Home Feed
Home
Search
Search
Add Review, Blurb, Quote
Add
Activity
Activity
Profile
Profile
Barbarian Days
Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life | William Finnegan
**Winner of the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Autobiography** A deeply rendered self-portrait of a lifelong surfer by the acclaimed New Yorker writer Barbarian Days is William Finnegans 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 nosesoff the coasts of New York and San Francisco. It immerses the reader in the edgy camaraderie of close male friendships annealed in challenging waves. Finnegan shares stories of life in a whitesonly 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 follyhe drops LSD while riding huge Honolua Bay, on Mauiis 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 worlds greatest waves. As Finnegans 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 readers with him on rides of harrowing, unprecedented lucidity. Barbarian Days is an old-school adventure story, an intellectual autobiography, a social history, a literary road movie, and an extraordinary exploration of the gradual mastering of an exacting, little understood art. Today, Finnegans surfing life is undiminished. Frantically juggling work and family, he chases his enchantment through Long Island ice storms and obscure corners of Madagascar. From the Hardcover edition.
Amazon Indiebound Barnes and Noble WorldCat Goodreads LibraryThing
Pick icon
100%
review
fredthemoose
post image
Pickpick

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 Picked this up from an Audible sale a few months ago and really liked it. This is a memoir told through a lifetime of surfing exploits, from first rides in childhood through a multi-year quest through the South Pacific, apartheid South Africa, and back to San Francisco and New York. This could have been insufferable, but was told from a point of emotional maturity and using excellent writing.

review
NatalieR
post image
Pickpick

Not the tagged book. 🙄 William Fennigan‘s adolescent daughter, Mollie, became interested in climbing. William, an avid surfer, showed a genuine interest in his daughter‘s new passion. As a writer and journalist, William wrote this short story, Climbing with Mollie, about rock climbing and their father-daughter relationship.

Full review for Climbing with Mollie at https://abookandadog.com

review
Jojo13222
Pickpick

I wanna surf

review
Yahui07
post image
Pickpick

I love surfing although not good at and just a two-hour-once-a-week-surfer so this book had my attention for a while. I relate to those surfing life as described in this book a lot but feel those barbarian days as described in this book unimaginable. I wished I had such surfing life but not sure if I could handle the barbarian days. Maybe I am bias but I like and recommend this book. 🤟🤟😂

blurb
peaKnit
post image

Vacation planning.

LA_Mead OMG I love those Minnie ears! 2y
18 likes1 comment
blurb
LMJenkins
post image

I just bought this for a friend‘s birthday, but I‘m thinking of getting myself a copy because it looks really good. Any first-hand feedback on this? #TeamReadNosedReindeer #TBRReads @StayCurious

blurb
VioletBramble
post image

Reading about surfing on a cold, dark and windy beach day. We are all wrapped in beach towels and wraps. At least it has stopped raining - for now

35 likes1 stack add
review
Tbassco
Pickpick

blurb
HeatherBlue
post image

My favorite part of the day...reading with my Talia Quinn 🐾💛
#catsoflitsy

Leftcoastzen Awww cute!😻 4y
48 likes1 comment
review
dpbedford1
post image
Pickpick

Calming escape and adventure in the waves. He paints a wild, romantic picture of barefoot, beachfront childhood in California and Hawaii, a world wide journey of young adult adventures in the Pacific, and a winding down with family in New York. Surfing, idyllically and frantically, until the end.

BarbaraTheBibliophage This book would be a good way to escape reality! 4y
1 like1 comment
blurb
VioletBramble
post image

Today I celebrated Solstice/ early Christmas with my family. I got a couple of books. On the right is my Jolabokaflod book- Barbarian Days - and chocolates from my niece. Initially we planned to open the Jolabokaflod books on Christmas Eve as per tradition. We realized that none of us will see each other that day and decided to open those gifts together.

alisiakae That gratitude journal looks awesome! 4y
VioletBramble @4thhouseontheleft It has sections f 4y
VioletBramble Ugh. My phone is acting bizarrely. It has sections for Asshole of the Day, Today‘s Shit List. Stuff like that. 4y
34 likes1 stack add3 comments
review
BarbaraTheBibliophage
post image
Pickpick

Despite its subtitle of A Surfing Life, this is part discussion of surfing theory, combined with travelogue, buddy road trip, and memoir. Finnegan covers a lot of his life, starting in his pre-teen years and ending in his 50s. Through it all, surfing is the one constant. Definitely worth the praise. But be prepared for some long paddles out before the roar of the wave takes you.

Full review http://www.TheBibliophage.com
#thebibliophage2019 #NFNov

rsteve388 6 pts 4y
77 likes1 comment
review
UnabridgedPod
post image
Pickpick

William Finnegan's Climbing with Mollie is a tender tribute to father-daughter relationships and to support children's interests, even when they don't match our own. I loved Finnegan's tribute to his surfing life, Barbarian Days, and jumped on this Audible Original, a short examination of his daughter Mollie's discovery and pursuit of climbing. ⬇️

UnabridgedPod Through the lens of her passion, Finnegan explores what it's like to see your child as a being independent of yourself, something with which I am definitely contending! Finnegan narrates this himself, and it's a beautiful tribute to his relationship with his daughter Mollie.⠀

What are your favorite books about fathers and daughters? (or fathers and sons?)
4y
Hoopiefoot I loved this too! A similar read that I really enjoyed was (edited) 4y
UnabridgedPod @Hoopiefoot That looks great!! 4y
17 likes3 comments
blurb
BarbaraTheBibliophage
post image

I‘ve seen this on so many “best memoir” lists. It‘s time to dive in!

55 likes3 stack adds
blurb
shaynarae
post image

Here are my #top6reads of 2019 so far. These books made such a huge impression on me and are ones that I keep thinking about and/or find myself constantly recommending. Happy halfway, everyone!

Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks Love Daisy 💗💗💗 5y
Hoopiefoot I read Barbarian Days a few years ago and still find myself thinking about it ❤️🏄‍♀️ 5y
shaynarae @Hoopiefoot That‘s awesome! I picked up surfing last year and fell madly in love with it. Barbarian Days captures surfing in ways I didn‘t think verbally possible. It‘s such a wonderful book! 5y
42 likes3 comments
review
strandbookstore
post image
Pickpick

“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: a beautiful addiction, a demanding course of study, a morally dangerous pastime, a way of life.“ 🏄 What are you reading this summer on the beach?

charl08 Great book! 5y
shaynarae I LOVED this book! 5y
Expandingbookshelf Loved this book! 5y
44 likes3 comments
quote
Christinak
post image

“The newly emerging ideal was #solitude, purity, perfect waves far from civilization.”

#QuotsyMar19
#31DaysOfNonFiction

37 likes1 stack add
review
britt_brooke
post image
Pickpick

⭐️⭐️⭐️ Thanks to his father‘s career as tv/film producer, Finnegan grew up in California & Hawaii becoming an avid reader with surfing fixed in his soul. After earning degrees in Literature & Creative Writing, he traveled around Australia, Asia, & Africa writing freelance & surfing. He then became an English teacher in apartheid South Africa which provided substance for his first book published in the mid-80s. 👇🏻

britt_brooke This surfing memoir is quite lengthy and I suspect I‘d have appreciated it more had I read some of his other work first. Still, it‘s a well-written worthwhile read. (edited) 5y
Booksnchill Glad you found it worthwhile!🤣 5y
britt_brooke @Booksnchill 😆 Have you read it? It‘s just so damned long! Thank you for gifting it to me. 😙 (edited) 5y
See All 10 Comments
Booksnchill @britt_brooke no but I want to- but is is so Damned long...🤣🏄‍♂️ 5y
Christine My husband - an avid surfer and a sometimes reader - just finished and really enjoyed this one! 5y
britt_brooke @Christine I think if you can identify with the surfing part, this is a great read. I‘m happy to hear your husband enjoyed it! 5y
Cinfhen I thought I‘d love this book but I ended up bailing!! I‘m not sure why🤷‍♀️ 5y
britt_brooke @Cinfhen I know why ... it‘s 450 pages of surfing details. It‘s really well-written, but a bit tedious. 5y
Cinfhen Ha! YEAH, there‘s THAT!! 5y
114 likes10 comments
review
TheRedBaron
Pickpick

Great Read!! Wonderfully written memoir of surfer/journalist William Finnegan. A really nice surprise for me.

review
shaynarae
post image
Pickpick

Being newly introduced to and completely smitten with surfing, this was the perfect book for me right now. William Finnegan‘s writing is incredibly beautiful, never describing a wave (characters in their own right) the same way twice. And there are a lot of them, but never a dull moment. It‘s one of those books that I‘m sad to have finished; I would be ok if it went on forever.

23 likes1 stack add
quote
Christinak
post image

On Sundays the curfew was in force all day long. On a couple of occasions when the surf looked good, I had found the #ban hard to accept. Surely we could slip out for a few quiet rides, far from shore, and offend no one. #QuotsyJan19

review
Christinak
post image
Pickpick

I am reading outside my comfort zone. I read this ebook along with listening. (read by the author). I am not a surfer and my only surfing knowledge comes from Gidget re-runs and old Frankie Avalon movies. I really thought this book would be lost on me. I really enjoyed his story getting sucked in immediately, traveling the world with him and finding I was able to follow his surf talk as if I always knew it. Good read.

#hawaii

TobeyTheScavengerMonk I bought this for my hippy surfer uncle a few years ago for Christmas and he told me it is the best book about surfing that he had ever read. 5y
42 likes4 stack adds1 comment
quote
alyssthebooksniffer
post image

"Bryan, meanwhile, was assailing my equanimity with his testiness...One night, lit with kava courage, I announced that I was sick of walking on eggs around him. He announced, astonished, that HE was sick of walking on eggs around ME. We hiked back to camp under a gibbous moon in a jolly mood. I said I hoped his tent was full of scorpions. He hoped I fell out of my hammock. The expression, anyway, was walking on eggshells, not eggs."

3 likes1 stack add
review
Smallwkt
Pickpick

review
Sjhaug
post image
Pickpick

Dreamy book, makes me want to surf.

review
Corar
post image
Mehso-so

It was well written but I found my mind wandering during all the surfing descriptions. I think I would like to try some of the author‘s other books.

Cinfhen I‘ve got this one...hoping it isn‘t a snooze feast 6y
11 likes1 comment
blurb
TobeyTheScavengerMonk
post image

CALLING ALL LITTENS!!!

I need gift recommendations for my hippy surfer uncle! I bought him the tagged book last year and he loved it, said it was the best thing written about surfing that he‘d ever read.

Any really good books you can think of about:
surfing, Jimi Hendrix, counterculture in the ‘60s, Woodstock (he was there!), the Grateful Dead, the band Mastodon, anything that an aging hippy might find groovy

Lemme know any ideas you got.

TobeyTheScavengerMonk @Tamra Thanks! He introduced me to Naked Lunch when I was in high school. I‘m more looking for modern writing about the period, ‘cause if it came out then he‘s probably lived it! 6y
See All 9 Comments
AmyG For Grateful Dead books....I loved A Long Strange Trip - Dennis McNally. Phil Lesh's and Bill Kreutzman's autobiographies were decent. (edited) 6y
TobeyTheScavengerMonk @Sarah83 That sounds awesome! Thanks! 6y
LibrarianRyan There is a new Jimi Hendrix bio. 6y
PirateJenny If you still need ideas you can ask the Penguin Hotline. They don't recommend only Penguin Random House books either. I think Barbarian Days might be a good surfing book. 6y
51 likes9 comments
blurb
DebinHawaii
post image

Day 31 #UncannyOctober #BestofOctober 🎃Stats are still coming as it isn't quite noon here but these are my October Best.📚No Five⭐️ reads this month, but these three books, two non-fiction & one fiction, stood out to me for different reasons. Barbarian Days drew me in with the author's passion for an amazing sport, The Sound of Gravel made me mad & sad & kept me fascinated, & CALBSB 🎄brought back some beloved characters like Neil the puffin. 💜

DebReads4fun I love Neil the puffin! 🐧 6y
DebinHawaii @DebReads4fun Neil is the best! 🐧❤️ 6y
94 likes1 stack add2 comments
review
DebinHawaii
post image
Pickpick

A bit of a slow read for me but not in a bad way-more in a relaxed, zen-like way. Although I'm not nearly graceful enough to surf, I admire the sport & this memoir captures the obsession people have for it. I especially enjoyed his youth in Hawaii but found the whole book engaging & even though there are a lot of details about surfing there is humor, adventure & beauty that transcends the basics. With a surfer-popular Aloha Friday Acai bowl.🌺🏄🏻

AmyG Great review. I enjoyed his book, too. It was so different than what I usually read, yet I was fascinated. 6y
mspixxie Ive wanted to get to this one! 6y
DebinHawaii @AmyG Yes! I love to watch surfing 🏄🏻 and heard good things from friends about it but it surprised me a bit to with what a good read it was. @mspixxie I'm glad I finally did! 📚👍 6y
mspixxie Awesome! Winter is approaching on the east coast so I might have to save it until summer... 6y
DebinHawaii @mspixxie Hah! Or wait until the middle of winter when you need some surf and sun! 🌞 6y
74 likes1 stack add5 comments
blurb
DebinHawaii
post image

Finally Friday for a crazy week with work projects & being 😽nurse after Max's dental surgery Wednesday. He was doing very well this morning (thanks for all the kind thoughts & 😽❤️) so I snuck out to the coffeeshop for a bit for a coffee press, avocado toast & a few pages of this library e-book before getting some work done & taking Max to a quick Vet follow up that will make me very unpopular with him again.🙀😾#catownerwoes #tgif #needabreak

susanw I have that book on my shelf, I really need to move it up my TBR. I was so excited when I bought it, I must have gotten totally distracted by even newer shiny books. 😊 6y
TobeyTheScavengerMonk My hippy surfer uncle said this was one of the most accurate depictions of surfing and surfer life he had ever encountered. 6y
CoverToCoverGirl What is on the avocados? It looks delicious 😁 6y
See All 9 Comments
Hoopiefoot I LOVED this book 6y
DebinHawaii @susanw @TobeyTheScavengerMonk @Hoopiefoot I have heard lots of good things from friends who have read it. 👍🏄🏼‍♀️🏄🏻I just keeping letting the due dates pass me by. I'm hoping to finish it this weekend. 6y
DebinHawaii @CoverToCoverGirl It is a spicy sriracha-garlic aioli. Really good. Let me know if you want a recipe link. I make a home version so I can have it on days I don't go to the coffeeshop. 😋🥑🍞 6y
DebinHawaii @CoverToCoverGirl 👍 Here's the link to the aioli recipe & how to assemble the 🥑toast pictured above: http://kahakaikitchen.blogspot.com/2017/07/the-book-tour-stops-here-review-of_11... 6y
91 likes3 stack adds9 comments
blurb
Cinfhen
post image

#UncannyOctober From my TBR a #NFAboutACountryYoudLikeToVisit 🇦🇺 William Finnegan‘s memoir about his lifelong surfing obsession, when he and a friend are bumming around #Australia in the late 1970s, looking for perfect waves 🌊 Finnegan also traveled through #Asia and #Africa and the #SouthPacific. I'm curious to read this memoir and would love to visit all those places☀️ 🤘🏼🏄🌊🏄🏻‍♀️

AmyG It was very good. 6y
DebinHawaii My library hold just came through on this one. Looking forward to reading it! 🏄🏼‍♀️📚👍 6y
114 likes2 stack adds3 comments
review
amycollard
post image
Pickpick

I was born and raised in California, but I didn't live near the ocean and have never surfed. Didn't know what to expect from this surfing memoir. It's a fascinating look at one person's life as they travel the world to remote places in decades past, chasing waves. LOTS of details about waves and tides (maybe too much for me?), and was sometimes annoyed with him during his angsty years. But also beautiful writing about his obsession with surfing.

blurb
Jason_Roland
post image

And now I'm reading this. 20 pages in so far so good. Did not think I would like a surfing memoir, but this isn't half bad.

2 likes1 stack add
blurb
BooksForEmpathy
post image

Lunch 🥑. And more #bookmail!

Has anyone read these?

TheBookStacker I've read Barbarian Days it's good a bit slow in spots and the other is on my TBR 7y
nickimags The Women in the Castle is really good, although quite tough to read at times. 7y
Bookcation74 My mom raved about Barbarian Days and passed it to me ... I haven't gotten to it yet. 7y
Audrey I loved Barbarian Days. I wasn't expecting it and it hit me hard. I've always wanted to surf but knew I was too lazy to chase the waves here in New England. I planned on learning this summer but my days off were either packed or bad weather. I also really liked Women in the Castle. Really well written and an interesting perspective. 7y
93 likes2 stack adds5 comments
review
TelevisionNeighbor
post image
Pickpick

Only on page 25 or so, but this is so interesting. Thanks, Obama! #summerreadinglist

review
karenna
post image
Pickpick

Enjoyable read even for people (like me) who have never wanted to surf. Finnegan's prose style is very fluid, immersing readers in many unique aspects of surfing culture. I did begin to tire of the many descriptions of individual waves, but the quality of the other components greatly outweigh the minor moments of disinterest.

blurb
Cookierooks
post image

Time to go back to Hawaii. #bookstagram

blurb
BarbaraTheBibliophage
post image

I just picked this up on Audible this week. Seems like a good fit for #sweetsummerstack. Thanks @Liberty for the chance at that great giveaway!

athorne I read that as summer sweat sack... 7y
LizzyM Just finished it (not audio just plain reading lol) and I thought it was fantastic. I bet the audio version is even better especially if the author reads it. 7y
BarbaraTheBibliophage @LizzyM The author does read it and gets great reviews. 7y
89 likes2 stack adds4 comments
review
LizzyM
post image
Pickpick

Beautiful writing with interesting locales and a completely foreign subject (surfing) made this memoir a fabulous read for me. One of my favorite books this year despite the fact that I rarely ever see the ocean and the closest I usually get to a body of water is the pond behind our house (see pic above). The author has had an amazing life and damn can he write! 5⭐️

blurb
kendrastephaniekaryn
post image

Awesome #dailydeal alert! This has been on my TBR for ages! #audible

blurb
LizzyM
post image

This book is a surprising delight to me, especially as I was born and raised in Missouri as landlocked as it gets. The writing is wonderful and I find all the discourse on surfing to be fascinating and completely foreign. I hope it keeps up, as this could be one of my favorite books so far this year if it does!

review
Bookishaf
post image
Pickpick

A little long but William Finnegan makes you want to go to the beach and watch some surfers. A really interesting memoir! A great one to read in the summer.

55 likes4 stack adds
review
Audrey
post image
Pickpick

I fell hard for this book which was surprising since it's so not in my wheelhouse. It's about a man's relationship with his first love, and how it changes with time. Impromptu tea party with a friend since book group was cancelled bc of thunder snow. Almond butter bars, chocolate chip cookies and world peace cookies while chatting about surfing.

DebinHawaii I want cookies now! Yum! 🍪🍪🍪 7y
26 likes1 stack add2 comments
blurb
chowmeyow
post image

#FunFridayPhoto // my shelves are even more packed than usual because the Christmas decorations are still up.

review
DinaGachman
Pickpick

Amazing book, whether you surf or not

2 likes1 stack add
blurb
JPrecht
post image

So... there was an Amazon Gold Box sale on biographies and memoirs yesterday, and I am weak. I also convinced my husband to buy "Hillbilly Elegy" by J. D. Vance, and Ron Chernow's bio of George Washington, which I will, of course, borrow from him. ?

14 likes1 stack add
blurb
Smahanian
post image

Final day in Santiago was well spent

quote
Pat1287
post image

The particulars of new places grabbed me and held me, the sweep of new coasts, cold, lovely, dawns. The world was incomprehensibly large, and there was still so much to see. Yes, I got sick sometimes of being an expatriate, always ignorant, on the outside of things, but I didn't feel ready for domestic life, for seeing the same people, (...) each day. I liked surrendering to the onrush, the uncertainty, the serendipity of the road

7 likes3 stack adds
blurb
BlueNoodleFritz
post image

Finally!! A book that's "sticking" - fingers crossed- reading slump over! I hope! I hope!

BlueNoodleFritz It smells good too. The new book smell on this one is fresh! ❤️ 7y
12 likes2 stack adds1 comment