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Barbarian Days
- A Surfing Life
- Narrated by: William Finnegan
- Length: 18 hrs and 8 mins
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Publisher's summary
Pulitzer Prize, Biography, 2016
A deeply rendered self-portrait of a lifelong surfer by the acclaimed New Yorker writer.
Barbarian Days is William Finnegan's memoir of an obsession, a complex enchantment. Surfing only looks like a sport. To initiates it is something else entirely: a beautiful addiction, a demanding course of study, a morally dangerous pastime, a way of life.
Raised in California and Hawaii, Finnegan started surfing as a child. He has chased waves all over the world, wandering for years through the South Pacific, Australia, Asia, Africa. A bookish boy and then an excessively adventurous young man, he went on to become a distinguished writer and war reporter.
Barbarian Days takes us deep into unfamiliar worlds, some of them right under our noses - off the coasts of New York and San Francisco. It immerses the listener in the edgy camaraderie of close male friendships annealed in challenging waves. Finnegan shares stories of life in a whites-only gang in a tough school in Honolulu even while his closest friend was a Hawaiian surfer. He shows us a world turned upside down for kids and adults alike by the social upheavals of the 1960s. He details the intricacies of famous waves and his own apprenticeships to them. Youthful folly - he drops LSD while riding huge Honolua Bay on Maui - is served up with rueful humor. He and a buddy, their knapsacks crammed with reef charts, bushwhack through Polynesia. They discover, while camping on an uninhabited island in Fiji, one of the world's greatest waves.
As Finnegan's travels take him ever farther afield, he becomes an improbable anthropologist: unpicking the picturesque simplicity of a Samoan fishing village, dissecting the sexual politics of Tongan interactions with Americans and Japanese, navigating the Indonesian black market while nearly succumbing to malaria. Throughout, he surfs, carrying listeners with him on rides of harrowing, unprecedented lucidity.
Featured Article: The top 100 memoirs of all time
All genres considered, the memoir is among the most difficult and complex for a writer to pull off. After all, giving voice to your own lived experience and recounting deeply painful or uncomfortable memories in a way that still engages and entertains is a remarkable feat. These autobiographies, often narrated by the authors themselves, shine with raw, unfiltered emotion sure to resonate with any listener. But don't just take our word for it—queue up any one of these listens, and you'll hear exactly what we mean.
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Prior to his untimely death, in 2010, Captain Phil Harris was a star of Discovery Channel's Deadliest Catch, the hit show that follows the exhilarating lives of Alaskan crab fishermen as they brave the vicious Bering Sea. He led his crew through hurricane-force winds and four-story-high waves, hauling in millions of pounds of crab and raking in millions of dollars. Phil worked hard, but he played even harder....
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Almost cried again!
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Running with Raven
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Story
Raven Kraft has changed the lives of thousands who have run with him - many of them hundreds of times. From all 50 states and dozens of countries, across all age groups and backgrounds, they come to run with Raven, and in the process find friendship, inspiration - and a nickname. Among them is author Laura Lee "White Lightning" Huttenbach, who has logged over 1,000 miles of Raven Runs. Here she explores the stories of dozens of others about why they started running with Raven - and why they keep coming back.
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Wonderful
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The Age of Daredevils
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Welcome to Paradise, Now Go to Hell
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Chas Smith is a jerk, but he writes well
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Hemingway's Boat
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An award-winning historian and author, Paul Hendrickson here turns his attention to one of America’s most cherished literary icons, Ernest Hemingway. Drawing on previously unpublished material, Hendrickson focuses on Hemingway’s life in its twilight, just prior to his suicide, and the seemingly singular constant in the man’s life: his boat, Pilar. On this vessel, Hemingway would entertain and travel, but it would also be the scene of some of his greatest tragedies.
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A Hemingway biography for the 21st Century
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By: Paul Hendrickson
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To Shake the Sleeping Self
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On the eve of turning 30, terrified of being funneled into a life he didn’t choose, Jedidiah Jenkins quit his dream job and spent 16 months cycling from Oregon to Patagonia. He chronicled the trip on Instagram, where his photos and reflections drew hundreds of thousands of followers, all gathered around the question: What makes a life worth living? In this unflinchingly honest memoir, Jed narrates his adventure - the people and places he encountered on his way to the bottom of the world - as well as the internal journey that started it all.
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Different that I expected
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Making Mavericks
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When Richard “Frosty” Hesson was first approached by a young Jay Moriarty in 1990, the skinny kid with a sparkle in his eye only wanted one thing from the icon: His help in becoming a better surfer. Hesson, one of the first to conquer the huge waves off northern California known as Mavericks, recognized that the kid “had a vision.” Jay quickly demonstrated a resolve that reminded Frosty of his younger self, pursuing his goal with a seriousness far beyond his years. His attitude and work ethic earned Frosty’s respect and, eventually, his friendship.
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Worst audiobook I’ve listened to - narrated by a pre-pubescent teenage robot
- By Nick on 04-26-18
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Time Bandit
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The Time Bandit is the fishing vessel that Andy and Johnathan Hillstrand use to hook the "deadliest catch", Alaskan king crabs and opilio crabs, in the Bering Sea, a dangerous body of water that can steal years from a fisherman's life. In pursuit of their daily catch, the brothers brave ice floes and heaving 60-foot waves, gusting winds of 80 miles per hour, unwieldy and unpredictable half-ton steel crab traps, and an injury rate of almost 100-percent.
There are fewer than 400 fishermen of this kind in the U.S., and early death is a common fate. But the Hillstrand brothers are drawn to the drama and adventure of life on the high seas - this is their world.
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Much Better Then I Had Expected
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Crossing the Waters
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The Gospels are dramatic and incredibly wet, set in a rich maritime culture on the shores of the Sea of Galilee. Yet we've missed much of this perspective - until now. Leslie Leyland Fields, a seasoned Alaskan fisherwoman, leads us across the waters of time and culture out onto the Sea of Galilee, through a rugged season of commercial fishing with her family in Alaska, and through the waters of the New Testament beside the ragtag fishermen disciples.
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Breath taking!
- By Meg White Haven Hill on 09-13-17
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The Plover
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Declan O Donnell has sailed out of Oregon and deep into the vast, wild ocean, having had just finally enough of other people and their problems. He will go it alone, he will be his own country, he will be beholden to and beloved of no one. No man is an island, my butt, he thinks. I am that very man.... But the galaxy soon presents him with a string of odd, entertaining, and dangerous passengers, who become companions of every sort and stripe. The Plover is the story of their adventures and misadventures in the immense blue country one of their company calls Pacifica.
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Poetry, the sea and finally story
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Lassoing the Sun
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Many childhood summers, Mark Woods piled into a station wagon with his parents and two sisters and headed to America's national parks. Mark's most vivid childhood memories are set against a backdrop of mountains, woods, and fireflies in places like Redwood, Yosemite, and Grand Canyon national parks. On the eve of turning 50, and a little burned out, Mark decided to reconnect with the great outdoors. He'd spend a year visiting the national parks.
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great narrator, lackluster story, wonderful themes
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John Marshall had read about the growth of voluntourism, and frankly, it was the only kind of extended trip he could afford. He'd heard that some peoples' lives were changed by a week of overseas service - what might half a year accomplish for his family? His wife, Traca, was all in favor of it; his kids, especially his 14-year-old daughter, were strongly opposed. Wide-Open World is the totally engaging, bluntly honest story of the Marshall family's life-changing adventure.
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I enjoyed every minute
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By: John Marshall
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What listeners say about Barbarian Days
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall
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Story
- ML Sadler
- 03-06-17
What a Jerk.
Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?
No. Finnegan spent 16 1/2 hours rambling about his surfing obsession and his self-absorbed life. In the last hour of the book, he bemoans how surfing is being ruined by the number of people who want to learn to surf and hog his waves. He complains of a private resort that blocks outsiders from the beach in front of the property. How DARE they? Wait. He just complained about people who are not devoted to surfing as he is ruining his favorite surfing spots then he gripes about a private surfing spot that keeps people from overrunning a favorite surfing spot. Well, of course he becomes a regular customer of the resort so he can surf there even though he despises the resort's concept.
What was your reaction to the ending? (No spoilers please!)
While I enjoy learning about alternative lifestyles and the experiences people had that are far different from mine, the ending made me sorry I wasted 17+ hours of my life listening to this audio book. Finnegan, you can have the surfing experience all to yourself. You made me hate it.
Would you listen to another book narrated by William Finnegan?
No
Do you think Barbarian Days needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?
Absolutely not.
Any additional comments?
So sorry I fell for the reviews and purchased this book.
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74 people found this helpful
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- sunstan
- 09-03-15
Wishing for a never-end of this book
If you could sum up Barbarian Days in three words, what would they be?
perfect reminice, haunting
What other book might you compare Barbarian Days to and why?
Most of Russell Chatham's books on fishing. especially Dark Waters
Which scene was your favorite?
Loved every last page
If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?
A time and a place gone forever
Any additional comments?
I deeply loved this book. The Hawaii chapter took me back to my Kahala childhood of the 60's. It's all true, exactly as Finnegan wrote. I physically flinched at some of the really awful passages about local brutality to outsiders in those days. The surfing life of the 60's and 70's are perfectly captured in Finnegan's memories. I usually dislike author read audiobooks, but Finnegan's voice added so much to this book, making every sentence and remembrance come alive for me, the listener. This is a beautiful book. I found myself repeating paragraphs and sentences so that I could pull even more out of my first listen. I went on the buy the hard copy to be able to read and reread passages. In all of the surfing articles and books I have ever read, this book describes the ocean, the surfer and that surfing set of mind better than anyone. The reader does not even have to have ever touched the ocean to appreciate Finnegan's lucid descriptions of oceans and the world he traveled and surfed in. Amazing book. So glad he wrote it.
Hauolikaimana
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- Kathy in CA
- 02-15-16
11 Hours And No End In Sight
OK, so again, I am one of the few dissenters. I listened to 11 hours and decided I have no need to finish this book. Hours and hours of mostly detailed wave descriptions? And you might wonder just how many waves can you describe in that many hours? Endless numbers . . . too many. Believe me, a whole lot! No thank you.
While I did learn alot about surfing and have a greater understanding of its lure, I just cannot fathom spending 7 more hours listening to wave descriptions from a monotone author/narrator who, in addition, is exceedingly egocentric and self-centered.
Listening to this audiobook brings to my mind a favorite author Paul Theroux, who has also traveled extensively like Finnegan, but who, unlike Finnegan, genuinely enjoys meeting other people, is very interested in what their lives are about, and who does not make himself the center of the universe in his own travel books. I know Theroux has not written a surfing book! But he kayaked extensively in the South Pacific in many of the places Finnegan describes in this book. So what could it have hurt Mr. Finnegan to include descriptions of the various natives, his interactions with them, his take on their lifestyles considering there seemed to be lots of lulls between finding and describing the best waves? There IS a bit of that in this book, I will acknowledge, particularly about the apartheid problem in South Africa, but somehow, Finnegan makes himself the center of even that!
If Finnegan had been a more likable fellow, I would have finished this book. Many folks loved this book. Obviously, they are not as picky as me. If surfing interests you, go for it!
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- Karen W. Lam
- 02-25-17
You Have to Love Surfing...
...which apparently, I don't. The book starts off with a bang, great writing but then becomes fairly repetitive unless you really love chasing waves with a self-absorbed chowder head.
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40 people found this helpful
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- Peter
- 02-10-16
Surfing Attitude
Was hoping more for something in the line of Boys in the Boat but rather got an egocentric ramble. Surfers may enjoy the jargon and the arrogance but its not for me. The early travels were entertaining but got to a stage where I was almost tempted to quit.
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- Kaui
- 09-17-15
Read this book. You will enjoy it.
Any additional comments?
I thought this book was a masterpiece. I enjoy the genre of "adventure memoirs," of which this is definitely a lead member. Though it is not as thrilling as Lansing's Endurance, or as compelling as Krakauer's Into Thin Air, this book is an intense meditation about surfing and how it shaped William Finnegan's life. Reviews talk about how Finnegan explores themes like family. I did not think so. I think Finnegan explores surfing. In Hawaii. In Southern California. In Portugal. In Australia. In Northern California. In New York.
As he learns to appreciate the breaks, currents and tides of each locale, he invariably meets friends, lovers and forms a relationship to his world. In his case, Finnegan's world is at once very large (he travels around the world for several years) and small (he is driven by surfing. That is IT.) The narrative meanders, but compellingly so. I could FEEL the waves with him. Finnegan's writing is excellent, and he is a well-read fellow, sprinkling many literary references throughout. These, in my opinion, added a depth of deliciousness to an already very enjoyable book.
If you are from Hawaii, you have to read the first chapter; it is hysterical. If you are from Santa Cruz, or surf Ocean Beach, you must read about his SF days - they are... interesting. If you are from New York, you must read about his discovery of awesome surfing on Long Island and the Sound.
That I read this book during the summer months, that I am from Hawaii, live in the Bay Area and have a deep connection to Manhattan only served to expand this book's dimensional delightfulness further for me. Even without these personal connections, this book deserves the attention it is getting. My only thought is I wonder how Finnegan feels about the popularity of this book and how it compares to the popularity and reach of his political publications.
Either way, read this book. It is excellent.
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- Jennifer
- 02-21-17
Promising but Way too Long
What did you like best about Barbarian Days? What did you like least?
I enjoyed the first half of the book. The way the author described the waves, his young life and his family were all very interesting and well done.
What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?
The challenge with the story was that it was way too long. The more I listened the more I was amazed by William Finnegan's narcissism. The book goes on and on about his trips to surf through his adult life. It becomes very repetitious and boring. I had to stop listening about 3 hrs before it was over.
Did Barbarian Days inspire you to do anything?
no
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- Kris Cox
- 04-28-17
How about some serious editing?
The detail became monotonous after awhile.,
especially with the travels with Brian, and the redundant Ocean Beach episodes(to name a couple areas of many).
I would give this memoir surf story a much higher rating if it was reduced in length
by about 25%.
I think Finnegan's editor failed , not Finnegan.
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- clay sellers
- 12-19-15
My idol...
As a child of '80s southern CA surfing, this book encapsulates the wondering daydreaming of my youth. While, Tom Curren, Kelly Slater, and others captured the covers of the magazines, the stories Finnegan relates in this wonderful memoir are the stuff that every surfer dreamed or dreams of. The portrait he paints is the idyllic life of a surfer. His stories captivate you and take you to the very places that you've dreamed (if you haven't gone) of your whole life.
This book is a wonderful read full of all the surf stories you'd want as a surfer but the autobiographical content, beyond surfing, is captivating to hold your attention to where you feel like Bill is an old friend.
I recommended this book to friends on FB having only gotten to the 4th chapter. The rest of the book did not disappoint!
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- Nunya Bidnes
- 05-18-17
Most boring book ever
Felt like this book would never end.. and then it did - abruptly. I am aware that the author won a Pulitzer but I can't imagine it was for this book. The entire book seemed so pointless. There were no high points, nothing remarkable. It was basically listening to an old dude recount stories from his life... the kind of stuff you want to walk away from but kindly sit and tolerate while guys at the retirement home drone on and on. I can't believe I actually listened to the whole book. I'd be absolutely furious with the hours of my life lost had I actually sat down to read it. At least it was an audible and I was able to do other things while wondering the entire time if this guy would eventually say anything interesting or remotely entertaining.
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