Book Review 003 – Greenlights – Matthew McConaughey

Hi guys, it’s Mark McRae with another book review, 
and the latest book I’ve got is not a business book.  
So far all of my books have been in and 
around sort of business, so it’s about imparting  
knowledge, learning information, trying to get an 
edge… And this book my wife bought me, and it kind of  
lay around for a while before I got to reading it. 
And I’m so glad I did. So, if the purpose of a book,  
like a movie, is to entertain, this gets five 
stars. It’s written in a very easy to read way  
and it’s kind of his travels, and 
there’s excerpts from his diary.
But what I like about it is it’s brutally honest.  
It’s kind of a look at his life between, 
since when he can remember up to the age of 50,  
and he opens up and talks about things with a degree of
honesty I’ve never really seen in a book  before.
For example, he tells the story not 
once but twice of how he had a wet dream
fo lying in the, you know, swimming on his back 
in the Amazon river with African   
warriors, up and down the bank.  
The next day he – or as soon as he  
can- he gets on a plane and goes to the Amazon 
to try and discover, to explore that dream.   
But you do get the feeling that he is 
an achiever. I mean if you listen to  
how he

talks and how he describes his
youth, he’s always been a person that
probably unknowingly was charismatic
and attracted a lot of attention to him.
He’d, you know, everybody has, doesn’t
matter who you are, you know everybody’s got
problems with their families, and he talks
about his relationship with his families –
with his family, and he does a fantastic job of
telling you what he found important of it.
One of the things I did enjoy as well: he seems to be
a man of integrity and somebody who’s trying to
live his life morally and ethically.
And that comes through where he was offered –
there was a point in his career where he decided
“I don’t want to do any more of these romance
type movies, I want to do serious movies.” And he
refused everything that came his way. And they kept
offering more and more money and he kept saying
“No, no, no,” to the point the money was becoming
ridiculous and he still said, “No.” And he was saying
“no” up to the point where he would have had no
money left, and he still said “No.” And he eventually
got what he wanted. And I think that says something
about him. But if you want to explore the
mind of someone else who has done something,
some things, very interesting, this is a great
book, so I’m giving this book five stars.