Honestly, it was a great book but it would have been significantly better if it didn't list every movie Bill ever made with a recap of each movie. That section of the book was painful to read, and almost seem like it was there to fill out the book.

Other than that, it was a fantastic read. ( )

Updating 9.1.16-I am hosting a GIVEAWAY of 1 hard copy of this book, to residents in the U.S. only. Please pop over to my blog to enter! http://charlene.booklikes.com/post/1460300/giveaway-the-tao-of-bill-murray
Book trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovxC8PTF2t4
(The trailer consists of one of the stories included in the book-one of my favorites, actually.)

This book was everything that I hoped it would be, plus some!

If you're like me, you have a fondness for Bill Murray. You've probably heard stories about how he crashes weddings, or photo bombs people's engagement pictures, things like that. Well, it's true, he does. That's his way. (Which is what Tao means in Chinese.)

The Tao of Bill Murray contains all your basic biographical information: (William James Murray was born on September 21, 1950 in Illinois. He was the fifth of nine children. He loves baseball and adores the game of golf. ) It covers briefly his formative years and his time with SNL. He has a bunch of sons and he was involved in their lives as they grew up. Then the narrative moves on to the really interesting stuff.

Such as: Bill can be difficult to get a hold of. He has an 800 number and if you want him to act in a movie or participate in any kind of event, you call that number and leave a message. If he's interested, he'll contact you. It might not be for weeks or months, or it might not even happen at all, but that's how it works. For instance, the movies Little Miss Sunshine and The Squid and the Whale were both written with him in mind, but he just didn't care. Quote:

"I just really only want to work when I want to work. Life is really hard, and it's the only one you have. I mean, I like doing what I do, and I know I'm supposed to do it, but I don't have anything to bring to it if I don't live my life."

Which brings us to the Tao of Bill. Basically there are a set of 10 principles by which Bill tries to live. I'm not going to list them all out here but it seems to me that Bill tries to improve himself and the lives of others by following this "philosophy." This does not mean that he is a perfect guy, because he isn't, and this book does touch on a few unpleasant incidents-it's not ALL fun and games.

However, this book does generally focus on the fun things and what a blast Bill can be. He loves to tell people that no one will believe them. For instance, coming up behind someone on the street and covering their eyes and asking "Guess who?"And once they turn around? "No one will believe you, you know." Going to a bar after a golf tournament at St. Andrews, chatting up some students and then going with them to a party after the bar closed. Once Bill realized it was basically a college house, (read: a mess), he decided to wash all the dishes. Bill says: "You can't just walk in and walk out, that feels strange. But if you walk into someone's house, do all the dishes and leave, then you feel like you've made a contribution."

Each chapter after the opening goes into each of the 10 principles of Bill's philosophy and then the last portion of the book briefly touches on each movie in which Bill Murray has appeared. It turns out there are quite a few of them I've never seen. Now I plan to do so. Along with a description of Bill's role in each movie, there are tidbits about the shooting of the film, (sometimes including comments from other cast members), and a brief review of the film.

This is not a complete biography with all the dates of this, that and the other thing all dryly listed. Instead this book was exactly what I was looking for which was an honest look at Bill's real life, with most of the focus on the fun stuff. That was exactly what I got. It was entertaining and enlightening and it gave me some ideas as to how I can make my life better, while at the same time doing the same for other people. For these reasons, I highly recommend this book!

You can pre-order a copy here: https://www.amazon.com/Tao-Bill-Murray-Real-Life-Enlightenment/dp/0812998707/ref... tao of bill murray

*Thanks to Net Galley and to Random House for the free e-ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review. This is it.* ( )

This is an interesting, entertaining look at the zany life and antics of Bill Murray and his impact on the lives of others. The book claims that Bill Murray has made it his mission to “wake people up”, meaning break up their boring daily routines in unexpected ways. These ways may include crashing random strangers’ parties, stealing popcorn from a nearly-seated stranger at a movie theater, pulling his shirt over his head and rubbing his stomach as some newlyweds are trying to have their picture taken, reverse pick-pocketing by sneaking money INTO stranger’s pockets, walking up to a stranger on a street corner and covering their eyes with the words “Guess who,” as well as numerous other stories of unpredictable and unorthodox encounters.

The book was a quick read, and held your attention from beginning to end. The last quarter of the book consisted of a filmography of Bill Murray’s movies, which included one of his best quotes from each movie and interesting looks behind-the-scenes from Murray himself and others connected with the films. It also contains a thorough index (in my opinion, a must-have for any nonfiction book). There are only two slight downfalls of the book (in my opinion). One, the author’s filmography comments seemed very biased, and did not really tell me what I wanted to know about the movies, such as their ratings and in some cases even their general synopsis. Two, many times throughout the book the author would use Jewish phrases and slang that many people (including myself) are unfamiliar with and would need to either look up or guess at. Also, at times the language in the book (mainly found in movie quotes) was a bit much, and I’d recommend this book for mature audiences only. I still liked the book, and would give it four glowing Hollywood stars. ( )

Robert Sikoryak is an illustrator whose metier is flawlessly adapting the work of graphic artists modern and historical to suit incongruous cultural touchtones. If that sounds boring, I assure you it's anything but. Maybe it sounds silly to tell the story of Franz Kafka's "The Metamorphosis" in a series of '70s-era Charles Schultz Sunday strips starring "Good Ol' Gregor Brown," but, if you think about it, it's also incredibly difficult: you have to draw things that Schultz would probably have never tried to draw (in this case, a main character who's transformed into a giant cockroach) and do it in a way that's perfectly convincing as an example of Schultz's style—while also telling the story in a way that respects the original AND uses Schultz's particular storytelling techniques. If you're impressed by this kind of thing, and you should be, you will become a fan.

That said, the best thing about The Tao of Bill Murray—and the only reason to read it—are the 26 drawings by Robert Sikoryak, each somehow commenting on the text around it. None is titled or credited, so identifying the references is part of the fun.

Here's a cheat sheet.

Frontispiece: Bill Murray as Pooh in "The Tao of Pooh."
viii: Bill Murray as a Van Gogh self-portrait.
2: Bill Murray as Milton Glaser's Bob Dylan.
7: Bill Murray as Mercury on a Greek krater.
15: Bill Murray as the Fantastic Four's Human Torch.
38: Bill Murray as "The Bill," aka "The Fool" in the Rider-Waite tarot deck.
42: Bill Murray in Grand Theft Golfcart.
52: Bill Murray as the villain in a TinTin panel.
66: Bill Murray in R. Crumb's album cover "Cheap Bills."
72: Bill Murray at a party of Babars.
90: Bill Murray as the Mad Golfer in a John Tenniel "Alice" illustration.
100: Bill Murray on an Egyptian funerary relief.
108: Bill Murray on an airline safety card.
120: Bill Murray on a vintage Cubs baseball card.
126: Bill Murray as a god on a Hindu devotional image.
134: Bill Murray as the White Whale in a Rockwell Kent woodcut.
142: Bill Murray in Salvador Dali's "The Persistence of Memory."
148: Bill Murray as the serpent in a medieval woodcut of the garden of Eden.
162: Bill Murray by Edward Gorey.
176: Bill Murray as Hobbes by Bill Watterson.
186: Bill Murray by M.C. Escher.
198: Bill Murray by Shepard Fairey.
204: Bill Murray by Peter Max.
222: Bill Murray by Andy Warhol.
255: Bill Murray as Super Mario.
316: Bill Murray by Maurice Sendak.

The text, by comparison, is barely worth plowing through. It's mostly a collection of his off-camera antics, organized around the concept that Bill Murray is an enlightened trickster Buddha; when it quickly becomes clear that he's just a guy burdened by fame from a young age who has chosen to use his privilege in playful and mostly delightful ways. There's a strong whiff of Teen Beat in the adulation the author gives him for being a more than usually generous clown.

As is demonstrated by Murray's cruel treatment of Howard Ramis, not to mention the number of truly terrible movies he's performed in, Bill Murray is a human being like the rest of us, only richer and much more spontaneous. I'd much rather hang out with Robert Sikoryak. ( )

I was really looking forward to reading this book that I received last Christmas.

It has taken me a year to read it. The entire thing reads anecdotally. Apparently Edwards actually interviewed Bill Murray once, although that never became apparent to me.

I found this excerpt to be interesting, regarding Murray: "Actor Hugh Laurie once quoted critic Pauline Kael saying that Cary Grant was the greatest of all film stars. "The reason she gave was that he always looked aware of the fact that he was in a film. He was amused by his predicament: not the predicament of his character but the predicament of Cary Grant in a film. And I could never decide whether that was a great thing, or whether actually James Stewart was the greater film star because he never gave that away."...Bill Murray is the modern actor most like Grant: he is often inside and outside his role at the same time." ( )