A review by bobmcbobson
Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life by William Finnegan

3.0

I liked this book (though I didn't love it) because the author's unwavering passion for surfing was fascinating to me. He literally built his life around the sport, travelling the world seeking out the best as-yet "unspoiled" waves (meaning not so well known they become overrun with other surfers). The fact that he was doing this in the time before internet and cell phones made the adventure that much more exciting. Ultimately, though, this book should have been at least 150 pages shorter. It got very repetitious in every chapter as he described the same places over and over and over again. I feel like he may have literally catalogued every wave he ever surfed in this book.