Letters: the workings of a memoir

There's a book that has contagious spread around surfing circles – including my own – for the past 10 years. Barbarian Days is a memoir written by William Finnegan, which documents practically his entire life, through a sort of vessel of boardsport. A few years ago, before I set off on my first roadtrip, my uncle tossed me the book.

Truthfully, it took me about 4 years to finish it. Reading for me, has always come in waves. Like a man wandering in the high deserts of the Southwest, periods of my life seem to have been dry. Until a deluge comes. And in that deluge, I am swept away by a few hundred pages of a book in a week.