"Open"

Those of you with dirty minds will completely misinterpret the title of this blog post. Those of you who are dentists will say the word of the title approximately 3984 times a day. Those of you who have read Andre Agassi's autobiography will know exactly to what I'm referring.

I picked up Open about a week and a half ago. I had finally finished reading and returning all of the borrowed books on my nightstand. Andre's book was given to me for Christmas. It is now June. JUNE! I really don't like for books to sit that long and be lonely, but I also don't like borrowing books and keeping them forever. It really is a double edged sword.

But, I digress.

I must say that this book quickly became one of my favorite reads. Other people's lives fascinate me! Especially famous people. Mainly because I know that I will never be famous, let alone be a famous athlete (it's a little late for that, but I'll accept marrying a professional athlete as a consolation). I always wished that I could be a professional athlete. Get paid to be in shape and perform a sport that I love? Sold.

I digress again.

The one thing that Andre always says in this book is that he hates tennis. Everyone he tells always asks him why and really doesn't understand how he could hate something that he is so good at doing. After reading this book, I hope they understand. I certainly do.

To put it simply, the man's father is an asshole. That's the only way to describe it. He is the epitome of someone making their children do something simply because he was never good at that something. (Does that make sense?!?!) It's like those women who put their daughters in pageants and are so mean to them and strict about their "performances" because they never got to do pageants (or if they did, they were horrible in them).

I digress yet again.

This really is an easy read. And highly entertaining. Whenever I pick up a biography or autobiography, I know it's going to be fantastic. Simply because other people fascinate me! I love people watching, so why wouldn't I love to read about people's lives?!

The digression continues.

I've zoomed through this almost 400 page book in a little under two weeks. I actually paused for about 4 days to take a long weekend vacation to Virginia Beach (post to follow at a later date) and genuinely missed reading about Andre's life. I made it my mission to finish the book the first full day back at home.

I remember when this book was released around October of 2009. There was such controversy surrounding Andre's life and tennis career. From his drug addiction (which really didn't last that long) to his hair piece to his relationship with Brooke Shields. Really, we shouldn't be surprised by any of this. I feel that anyone with any sort of fame or celebrity is going to have a screwed up life. And sadly, Andre was destined for this from the beginning, all thanks to his father.

I must say that the photo on the front of the book jacket really scares me. I actually had to remove the jacket in order to read the book. For those of you who haven't seen it, here it is...

Does anyone else feel this way? Am I being weird again? I just can't decide... sometimes seeing people that close just scares me.

I really wasn't sure how this book was going to end. Andre has always (and probably always will be) my favorite tennis player, so I definitely closely followed his career. But we all know how fuzzy my memory can be at times. The end of the book was filled more with stories about his marriage to Steffi Graf (also my other fav) and their two adorable children. Andre finally found peace both in his professional and personal life, and I am genuinely so happy for him. Because, you know, we're bff's.

If you enjoy reading, I suggest that you pick up this great read for yourself! If you are able to read, that is.... which I hope you are since you're "reading" my blog. Geeze.