Okay, how about something different: a memoir. One of my secret passions is skateboarding, well the culture of skateboarding. I was never really any good. I could push around and get up a curb and back down. I was never much for tricks on or off a ramp. Everyone once and awhile I’ll still ride my board to work. Now that I’m thinking about it, tomorrow sounds good.The Mutt: How to Skateboard and Kill Yourself is the memoir of the number one street-style skater to ever kick-flip off a park bench to dark-side slide to…; well, I don’t even know many of the tick names. However, Rodney Mullen is the most entertaining and talented skater out there.
The book is a recounting of Mullen’s rise to stardom. As a child he was hyperactive and obsessive compulsive. The only thing that could keep Mullen out of trouble and out of his parent’s hair was a flat tick board that he practiced with everyday all day long. However, his parent’s wouldn’t let him leave the driveway. So he quickly learned to make the best of that space by doing handstands, finger flips, among many other of, at that time, standard tricks. Mullen soon began to put together routines where he would cycle through all the trick he knew in seconds.
I found all this stuff about his childhood fascinating. However, I was really interested in some of his smart business moves that he made. The later half of his books is not really about his own fame, but how he started business after business, some failing, and making money on things like shoes, board, and other merchandise. Mullen really excelled in the business aspect of skateboarding. He knew that he wouldn’t be able to skate at the same level for ever and that some one younger would try to out do him, yet no one really has.
This is a great book for any fan.
Mullen, Rodney. The Mutt: How to Skateboard and Kill Yourself. with Sean Mortimer. New York: HarperCollins, 2004
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