M*A*S*H is one of my all time favorite shows. It’s old, and most of the people I know who are my age can’t stand it, but overall the series was pretty amazing. It wouldn’t have been on for 11 years if it wasn’t. 

Alan Alda was more or less the start of the show for all 11 of those years, and if it weren’t for him the show would have been nothing. One of my favorite quotes from him (and, good. grief. there are thousands of good ones. I promise you) is this: 

“…I’ll carry your books, I’ll carry a torch, I’ll carry a tune, I’ll cary on, carry over, carry forward, Cary Grand, cash and carry, carry me back to Old virginia, I’ll even ‘hari-kari’ if you show me how, but i will not carry a gun.” 

I guess it would be helpful to explain that the show is set in an army hospital in Korea during the Korean War. 

Anyway, Alan Alda has always been one of my favorite actors, in the show he plays a very noble, honest, moral, goofball, and in real life I’ve realized that he’s very similar to that same personality (The best actors often act exactly like themselves *in* their respected roles, I’ve found…). 

He’s very much an older man at this point, but he is still very active. He’s written two books in the last few years. I’ve read them both, the first I thought was okay. The second however, was amazing. Positively, amazing. 

I would recommend this book to anyone. It might help if you knew who Alan Alda was before reading the book, but it’s not necessary either. The entire book is centered around the many times over the course of his career that he’s been asked to speak. In each chapter he explains some learning experience, and how that experience prepared him to give that speech, then he includes that speech in the chapter as well. 

Maybe it’s because I’m at that “graduation” age where speeches are a “thing” in my life. Maybe it’s because I could relate to a lot of the speeches (though not all of them, they’re all very different). I don’t know. 

What I do know is that it is the best book that I’ve read in a long time. I enjoyed it immensely, and it was an extremely easy and quick read. 

So… Go read it! 
I’ll leaven let you borrow it from me.