What a fun, fun, fun read!
Always love to read the behind the scenes of his movies.

Some great chapters?
His thoughts on travel!!! 😂
A letter to his reborn “son,” Bill! 😂
His taste in music.
His overexposure in life.
His LSD trip with Mink Stole.

Again, fun fun fun.

Absolutely can’t wait to see his Christmas show in Baltimore, Dec 21st. ( )

I received a NetGalley copy and, unfortunately, DNF'd this about 15% of the way in. I read John Waters' book Carsick, about his weird and wild hitchhiking journey across America. And, although I'm not really a fan of his work, there's a part of me that can appreciate his counter-culture approach to life and art.

This book is a mish-mash of hyper-specific advice based on key moments in his career. They don't feel particularly applicable and didn't hold my interest. After a fairly fun and insane introduction, Mr. Know-It-All quickly peters out. I recommend this for die-hard fans of John Waters that want a little more insight into key moments in his career and history. For general readers, this book isn't as palatable as Carsick and doesn't really offer any good nuggets of applicable advice.

Waters is perhaps the funniest person in the world, in a rather deep way, even if he is talking about the most disgusting or outrageous subjects. By all means, listen to the audiobook read by Waters himself. He is also perhaps the best audiobook reader I have ever heard, and the competition is fierce. This book is worth the price (or borrow) just for his chapter on music, which ranges from hilarious car-crash pop songs to his appreciation of country music to his recommendation of Glenn Gould and Maria Callas. Other chapters talk about many of his films at length, monkey art, and a few things I enjoyed listening to but don't want to mention in the review! Throughout, Waters comes across as the wittiest, most intelligent, most endearing character you could ever want to spend time with. Don't miss this one. ( )

Hysterical in parts, fascinating in others, dull as toast in yet others. Choose your chapters according to tastes ( )

I am a fan of John Waters, I mean, I like that he exists, that he's been doing what he's doing and been so creative and intense for so long. But I have seen few of his films and never enjoyed them. The book is a massive dose of his persona - outspoken, brilliant, vicious, provocative, lurid. It was too much for me. These essays about architecture, death, music, cities, movies would be great showing up in a magazine I read every couple of months, although they are too stream-of-consciousness (and I guess self-indulgent) to ever get published anywhere. I actually read an excerpt - heavily edited, I realize once I get into the book - about success in The Paris Review and it was so touching. The actual chapter veers more dramatically into silly outrageousness, and that turns out to be the tone of the whole book.

I have deliberately not included the adjective "hilarious" but I know many will find this book to be very very funny. It just wasn't, for me. ( )