Danny Wallace' "Friends Like These" Review

I wrote this review over at goodreads after reading this book.

Friends Like These: My Worldwide Quest to Find My Best Childhood Friends, Knock on Their Doors, and Ask Them to Come Out and Play by Danny Wallace

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

BRILLIANT!
Like the author - I definitely went through (and even 2 years later am still going through) issues of REALLY passing into adult-hood - or reaching/passing THIRTY years old. I could definitely identify with many parts of this book.
UNlike the author however, at 32 years old I have FOUR beautiful children, I have not written best-selling books that have been (or will be) turned into successful movies starring Jim Carrey (good movie actually, and now I've gotta read the book), nor do I have the means to travel off to various parts of the world just to say hi for a couple hours to friends long disconnected.
I do, however, work in IT. Funny, that.
Reading this book made me think about how I look at a lot of things in my life. How I see what's important and what isn't. The fact is, especially with all the tools available today (Facebook, Email, Cellphones/Texting, Skype, Blogs, etc) it really isn't that difficult to MAKE time to visit face-to-face with friends. And I think more of them would love that connection too.
Anyway - this book is wonderfully and entertainingly written - Definitely something I think anybody could enjoy.

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Like I mentioned in the review - this book really made me think...
We disconnect from people all the time without even meaning to.
We move; We change jobs; We get a new haircut...
And suddenly we realize that we haven't talked to somebody in YEARS.
Why not?
The excuse we use a lot is "We just got busy with LIFE!"
It's not like we're really THAT busy!
Seriously.
My nights fly by and I feel like "I didn't have time to get it all done!" but what did I do all night? Usually it's checking out Facebook, reading blogs, watching a TV show, looking at Amazon. Stuff like that. Really it isn't hard to go out for a burger with a friend.
Amazingly, that's what I did tonight.
I invited a friend out for a burger - it was his birthday yesterday and his wife was out of town and my amazing wife was all for it - so we went and it was great to just hang out and eat a burger and talk about Martial Arts and Egyptology and Real Estate and Literature.
It was good and I really want more connections. So I'm going to do it. Added a new item to the bucket list:
"Stay Connected" and I DON'T mean Facebook, even though that can be a tool to do so.
Life is good.
I am happy.