Book 2 - Blog 1 - Mr Nice

Book Details:
Mr Nice
An Autobiography
Pages: 466
Pages read: 123
Words on page 50: 468 (39 x 12)
Words in book: 218,088 (averaged)
ISBN 0-7-493-9569-9
Author: Howard Marks
Published: 1997 by Vintage

Well, the story about this book is interesting. We were still in Vietnam, we were in Mui Ne, and we were having lunch at a nice little Vietnamese restaurant. I walked out of the Restaurant to take a photo of Hat Chi Minh (my hat - so named after Ho Chi Minh, the great president of Vietnam) with some interesting cooking utensils outside. As I took the camera out of my pocket, my wallet fell out with it. I didn't realise that, and when I sat down to lunch, my wallet was not in my pocket. I freaked out, and retraced my steps for the day for about an hour, while the family finished lunch. As I was still away, Gemma, Ged and Jeremy tracked me down at one of the places we had been, with the wallet that was sitting outside the restaurant the whole time. What has this all got to do with the book Mr Nice - nothing really, other than the book was the first thing I bought after the return of my wallet. I was absolutes effen estatic, as I thought I had lost all of the cards and identification that was in the wallet. It was great to find it. Absolutely. I was on a high when I bought this book for 70,000 VND (about US$3.50). This book is the second that was bought at under wholesale price. Mind you, the quality is crap, and it is obviously a pirated version. Only in Vietnam can you get bargains like that.

Anyway, onto the book.

My Nice is the autobiography of a con man and drug dealer named Howard Marks. The book is his recount of the life of someone that has served time for drug smuggling. It tells of his journey from country boy, living in Wales, to studying Physics at Oxford (he was given every opportunity in life) to marrying young and then to smoking copious amounts of hashish and ingesting copious amounts of LSD.

In his twenties, Howard Marks was smuggling massive quantities (tonnes) of drugs into countries around the world, and was benefiting greatly from the profits. He became very wealthy from the proceeds, and was reinvesting the money into both legitimate businesses and other drug smuggling operations.

The books is quite a good read. It is witty, satircial and mentions some big names, such as John Lennon and members of the IRA. Howard Marks learn the art of deception, he used aliases and he paid people handsomely for their involvement in his schemes. He was a good business man, by all accounts, and the businesses that he set up seemed to be very successful (both in their chosen endeavours, and in covering and concealing drug transactions and the proceeds of such).

Strangely enough, Howard Marks seems like a likable guy. He is obviously a ratbag, and sold drugs, which I vehemently detest, but he appears nice enough. I am looking forward to reading the rest of the book.

Feelings

No real emotions stirred as yet from the book. I am looking past the fact that Howard Marks is a drug dealer, as that would put me off.

Other than that, there certainly are some amusing sections, like his commentary with some of the people that work in his drug smuggling operations. Very funny.

I am not really sure what I am going to be able to take from this book, but hey, there is only one way to find out, and that is to keep reading.

Until next time, you do the same.

Jimmy A