But not "Loudmouth," Craig Carton's first book. Without breaking for food or the bathroom, I pumped out the last 200 pages this morning, my first Saturday alone with his hilarious account of his first 40-plus years in this world.
Honestly, I'm not even a religious listener of his show, but when I have time to tune in I absolutely love it. Just as described in his final chapter, Boomer and Carton hit it off right from the start, and they never even rehearsed to win their coveted gig on WFAN. It goes without being said that I will make more of an effort to listen after enjoying his book so much.
As for the book, well, my knee-jerk review is that it reads a lot like one of his shows – except raunchier, and not about the day's sports news but of his life's ups and downs with family, girls and (un)employment.
He doesn't spend much time telling you how good he is at what he does, but the fact that he replaced Don Imus and nearly replaced Howard Stern years earlier is enough for you to realize that Carton is truly one of the best in the radio biz. He calls himself, "confident but not cocky," and what an entertaining combination that is for a radio personality and now author.
Carton shares stories from his childhood that help you understand who he is today, and it's refreshing to hear someone discuss sensitive issues so freely. Then, learning of his crazy career path and hurdles he leaped—on that note, I'm cutting myself off and leaving you with an amusing, but unrevealing excerpt:
...he liked to talk in parables and metaphors. After one of my stripper shows resulted in the girl being naked and doing jumping jacks for Broncos tickets, he said to me, "Craig, you are building a house and it's a nice house, but today you burned down the deck. Why did you burn the deck down?" I had no fucking idea what he was talking about, but I knew I needed to leave.
I breezed through his book and already have someone in line waiting to read it. Get in line, fans, "Loudmouth" is worth it.
