William Finnegan's "Barbarian Days" - Best Book About Surfing Ever? Plus Burgerlords!

It has taken me a while to get to William Finnegan's "Barbarian Days," which is all about Finnegan's life as a surfer, beginning with his early days in Hawaii and California.  I haven't read that many books on surfing, but I have to say I am totally enthralled by this book, and if you have any interest at all in surfing -- or what goes on inside the mind of a surfer -- go and get a copy right away because it's so, so good.  Even though I am such a bad surfer still, and I've only been at it a relatively short time, I relate to so much in this book (which, by the way, is also a great portrait of California and Hawaii in the 1960's and 1970's, which I always find fascinating and so cool). Also, I've learned important things from this book -- for instance I'm constantly referring to myself as Kook, which is surfer slang for a dorky surfer. However, what I did not know is that Kook comes from "...kuk, a Hawaiian word for excrement"! This is good information to have, and it paints a colorful picture, doesn't it? I guess what Finnegan really nails for me is a sort of obsession, which I guess applies to surf enthusiasts of all stripes. He began surfing as a kid, and while I don't have that (I have the sort of equivalent of that on skis, though), what I do have is surfing on the brain -- I think about it all the time. When I'm not in the water, I'm wondering when I can get back in. In many ways I've been rearranging my life around a surf schedule, and so Finnegan's obsession totally rings true. How many times a day can you look at Surfline cams? Many.

Another takeaway from "Barbarian Days" is the surfer's connection to nature. This is in some ways obvious -- you're in the ocean so can't get much closer than that -- but also in less tangible ways. You begin to understand -- or try to understand -- things like swell direction and swell size, and what it means when storms are churning away down in Baja because they're going to have a bearing on where you might surf and when.  But also it's just about appreciating things. Like the other day was a pretty good day for me in Santa Monica. Waves were on the small side, and there was the mid-tide I always like, but once again there were dolphins passing lazily by, and pelicans soaring overhead, and the water was nice and clear. It felt so good to just be out there. I was thinking about what to eat after the time in the water and, maybe because it was just such a pretty perfect Southern California day I wanted to do something nice for the planet, which means eating something vegetarian or even vegan. So it was a good day to hit up a new spot I'd read about downtown, in Chinatown, Burgerlords. This is a the vegan cheeseburger I ordered--

I'm generally not a huge fan of veggie or vegan burgers -- if you're gonna have a burger, go to In-n-Out for goodness sakes -- but pictures I'd seen of these made it look really delicious, and I have to say it was. Did it taste like meat? Not really, but it was hearty and filling, and I felt really good about eating it. I forgot to ask if the cheese was vegan. I suspect it was regular cheese, but if you're a total vegan get it without. The fries were prefect too, crispy and salty and hot. It's an interesting spot for lunch too, in the middle of this old-school Chinatown mall. I noticed a bunch of elderly Chinese men milling about, studying all the hipsters and such who were eating at Burgerlords. It was as if they were seeing the future and they weren't quite sure what to make of it.

I'll definitely go back to Burgerlords to try the real burgers but this vegan version definitely hit the spot.

So go!  And get William Finnegan's "Barbarian Days".  It's from Penguin Press.

And by the way, if you're looking for a good novel, please visit www.inkshares.com and search for "Women Like Us".  You can pre-order a book, and I will thank you heartily!

www.burgerlords.com