Ratings85
Average rating4.1
The Academy Award®–winning actor, father of three, and bestselling author of Greenlights distills more than three decades of journaling experience to help you reflect, seek clarity, and forge your own path with this life-changing practice. Greenlights: Your Journal, Your Journey is a guided companion to the #1 New York Times bestselling memoir Greenlights, filled with prompts, pithy quotes, adages, outlaw wisdom, and advice on how to live with greater satisfaction from Matthew McConaughey. Matthew has been writing in journals since he was fifteen years old. His adventures have taken him from Texas to Australia, from Mali to Peru—and he has chronicled them all. In this authentic, unconventional journal, the prompts encourage going inside: remembering, reflecting, and musing, and also going outside: adventuring, taking risks, and dreaming big. Who could be a better guide for seekers setting out on the road to understanding their lives inside and out, past, present, and future?
Reviews with the most likes.
A serious collections of a man's life stories and a good load of relatable quotes.
I'm starting to see a theme (a very expected theme) amongst celebrity memoirs: self-aggrandizement disguised in humble origin stories and a false sense of modesty. This book fits the theme.
I'd put this somewhere between memoir and tall tale. As in, I don't believe half the shit he said he did. A German dude lending him a motorcycle for free to ride through Europe, only to not care when he totaled it? Drinking two shots of tequila and running 5 miles barefoot in the sand in 108 degree heat and wrestling cows until he got knocked out by a bull to prepare for a movie? Challenging the village champion in a remote African village, who then walked him 15 miles to the next village by foot after he earned his respect? Cmon.
I listened to the audiobook, read by the author, which I think made it more strange. He was clearly performing the whole time which, sure, makes sense – but also made him seem more detached from reality and just a little unhinged. Especially the laughing. What was with the laughing? Also, he's kind of a weird guy. I'd expect this from many other celebrities, like, IDK, Adam Driver? It's clear that he sees himself as an artist (which, okay, he kind of is). He clearly fancies himself a poet.
Then there were other things that didn't make sense. He kept yelling out, “Prescription!” “Bumper sticker!” “Note to self!” – followed by some aphorism or other (and that strange chuckle), the purpose of which I didn't quite understand because they weren't really prescriptions or bumper stickers or notes to self. I think he just wanted a reason to yell out his apothegms.
If this is meant to be read more like family lore than it is truth, so be it. I suppose it's interesting, and regardless of what's true and what isn't, the dude has lived a pretty fascinating life. I think he's a fine dude and I do quite like several of his movies – I think he's a talented actor. I just couldn't get past his own self-regard.
Such an enjoyable read, great stories, great sense of humor, great perspective.
Audiobook format is a must, his reading is quirky and delightful.
Featured Prompt
33 booksLooking for all sorts of themes, but focused on books praised by the quality of narration as well as content