The Shadowlit Realms
| Labyrinth of the Mind |
The Unexpected BookI found myself reading a book that under normal circumstances I never would have even thought to pick up for a couple of reasons. For one the truth is I just don't read a lot of non-fiction, though I do try and altar that from time to time, which brings the 2nd reason, that it should go without saying that when I do read non-fiction it is about a topic of personal interest to me and usually something history related and the book in question happened to be about a subject of which I would not consider to be of any particular personal interest to me. It was quite by chance that I ended up reading it.
The book is a memoir by Brandon Novak, and many of you might have the same question I first had......just who the heck is Brandon Novak?
Well apparently he is something of a minor celebrity in the skating world.
The book belongs to my 19 year old cousin who was down visiting over the holidays and he is a part of the whole skateboarding counter-culture. He is a skater and follows the world of skating, and so he knew all about this Novak dude. And when I first saw him with the book there were a few things which immediately stood out to me before I even had any inkling of just what it was about:
1. Seeing my cousin with a book. Outside of comic books he had never been much of a reader, and I cannot recall an occasion before when he was reading a book voluntarily.
2. The title "Dreamseller" stuck out at me as being rather catchy and sounded intriguing.
3. The cover art which had a certain appeal to me.
4. Upon the front cover it said that it was a memoir of addiction and for personal reasons of my own I have a certain fascination with the world of addiction. I loved the movie Requiem for a Dream, and upon reading the back cover, it was all about Novak's struggle with his drug addiction and so that sort of peeked my interest.
So we had to go to this little family part, get together type thing that has been a tradition in the family for the Eve of the Yuletide. But one thing me and my cousin have in common is the fact that we are not much for mingling around and socializing. The two of us found a couch in the back to crash on together. After we had finished eating and such, and there was not much going on he brought out the book and being as I was siting right next to him and hadn't anything better to do I started reading over his shoulder.
I was first struck by what an easy and fast read the book was. I am accustomed to works of non-fiction being tedious and at times a bit dull to read, which is why I don't pursue them much, but this book was fast and easy, and proved as entertaining as a novel and so it began to draw in my interest.
At one point my cousin ended up getting distracted with something else and he knew that I was reading along so he just handed over the book to me to let me keep reading and ultimately ended up loaning it to me and told me I could go ahead and keep it until I was finished with it.
I am now within a few chapters of finishing it and I really enjoyed and one of the things that I think is really good about this book is the fact that, the truth is drugs and the skating lifestyle often do tend to go hand in hand, and I think this story could prove quite beneficial particularly to teenagers who embrace the skating culture.
While there are always going to be those whom are going to get into drugs no matter what, I think this book could have a positive influence. For one thing it holds nothing back, it shows the brutal, ugly, filthy truth about drug use and strips away any veneer of Hollywood glamour and romantization that the world of drug use might have from a distance.
And because part of the skating lifestyle is about this idea of rebellion and getting back at the man, fighting authority, I think teenagers would be a lot more receptive to this figure who is "one of them" sharing their story about the negative effect drugs have had on their life, than they would be just to parents or some other authority figure lecturing to them why drugs are bad.
1:08 PM - 12/30/2009 - post comment
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 For though All are not able to write books, all conceive themselves able to judge them. ~The Monk
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