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| Author: Russell Brand
Publisher: Hodder Paperbacks
Category: Book
List Price: £7.99
Buy New: £4.93
You Save: £3.06 (38%)
New (40) Used (16) from £2.50
Avg. Customer Rating:  99 reviews
Sales Rank: 183
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 352
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 7.8 x 5 x 1.3
ISBN: 0340936177
Dewey Decimal Number: 791.45092
EAN: 9780340936177
ASIN: 0340936177
Publication Date: July 10, 2008
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours
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| Customer Reviews:
 Absolute drivel November 1, 2008
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
After receiving this book and Russell Brand live dvd from my sister as a present i decided to give them a go. Def Jam comedy is usually my thing but i'm open to new ideas.
Well after reading the first 15-20 pages rigor mortis started setting in. This really is an over indulgent self glorifying back slapping borefest. The guys done nothing of any real substance in his life. The previous books i've read this year were about Martin Luther King, Che Guevara, Malcolm X and from the world of entertainment Quincy Jones, Marvin Gaye, Chuck D, Bernie Mac and Hill Harper. With every one of those books i felt a bit depressed realizing i was coming to the end and without exception they all had interesting and compelling stories to be told.
Brand on the other hand has nothing interesting to say. Take away the drug abuse, sexploits and numerous professional misdemeanors and there's nothing left.
Marvin gaye's biography had all the sexploits, drug abuse, misdemeanors and much more, it's was insightful, interesting, tragic and compelling all at the same time.
Quincy Jones' tells of his journey from rags, and i mean from bare foot rags to multi millionaire riches and his boyhood, youth and adulthood friendships with many of the greatest artist the world's ever seen.
Now if you're gonna write an autobiography you've got to have actually done something with your life apart from getting stoned and laid.
I believe Russell Brand bringing out "my booky wook 2", now apart from numerous liaisons with desperate young "ladies" and maybe the odd hooker or two they'll be nothing left to say.
Having read a few books recently on Che Guevara, i just can't accept drivel like this. Che's biographies are mind blowing, from his birth in Argentina to his execution without trial in Bolivia at the hands of the CIA in his late 30's Che's story could fill a thousand biographies all infinitely more entertaining than Brands effect.
This maybe an interesting read for the impressionable teenage avid Brand fans, anyone else wanting an interesting biography go else where.
 amazing October 28, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I didn't particularly like Russel Brand before reading this book, but thought I'd give it a shot as a friend recommended it. I'm glad I did as I couldn't put it down!
Loved reading it and was even a bit gutted when it was finished.
Frank and very funny! October 24, 2008
I'd only ever seen Russell on Big Brother's Big Mouth before, but then I saw his book and thought I'd give it a try. For anyone that's a fan of Russell, I guarentee you'll love this! I don't normally read 'celebrity' books, mainly because most of them are ghost written, but this is most certainly 100% Russell's work! I love the way he's so honest, and despite his trouble with drugs and alcohol he seems a very genuine person. This is a hilarious read and defenitely made me a big RB fan.
Arrogant rubbish October 23, 2008
4 out of 8 found this review helpful
I was looking forward to reading this book. I picked it up in the airport, settled uncomfortably into my seat on the plance, and began to read.
I was disappointed. RB comes across as egotistical, arrogant and completely unlovable.
I gave up after an hour's perseverence, and decided that the airplane's duty free brochure was less irritating.
 Refreshingly honest October 22, 2008
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
This is an extremely frank account of Brand's life so far, written in the immediately recognisable style of his stand-up routines. Unlike many celeb autobiographies, this is not some moneyspinning PR exercise published just in time for christmas. The tone of the book is confessional throughout, as if the author is trying to make sense of it himself - as you might expect from a successful rehab candidate. It's just as well that Brand has the effortless knack of making pretty much anything sound hilarious, because the subject matter is very often quite uncomfortable. A stark example of the gap between the reality of Brand's life before rehab and the life of most other people comes when he attempts to entertain Ricky Gervais on the phone with a fairly grubby prostitute-related tale, only to be forlornly baffled when the embarrassed Gervais simply hangs up with the words "I have to go now".
If you're a fan and are curious to know more about Russell's smack-addled past, this is the book for you. Other than that, I can't really see who this book would appeal to.
Although Russell is always keen to apologise for past indiscretions, what irritated me slightly is his lack of insight into his actions. He will casually mention (for instance) that he started smoking cannabis at 16 and continued to do so every day thereafter until he was almost 30. His attitude to women is really very odd. He has apparently been diagnosed as bipolar (the posh new name for manic depressive) by more than one medical professional. Yet Russell pretty much ties it all up at the end with "and I came out of rehab happily ever after". But what led him to do it all in the first place? As a reader, you suspect that he was spoiled rotten as a child by his doting mother and set a terrible example by his cad of a father (whom he still seems to idolise, inexplicably), but the rest remains a mystery.
That said, this is an engaging and easy read (if you're not squeamish about endless tales of hard drug-taking and encounters with prostitutes)!
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