Last week the New York Times book review featured a story on Berlin-based writer Michael Scott Moore’s surfing history book Sweetness and Blood: How Surfing Spread from Hawaii to California to the Rest of the World, with Some Unexpected Results. In it he searches for the world’s first surfer.
Moore’s own history is a thing of shreds and patches, casually, almost randomly, assembled. But what he has done, subtly and beguilingly, is write a book about surfing that often is not really about surfing but about simply being alive (and, in some cases, dead).
Matt Warshaw says the book is “Warm, smart, funny, and beautifully written.” West of Jesus author Steven Kotler says it is a “wonderful and engaging book . . . [that] combines folk history, pop art, and great old-fashioned travel writing.” Moore also quotes Ben “the world’s greatest surf writer” Marcus in the first few pages of the book so we might just pick it up.
For a short interview with Michael Scott Moore click here for the NYT’s books blog Paper Cuts.
[Link: New York Times]
