Best wrestling book ever made.

If you just met me this month (which, by virtue of starting a new grad program, many people have), I'd be the biggest wrestling fan you know. I go to live tapings of Monday Night Raw, I watch multi-hour Pay-Per-View events, and the only book I carry was written by Mick Foley. It's even autographed.

I'm ok with your understanding of me, because wrestling ("sports entertainment") is amazing. And, in particular, Mick Foley is a terrific wrestler ("SuperStar") and a delightful writer ("author").

Have a Nice Day is a weirdly big book, filled with funny anecdotes, dumb jokes, and fascinating insights into a life unlike any other. Mick has had his arms ripped up by barbed wire, his ear ripped off in the ring, his back burned with in-ring C4 EXPLOSIONS, his head hit with soooo many folding chairs, and his teeth knocked out by a car accident unrelated to his job but still wild. He's also a fun-loving family man, and card carrying member of American Coaster Enthusiasts--an organization of amusement park lovers that I coincidentally looked into joining after a trip to Six Flags but didn't because it is $65 per year.

This was his first book, and charts his path from a loveless twerp from Long Island, to an ambitious wrestling enthusiast eating pb sandwiches and sleeping in his car to save for training classes, to a WCW, ECW, IWA, and ultimately WWF star. We get loving sketches of his time with other wrestlers--barbed jokes about his favorites, damning faint praise for those he prefers less. We also get loving sketches of his family, and his honest appraisal of the good and ill his job does for his family.

Before I took an active interest I only knew Mick's most famous incarnation as "Mankind" and had no idea about his past as Cactus Jack--the Hardcore Legend and King of the Death Match--or Dude Love--the corporate hippie. Now, I proudly wear a Cactus Jack shirt, and the Dude Love ring entrance music is among my favorites. A good memoir will do that: draw you in, delight you with familiar details, and sustain you with something entirely new.

It's funny, it's sweet, yes it's long but it reads quickly. I love Have a Nice Day, and I love Mick Foley.

Husband owns this book. I tried to read it as I like some WWE stars and Mike Foley seems to have lived an interesting life. I just could not get into it.