were not only entertaining but were real stars who'd had big careers. I'm not a huge fan of all these twenty year old footballers and "glamour" models writing theirs as I don't think they've done anything worth an autobiography.
As a reader of history, however, you can't always access autobiography and I have quite a few historical biographies. Dallek's John F. Kennedy is a very good read but the most personal and humane portraits I've read in them came from Robert K. Massie in Nicholas and Alexandra and William Hague in his very interesting biography of William Wilberforce.
Who knew? Turns out I had more biographies and autobiographies than I first thought when I read the question.
I've been reading loads of Autobiogs this year, I prefer AB's to B's, because you can usually picture the person telling you the story. My favourite this year was William Shatner's - Up till Now which was a really good laugh, a fascinating read of a long career. He goes into a lot about how he first got into acting, how he started at and the pages are filled with hilarious anecdotes from the start. Certain AB's I don't bother with unless I really like the person it's about. I'm reading Peter Kay's second one at the moment, his first was very easy read and because he's such a funny guy you laugh all the way through and there aren't any depressing, sad moments as you can get in some AB's. Everyone wants to tell their tragic moments as well as their triumphs. I've also got Chris Evans's to read because I like listening to him on the radio and over the years he's had quite an interesting career and bit of craziness but he's one of these celbrities who isn't a 'woe is me' kind of person but thinks 'well it happend, I'll be honest about it and move on with my life.' I don't mind reading some of the modern celebs stories if they've had a long enough or interesting enough career to form a book. For instance I read Ant n Dec;s book this year as well which covers twenty or more years of career so I thought it was worth it. But I don't think anything is as interesting as some of the old stars stories, then again the Golden age of film seems much more interesting than the film stars of these days.
My next read is going to be Andre Agassi's book which I'm looking forward to getting but don't know whether to buy it when it comes out or hope someone buys it for me for Christmas. I was thinking of reading 'Mad Dogs and Englishmen: An Expediton round my family' by Sir Ranulph Fiennes - anyone read anything of his to say if they are good reads or not? The write up makes it sound like a good read.
I'm also thinking of reading Barack Obama's 'Dreams from my father' but I've such a set to get through on the bookshelf at the moment I'm trying not to buy new ones until I've gotten through them. Wouldn't mind reading WH's 'Wiberforce' book too.
Sarah Lou 267 days ago
Yes! That's exactly the feeling, I'm old fashioned and like my stars to have done big things before they become worth reading about! :)
Thanks for the comments.
Pete 267 days ago
Ah, William Shatner - now there is a guy whose been around for a while! :)
Mad Dogs and Englishmen does look like a really interesting book, I was flicking through it in Waterstone's and his family has done so many interesting things.
Pete 267 days ago
Kelly
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No, you didn't dodge answering it at all. ;)
As far as reading an Errol Flynn memoir versus say a Paris Hilton memoir there is no comparison. I too feel like saying "And exactly what have you done in your short life to make this read even remotely worth it?".
So no comparison there at all.
Great thoughts!
Kelly 267 days ago