Interview with Tadhg Hickey, author of A Portrait of the Piss Artist as a Young Man
Tadhg Hickey, author of A Portrait of the Piss Artist as a Young Man recommends a fantastic flurry of books! Before jumping into the interview, please check out Tadhg's book:
Description from Bookshop.org: (All links earn commission from purchases. Prices accurate at time of writing)
A Portrait of the Piss Artist as a Young Man
It was love at first taste for fifteen-year-old Tadhg Hickey when he drank a can of Scrumpy Jack on the night of his exam results. Straight away it provided a cure for that constant feeling of 'something wrong, something not quite right', a way of numbing anxiety and childhood trauma. He realised he was extraordinarily good at drinking and energetically threw himself into a life of pubs, parties and staying pissed, while also managing to become a comedian. But alcohol had the last laugh ...
A Portrait of the Piss Artist as a Young Man shows us the often-hilarious lengths of self-deception an alcoholic will go to, the horrific consequences of addiction and the redemptive process of recovering from this deadly but ultimately treatable illness, and remaining sober. A deeply touching memoir and with a side of self-help, Tadhg's easy-going writing style belies his serious message - that each of us has the power to change our lives.
Buy On:
Easons €23.79
Bookshop.org UK £13.29
Blackwells £16.99
Waterstones £16.99
Wordery $21.24
Q. Do you have a favourite smart thinking book (and why that book)?
Awareness by Anthony DeMello. Description from Bookshop.org: (All links earn commission from purchases. Prices accurate at time of writing)
It's not the most esoteric book I've read, it doesn't contain particularly complex ideas (rather the contrary) but Anthony De Mello's Awareness is certainly the smartest book I know. It's a guide to experiencing the world as it is, not as our distorted thinking tells us it is. The solutions are so simple you'd nearly miss them.
Awareness
De Mello's spiritual classic remains at the top of the Fount bestsellers more than five years after its original publication.
Buy On:
Easons €12.09
Bookshop.org UK £10.44
Bookshop.org US $15.81
Blackwells £10.99
Waterstones £10.99
Wordery $13.74
Q. What's the most recent smart thinking book you've read (and how would you rate it)?
The New Age of Empire: How Racism and Colonialism Still Rule the World by Kehinde Andrews. Description from Bookshop.org: (All links earn commission from purchases. Prices accurate at time of writing)
The New Age of Empire - How Racism & Colonialism Still Rule The World by Kehinde Andrews. The most important word in Andrews' title is 'still'. How often are conversations about colonialism shut down by conservatives who say, 'That's the past, move on'. Andrews expertly details that racism & colonialism are still the pillars of global economic and political hegemony for the West. It is filled with jaw-dropping facts eg. Up until 2015, Britons, through taxation, were still paying off the loan used to compensate slave traders in 1807 at the time of abolition. Naturally, the slaves themselves didn't get a penny. It's an astonishingly good read.
The New Age of Empire: How Racism and Colonialism Still Rule the World
The New Age of Empire takes us back to the beginning of the European Empires, outlining the deliberate terror and suffering wrought during every stage of the expansion, and destroys the self-congratulatory myth that the West was founded on the three great revolutions of science, industry and politics. Instead, genocide, slavery and colonialism are the key foundation stones upon which the West was built, and we are still living under this system today: America is now at the helm, perpetuating global inequality through business, government, and institutions like the UN, the IMF, the World Bank and the WTO.
The West is rich because the Rest is poor. Capitalism is racism. The West congratulations itself on raising poverty by increments in the developing world while ignoring the fact that it created these conditions in the first place, and continues to perpetuate them. The Enlightenment, which underlies every part of our foundational philosophy today, was and is profoundly racist. This colonial logic was and is used to justify the ransacking of Black and brown bodies and their land. The fashionable solutions offered by the white Left in recent years fall far short of even beginning to tackle the West's place at the helm of a racist global order.
Offering no easy answers, The New Age of Empire is essential reading to understand our profoundly corrupt global system. A work of essential clarity, The New Age of Empire is a groundbreaking new blueprint for taking Black Radical thought into the twenty-first century and beyond.
Buy On:
Easons €15.39
Bookshop.org UK £10.14
Bookshop.org US $26.97
Blackwells £10.58
Waterstones £10.99
Wordery $13.74
Q. Do you have a favourite childhood book?
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger. Description from Bookshop.org: (All links earn commission from purchases. Prices accurate at time of writing)
I read Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger at the start of secondary school, and although I found it mesmerising, it was probably a bad time to get the idea into your head that most people are 'phonies'. Suddenly all my teachers and parents seemed dodgy. As a teenager it was revolutionary to read about a young man with all the same fears and desires and self-obsessions I had. It was vicarious and exhilarating.
The Catcher in the Rye
The hero-narrator of The Catcher in the Rye is an ancient child of sixteen, a native New Yorker named Holden Caufield. Through circumstances that tend to preclude adult, secondhand description, he leaves his prep school in Pennsylvania and goes underground in New York City for three days.
Buy On:
Easons €14.55
Bookshop.org UK £12.34
Bookshop.org US $27.90
Blackwells £12.99
Waterstones £12.99
Wordery $16.24
Q. Do you prefer reading on paper, Kindle or listening to an audiobook?
Paper all the way. My head hurts if I'm on a screen too long. I don't generally enjoy audiobooks because I want to experience the writing myself unencumbered, without being led by an actor. Having said all that, my audiobook is brilliant and you should all buy it.
Q. Do you have a favourite bookshop (and why that shop)?
Waterstones Cork
Waterstones on Patrick st. in Cork is obviously the greatest bookstore ever. I don't understand how this was even a question.
Many thanks to Tadhg (wicked nice guy) for recommending a fantastic flurry of books! Please don't forget to check out A Portrait of the Piss Artist as a Young Man.
Daryl
Image Copyrights: Bonnier Books Ltd (A Portrait of the Piss Artist as a Young Man), HarperCollins Publishers (Awareness), Penguin Books Ltd (The New Age of Empire: How Racism and Colonialism Still Rule the World), Penguin Books Ltd (The Catcher in the Rye).
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