Customer Reviews

Life and Limb: Skateboarders Write from the Deep End

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4 star:		(1)
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2 star:		(1)
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Many people have written about shred-stickery, but this book, for the first time, dismisses notions of the bong-toking, Tony Hawk Pro Skater-ing, Gravity Gaming, Tech Deck fingerboarding demographic of vidiot savant vandals who demoralize and destroy society with their wild antics on four wheels. This is a book written by skateboarders who convey more passion and garner more respect than any Tiger Woods or Mark McGuire, while simultaneously defying all that is conventional about "sport."

Life and Limb shows that talented skateboarders can also be talented artists, deep thinkers, and true souls in a society overrun by celebrities and sports aimed at breeding consumers. With pieces by many influential skaters whose lives have been touched, and in many ways shaped by the sport, Life and Limb is a revolutionary anthology that any skater, philosopher, activist, literati, industry entity, or martial artist can relate to. Its reading is therapeutic, reassuring, and restores lost faith in an ideology that has been packaged and sold to the branded masses.

some of the amazon reviewers are overly hung up on a very static evaluation of this text: 'is the writing good?' instead the highest value of this book is recognizing that it was created entirely by those within the skateboarding world and at times doesn't even address skateboarding itself - no need to always talk about it, they ARE the culture, they live it.

this is almost a sociological study of skaters at different times in their lives, from young to 'mature,' making sense of this subculture that has defined their lives. some of the tales are simple/straightforward, others are more experimental or fantastic. yet others seem to have no tie to skateboarding other than being in the anthology - but their placement within it makes connections inevitable.

it's a fascinating text as a study, and some of the writing is quite good - or at the least thought-provoking. peter pan-ish themes weave throughout, which says a lot, doesn't it? it's not amateurish, it's D.I.Y., which as all skaters know is also very much part of the culture. the fact that non-writers were welcome to contribute should be applauded. rules are broken, gems revealed. bravo to life and limb.

Life and Limb winds through a wide array of experiences and perspectives, demonstrating the depth of a sub-culture of American life. With the use of humor, introspection, and fury; the collective authors are able to demonstrate the thoughts and feelings of the lost youth.

This should not be considered just another skateboarding book. This is an excellent read, and provides a vastness of thought that can only be attributed to many voices and many thoughts.

Having read (and enjoyed) Jocko Weyland's "The Answer Is Never,"
I was very much looking forward to this book.

There are roughly 20 short stories to be found in these pages
but unfortunately, they run the gamut of good to bad to worse.
Contributing writers includes: Mark Gonzales, Jocko Weyland,
Michael Burnett, Ed Templeton, Jeff Knutson, etc.

Mark Gonzales always has wonderful and imaginative artwork so it
was a joy to read some of his words in "Burgundy Hair Die"
instead of just seeing his visual art over the years.

A couple stories such as Steven Church's "Tree Eater" are fun
and amusing to behold but there are so many poor stories to wade
through that you're better off picking up numerous other books
written by skaters or even short stories written by non-skaters.

The book's opening story (which should hook you into reading the
rest) is "Get Radical" by Michael Burnett. It reads and feels
like an eleven year old wrote it for a middle-school essay
assignment.

Good idea but not executed well. Perhaps plunking down $15 to
read a book of mostly mediocre stories is someone's idea of a
fun afternoon. To me, I'd rather skate or do just about
anything else.