Monday, January 7, 2013

Physique: The Life of John S. Barrington by Rupert Smith

Physique: The Life of John S. Barrington by Rupert Smith
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Well, I really liked this.
The photos were great, the research exhaustive and I believe more care was put into this book than any project Barrington attempted during his life time.

One thing I got out of this was the sense of failure and the feeling of wasting a life, wasting opportunities. The man is known as a pioneer in his field yet he was always looking for recognition, always trying to chnage to a different and more "legit" line of work.

Two things I got from this are be happy with what you have and your lot in life. The second thing is that if you're having trouble seeing things to satisfactory completion, get assistance.

It seems at the end Barrington did get assistance from author Rupert Smith, but he never was able to reliquinish enough control and I imagine the period Smith worked with him to be a very difficult one indeed. I'm sure that could be a different book in itself, but I feel Smith does a good job here leaving these things aside. I think I would have been too tempted to say "The man is fucking crazY!"

I felt the prose overly simplified and it's hard to keep momentum in a story where everthing the guy does fails, yet I'm very glad I read it, I'm glad it was written.

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