Books by Mick Foley
I've just finished reading Foley Is Good, And The Real World Is Faker Than Wrestling, the second book written by Mick Foley, who is perhaps better known to fans of professional wrestling as Cactus Jack, Mankind, and Dude Love. I started reading that one immediately after finishing the first one, Have A Nice Day! A Tale Of Blood And Sweatsocks. I liked them a lot. For anyone who has an interest in wrestling, I'd say that giving them a read is a sure bet. More importantly, I'd say that people who aren't fans of pro wrestling should at least consider giving them a read as well, particularly the second one, if nothing else.
Now, granted, I haven't watched wrestling myself since around 2004-2005 or so, though I was a pretty big fan before that, stretching back to my childhood. Mostly, it was due to the fact that I dropped my cable and no longer had access to RAW anymore. Nothing against Smackdown, because that's all that I had available to watch when I still lived in NC, but after watching both RAW and Smackdown together, when I was faced with the prospect of only getting to see Smackdown alone, I just kind of lost interest. (Also, I pretty much just stopped watching TV altogether at that point, and haven't really watched it since, except when I'm in NC for Christmas.) But something caught my attention a few weeks ago and got me to wanting to read these books, so I ordered them from Amazon. I don't remember now what exactly it was that sparked my interest, except that it was something on TvTropes. Reading the books also got me interested in playing the video games again as well, which is why I've recently been playing a lot of WWE Smackdown vs Raw 2008, 2009, and 2010 on the 360, the latter two of which I bought shortly after finishing the first book. I don't think I'll go back to watching the shows again though, particularly since Foley himself isn't even with WWE any more. He went to TNA in 2008, I think, according to Wikipedia anyway (and I don't have Spike, so couldn't watch that if I wanted to.)
Anyway, for the most part, the books are looks into Mick's life as a wrestler and give some insight into behind the scenes stuff, but in a way that is open to those who may not know a double arm DDT from a mandible claw. Whenever he uses a potentially obscure wrestling term for the first time, he tends to follow that up with the layman's equivalent in parentheses. For example "did the job (lost the match)." He mostly keeps it light, though at times he gets serious about things. In both books, the second one in particular, he often goes off of the topic of wrestling to mention other things that are of interest to him, such as spending time with his family and his love of amusement parks, among other things. He is a very good writer, I think (and the books didn't reach #1 on the New York Times Bestseller list for nothing). I know that he has also written at least one more book and is either working on or has already written a fourth (and this doesn't even count the Christmas book, or the novel he mentions in the bonus chapter of the second book), so I'll probably be getting those at some point as well.
As something of an aside, however, I want to say a bit about the final chapter of the second book, which is a rather different thing from the 500 or so pages that came before. Or, as Mick himself warns before getting into it, "Please feel free to stop reading this book if you have no desire to read what is essentially a whole other book. A book that hopefully debunks myths and educates with facts." It is freshest in my mind because it's what I just finished reading. In this chapter, Mick talks about the attempts by the Parents Television Council to get WWE Smackdown! pulled off the air. Based on what I read in Mick's book (as well as my own follow up research that I did prior to starting this post) it seems that L. Brent Bozell III was to professional wrestling in the late 90s early 00s as Jack Thompson was to video games in the mid to late 00s. Perhaps worse, actually. As much as I have had to say about Jack Thompson over the years, I'll just say one more thing about him: if he had had the slightest semblance of power and influence during his crusade against video games, he pretty much would have been L. Brent Bozell III. Oh, and another similarity between these two esteemed gentlemen, both of them have (or at least at one point had, and perhaps still do have) their claws hooked into Senator Joe Lieberman. Heck, for all I know, all three of those guys are good buddies. It certainly wouldn't surprise me if they were.
Now, granted, I haven't watched wrestling myself since around 2004-2005 or so, though I was a pretty big fan before that, stretching back to my childhood. Mostly, it was due to the fact that I dropped my cable and no longer had access to RAW anymore. Nothing against Smackdown, because that's all that I had available to watch when I still lived in NC, but after watching both RAW and Smackdown together, when I was faced with the prospect of only getting to see Smackdown alone, I just kind of lost interest. (Also, I pretty much just stopped watching TV altogether at that point, and haven't really watched it since, except when I'm in NC for Christmas.) But something caught my attention a few weeks ago and got me to wanting to read these books, so I ordered them from Amazon. I don't remember now what exactly it was that sparked my interest, except that it was something on TvTropes. Reading the books also got me interested in playing the video games again as well, which is why I've recently been playing a lot of WWE Smackdown vs Raw 2008, 2009, and 2010 on the 360, the latter two of which I bought shortly after finishing the first book. I don't think I'll go back to watching the shows again though, particularly since Foley himself isn't even with WWE any more. He went to TNA in 2008, I think, according to Wikipedia anyway (and I don't have Spike, so couldn't watch that if I wanted to.)
Anyway, for the most part, the books are looks into Mick's life as a wrestler and give some insight into behind the scenes stuff, but in a way that is open to those who may not know a double arm DDT from a mandible claw. Whenever he uses a potentially obscure wrestling term for the first time, he tends to follow that up with the layman's equivalent in parentheses. For example "did the job (lost the match)." He mostly keeps it light, though at times he gets serious about things. In both books, the second one in particular, he often goes off of the topic of wrestling to mention other things that are of interest to him, such as spending time with his family and his love of amusement parks, among other things. He is a very good writer, I think (and the books didn't reach #1 on the New York Times Bestseller list for nothing). I know that he has also written at least one more book and is either working on or has already written a fourth (and this doesn't even count the Christmas book, or the novel he mentions in the bonus chapter of the second book), so I'll probably be getting those at some point as well.
As something of an aside, however, I want to say a bit about the final chapter of the second book, which is a rather different thing from the 500 or so pages that came before. Or, as Mick himself warns before getting into it, "Please feel free to stop reading this book if you have no desire to read what is essentially a whole other book. A book that hopefully debunks myths and educates with facts." It is freshest in my mind because it's what I just finished reading. In this chapter, Mick talks about the attempts by the Parents Television Council to get WWE Smackdown! pulled off the air. Based on what I read in Mick's book (as well as my own follow up research that I did prior to starting this post) it seems that L. Brent Bozell III was to professional wrestling in the late 90s early 00s as Jack Thompson was to video games in the mid to late 00s. Perhaps worse, actually. As much as I have had to say about Jack Thompson over the years, I'll just say one more thing about him: if he had had the slightest semblance of power and influence during his crusade against video games, he pretty much would have been L. Brent Bozell III. Oh, and another similarity between these two esteemed gentlemen, both of them have (or at least at one point had, and perhaps still do have) their claws hooked into Senator Joe Lieberman. Heck, for all I know, all three of those guys are good buddies. It certainly wouldn't surprise me if they were.