The Diary of a Player By Brad Paisley

Before I write about this fantastic book, there is a little background that I would like to share. In Summer 2009, I met Brad Paisley at the Delaware State Fair in Harrington, DE. He was exactly what I thought he would be and much more, except being tall. I remember that moment clearly when we looked into each other's eyes and I knew that I wanted to be just like him. It took a few years to get around to it, but I finally started playing guitar. Now, for the book. To briefly explain the book, it is sort of an autobiography and sort of not. I felt like he was in front of me the entire time and I was the fly on the wall. Although it may be classified as an autobiography and boring, I had a lot of fun reading about his life, especially the part when he says that he received a D in his guitar class. The entire time I read the book, I was on a roller coaster of emotions. If you have ever played a musical instrument, you know that it can be hard at first and most people take a break or quit. Like Brad, I went though this stage and I felt like we connected of those grounds. I have never read a book that I connected so much to and it felt great to know Brad and I felt the same way.

My First Experience with Hemingway

After some pondering, I decided that it was finally time to read some Hemingway. He was considered one of the best writers of the twentieth century, but I had to decide for myself. As you may or may not know, I love Fitzgerald and Poe, so he had some tough competition. I started with a simple short story, A Clean, Well- Lighted Place. I have to admit, the story had little impact on me and it would be easily forgotten (just like Faulkner). The story had no plot and it was good that it was short because I would have just stopped reading. But, as I thought about the story and did some research on Hemingway, I began to like it more and more. During my research, I discovered that Hemingway committed suicide. Also, I discovered that his father, brother, sister, and daughter also committed suicide. Upon finding this information, I began to feel to him. How could you live when you know that many of your family members took their own lives. I decided to take this information one step further and linked it to this short story. In my opinion, the old man is Hemingway. He has a feeling of nothingness and is blind to the world. Nobody cares for him and the only thing Hemingway has are his writing skills. The only thing the old man has is the bar. I also found it very coincidental that the old man had a drinking problem because Hemingway also had a drinking problem. This raises a question, did Hemingway tell his own story? From my point of view, Hemingway is a close fourth behind Hurston. Here's the Stats:

1. Fitzgerald
2. Poe
3. Hurston
4. Hemingway