Pen to Paper: Friday Recommends #18

So it's Friday again, and that means another exciting Friday Recommends!
This is an exciting book blog hop that book bloggers can take part in once a week to share with their followers, the books that they most recommend reading!

The rules for Friday Recommends are:

Follow Pen to Paper as host of the meme.
Please consider adding the blog hop button to your blog somewhere, so others can find it easily and join in too! Help spread the word! The code will be at the bottom of the post under the linky.
Pick a book that you've read, and have enjoyed enough to recommend to other readers. It can be a book you've read recently, or a book you read years ago - it's up to you - but make sure you tell us why you love the book (like a mini review). You make the post as long or as short as you like.
Add your blog to the linky at the bottom of this post after posting your blog post.
Put a link back to pen to paper (http://vogue-pentopaper.blogspot.com) somewhere in your post.
Visit the other blogs and enjoy!

Life and Laughing: My Story by Michael McIntyre

Goodreads synopsis:

Michael McIntyre is Britain's biggest comedy star. He has released two record-breaking DVDs, Live and Laughing and Hello Wembly; hosts his own BAFTA-nominated BBC1 series, Michael McIntyre's Comedy Roadshow; and has picked up British Comedy Awards for Best Live Stand-Up and Best Male TV Comic. Last year he became the youngest ever host of the Royal Variety Performance, and now in 2011 he takes the hot seat as a judge in the hit ITV show Britain's Got Talent.

HOW DID HE GET THERE?

Michael reveals all in his remarkably honest and hilarious autobiography, Life & Laughing. His showbiz roots, his appalling attempts to attract the opposite sex, his fish-out-of-water move from public to state school and his astonishing journey from selling just one ticket at the Edinburgh Festival to selling half a million tickets on his last tour. Michael's story is riveting, poignant, romantic and above all very, very funny.

I don't usually read too much non-fiction. I try to read the autobiographies of the people I like, but I don't usually get very far - even if I really do love them - I even gave up on Jo Brand and Stephen Fry's autobiographies (although, I am now getting better at reading non-fiction, so perhaps I shall revisit them).
Michael McIntyre's book is one of the funniest I've ever read. I love his stand-up shows, and have even been to see him live, and his comedy is definitely present in the book.
I was instantly dragged in by his showbiz upbringing, the anecdotes of his failed attempts at wooing women, and the initial struggle to get his comedy career going. This career though, once it got going, he shot to fame quicker than I think I've seen any other comedian or performer before (in the UK, at least).

The book flowed really well and kept me interested all the way through, even stating at the end that he wouldn't talk about his quick shooting to fame because success isn't as interesting as the struggle.
His life has certainly been an interesting one, and it's definitely worth reading about!
Whether you've heard of him or not, you need to get yourself this book! (And if you've not heard of him yet, get yourselves onto youtube and check his stuff out: I can almost guarantee you'll love him!