Cannonball Read III: Book #43/52Published: 2008
Pages: 384 (17,361 total pages so far)
Genre: Nonfiction/Memoir
I love cruises. So when I saw this Kindle book for $2.99, I figured it would be worth a read. Plus I spent Thanksgiving in Florida with family, so I wanted something light and easy to read by the pool. Well, it was definitely light reading, but not really what I was expecting.
The full title of this book is "Cruise Confidential: A Hit Below the Waterling: Where the Crew Lives, Eats, Wars, and Parties. One Crazy Year Working on Cruise Ships." Uh...yeah. Longest title ever. Basically, Brian fell in love with a gorgeous Romanian who works on a cruise ship. Naturally, he decides to follow her and get a job with Carnival Cruises. The only problem is that no American has ever lasted a full contract in the dining room of a Carnival ship. The book follows Brian's quest to become the first.
I always wondered why Americans never work on cruise shops. Now I know. It's HARD - long hours, tiny living quarters, weird roommates - just to name a few. Americans don't exactly have the highest work ethic in the world, hence mostly foreigners working on cruise ships. I found that aspect of the book interesting. I like seeing what the living quarters were like, what they thought of the passengers, and stuff like that. Unfortunately, those parts are few and far between.
Most of the book is a platform for Brian to brag about how many hot women he has to beat off with a stick and to rate every women her meets by her physical attributes. It gets annoying really fast. You know how everyone in their 20s has that one friend who constantly stories about crazy times when they're drunk and it's not really interesting unless you were there an/or also drunk? Yeah, this is that friend if they wrote a book. It's page after page of drunk exploits that you probably had to be there to enjoy. A few stories would have been okay, but most of the book was this crap.
Overall, I didn't really like it. I really wanted to read more about crazy guest stories and things like that. I also didn't like how it just abruptly ended. Brian does finish his contract with Carnival (the first American ever!) though. He starts working towards a job as an art auctioneer with Carnival, but the book just sort of ends there. We don't really find out what happens between him and his girlfriend either, with is what a good chunk of the book is about!
No comments:
Post a Comment