I added Greenlights to my Pinterest board of to-be-read books a few months ago and shortly forgot about it. For some reason the topic of this book came up at work, and I told one of my coworkers that I’d meant to read it for a while but hadn’t gotten around to it.
He said he owned the book and offered to lend it to me.
Normally people don’t follow through when they tell me they’ll lend me a book, but the next day I found Greenlights sitting on my desk.
The first thing I noticed when flipping through the pages was how easy it was to essentially hear Matthew McConaughey’s voice while reading. He has such an iconic way of talking, and, even without the audio book, that voice comes through.
The second thing I noticed after actually sitting down and starting to read was how interesting of a person McConaughey is. He’s not like many other actors who I’ve read about.
A lot of other actors talk of the effort they put into the initial pursuit of acting, and one person’s struggle is pretty similar to the next. That’s why there’s a stereotype of moving to LA or New York, waiting tables, and going to audition after audition until something finally launches them to success.
I’m not trying to say McConaughey didn’t have to put in effort to become a successful actor, but he kind of just decided to try acting, he took a few chances, and it kept working out.
And that’s pretty much how he lives his life in every aspect. He gets an idea and he goes for it.
He motorcycles around Europe, travels through both South America and Africa, lives in his Airstream while driving around the country, gets high and plays the bongos naked in the middle of the night…
He lives his life.
I get similar feelings reading this book as I do when I watch Forrest Gump.
It’s not that I want to do the things Matthew McConaughey or Forrest Gump do, but I can’t help but feel like the only thing stopping the majority of us from doing anything is ourselves.
Anyway, Greenlights is a decent book, and I learned a lot about McConaughey that I didn’t know before. A lot of what he’s accomplished has happened because he’s taken chances where most of us wouldn’t, and many of his iconic lines/scenes from movies can be credited to this willingness to take chances.
There is some language in the book, and I don’t feel like anybody needs to read it. But if it’s one you’re already interested in reading, I wouldn’t turn you away from it.
Denver Nay Blogs 