I’m going to preface this review with the following: I need to read more.
I’ve fallen into a sad habit of watching too much television lately. Sure, there’s lots of wonderful television shows out there! Doctor Who, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Farscape, Firefly, Archer, 30 Rock, Mad Men… but I used to read so very much! When we moved to Bloomington, I signed out a giant stack of books and read through them in a week!
So I’m going to challenge myself to read more – and I’m also going to talk about the books I’ve read, too, in hopes people discover new books to read. And I’m going to start with a favorite of mine. (A favorite that I should really buy my own copy of.)
Anything Goes by John Barrowman
This was an incredibly quick read! And an incredibly enjoyable one. If you’ve watched Doctor Who or Torchwood, you’re familiar with John Barrowman – he plays the incredibly awesome Captain Jack Harkness in both shows. (He’s also in Arrow, but I haven’t seen that yet – I don’t have cable, and live off of Hulu and Netflix, and missed out on the start of it, sadly) This book tells his story – from when he was a kid, to his experiences as a teenager, all the way through to his time on Doctor Who and Torchwood.
The book starts out with John telling us about when he got picked for the role of Captain Jack – and how excited he was about getting the role. He then goes on to tell us about his childhood, his family, and tells us the story of his life in a very warm, friendly way. It felt like I was sitting down with him, and the two of us were just having a long conversation about his life and all the exciting things he’s done and seen. As I said, I read through it pretty quickly – a friend of mine loaned it to me in northern New York before I left to head back to Bloomington on vacation last summer, and I’d finished it somewhere in Ohio.
If you’re a fan of John Barrowman, or just want to learn more about his life, this is a good book for you to pick up! There’s also lots of full-color pictures, for those of you who enjoy looking at that smile of his (like me!). You can pick it up from Amazon – it’s about $22 for the hardcover edition (which is the copy I borrowed), or around $11 for the paperback copy. (And $8.50 for the Kindle version!)