One of my goals in 2020 is to read more. See other books I've read or listened to here.
Audible gave me Break Shot: My First 21 Years by James Taylor for free. How did they know I’m a James Taylor fan?!
Although I’ve listened to James Taylor basically all my life (my mother is a fan), I didn’t really know much about his life. I knew some of the big points, like that he was a heroin addict, and that he was married to Carly Simon, that he had a cameo on The Simpsons, and that I loved his music, but that was basically it.
James Taylor came up with the title for his first autobiography while walking in the woods. He thought the idea of the first move in any game of pool, the break shot, was a perfect metaphore for his early life. The move that got everything else started.
The first thing that struck me about this book was the reading. I cannot believe how awkward a reader JT is! Stiff and mechanical, not at all conversational like he is in his concerts. This audio book reading is interjected with music and singing which can be distracting. Once I got over the reading style, or lack there of, and could focus a little more on the story, I like that his writing style is very conversational. In this book JT goes thru his life from early childhood in chronological order, pretty much. Talking about one thing will remind him of another story from years later and he will interject with that later memory recalled. But he always finds a smooth and easy way to bring you back to the present moment in the time line. Telling his childhood in time order, but sometimes installing moments from the past, and more often the future, makes this very interesting to listen to. His early life torn between the North East Coast and South Carolina, his struggles with depression and drugs, his fall to heroin addiction, and his climb to making his first record with the Beatles is all recorded in Break Shot. I might not have picked this book up on my own, so I was pleased to have gotten it unexpectedly and I will be waiting for the next era of James Taylor’s life to be written down. I would highly recommend this book for readers who like books set in New England, readers who are interested in mental hospital stories, those who like easy autobiographies, and all James Taylor fans.
Have you read any autobiographies lately?