I read Greenlights by Matthew McConaughey last night. I picked it because it was the first nonfiction book I found in Libby that I thought would be fun to read on a quiet night. I first heard about the book from an interview McConaughey did with Bill Maher where I initially thought Maher didn’t like him. I am a fan of McConaughey’s acting and his positive attitude, though i am not always sure if he really has a coherent philosophy. (This book didn’t help in that regard.)

The book contains some entertaining stories, including his stint in Australia, but my overall impression is that McConaughey led a charmed life, thanks in large part to being handsome and lucky in his youth, and rich and famous in his middle age. His book emits, elides, or spins into positive any negative experiences he had in his life, which is his point about “red” and “yellow lights” becoming “greenlights”, but it does leave a shallower impression of who he is and what he has learned from life.