I'm Gonna Live My Life Like a Jimmy Buffett Song (Di Island Song Series, Volume 1)

I ordered this book just before going away on a solo beach vacation. The wife and the kids were away on an extended trip and I planned my own beach get-away. This book was the perfect companion and actually ended up serving as the guide to my mini-vacation. The book is an enjoyable read and was well suited to reading while sitting in my beach chair watching the waves roll in. I found the book providing motivation for my own change in latitude as I sat in the sand reading of the character escaping from his former life. The book offers some ocassional lines that make you stop and think - and dream - of your own escape. If you accept the book for what it is - an easy read and a pleasant screenplay for the dreams in your own head - you'll be happy with it. It suited that purpose for me. Enjoy it yourself while sitting in your own beach chair, and then go have a cold margarita!P.S. The author has set up a nice page on Facebook by the same name as the book - when you're done with the book you can continue to get your fix of living like a Jimmy Buffett song there.

I bought this book on a whim, a little skeptical that I would ever actually read it, considering that with my used-to-be hectic lifestyle, I couldn't even remember the last book I read from cover to cover. What drew me to the book was the idea that I somehow had a connection with the main character, Jack.To make a long story a little short, my husband and I spent all of Summer 2010 in the Keys due to a temporary job assignment. We had visited 3 years earlier and quite frankly, I was not impressed with the Keys... my idea of a beach was more sand and less rock; however, after an entire Summer of the laid-back lifestyle, we were sold on the idea that our lives were too routine, too complex, and too stressful!Upon our return to TX we immediately started working on our plan... to sell everything we owned and find a way to live in the Keys, taking our 2 school-aged kids along for the ride. Meanwhile, our adult children were sure that we were either suffering from a mid-life crisis, or that we were suffering from early dementia!Thankfully, several things fell into place. Most importantly, my husband found a job much like my own work-from-home job, and us being fortunate enough to sell our house, without losing at least a kidney! So, we found ourselves back in the Keys, the place where our hearts had longed to be be for a year. I saw the synopsis of the story line and immediately realized that "Jack" and I were on the same page... we both longed to live a more happy, normal, and stree-free life. I bought the book and have been unable to put it down. I found myself in the dentist office literally laughing out loud. Jack's adventures are so similar to some of the situations to which I could easily see myself involved.I love this book and am certain I will read it over and over again. It is a great read for anyone who shares the "dream", not to mention that it helps to validate the ideas of those of us who have chosen to throw caution to the wind and live life on our own terms!

For any fan of Key West or Jimmy Buffett, or thinking about Key West you will enjoy this book. A quick read, and as Jimmy Would say, its all about Bars, Beaches, and the journey the main character takes going from cold Minnesota to the warm sunny beaches of Key West. The central character learns that life is more than a destination, its a lifestyle and again, as Jimmy Buffett would say, changes in latitude, changes in attitude. We all need a little humor when life throws us a snowball. For anybody who has been to Key West, the author is spot on, on some of the descriptions (back of the book) of the great bars, located in Key West.

This book is not a novel. It's not an adventure, it's not a mystery and it has no real plot. It's a frame tale, ala Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. Once you realize this, the book is excellent in its own way.Chaucer's Canterbury Tales is usually thought of as a chronicle of King Arthur, but the basis for the book, travelers at a roadside crossing swapping stories on the road to Canterbury, creates a frame for the stories -- it doesn't define the stories themselves. In the same vein, author Anthony Bjorkland uses his protagonist as the frame for the tales, loosely tied to an escape from reality that everyone would love to make. But the tales, while connected, are individual stories.Bjorkland's writing is wonderful, fresh and descriptive. But, more importantly, it's universal. For every situation in the book, the reader can either imagine or relive a near-identical experience. Bjorkland's prose does not follow most conventions, and the descriptions are universally unique. Yep, it's an oxymoron. But one that fits. Take this description of the routine fender bender on the side of the road slowing traffic to a crawl, found in chapter 1:"...the gawkers were slowing things down even further, seizing this incredibly exciting, once in a lifetime opportunity to see a dented car."All of us have seen it. All of us have thought it. None of us have expressed it so eloquently and with such adroit sarcasm. That's the basis for the attraction to Bjorkland's tales. And the reason this book gets five stars.

Mildly entertaining for those of us fed up with the rat race. A lot of nothing really though with an ending that fizzles out since the author didn't seem to really know where he was going with the story. Another small gripe, you should really hire a good editor since there were multiple grammatical mistakes. My love of the beach, a good drink, and Jimmy Buffett kept me reading on.

Key West is one of my favourite places, if not my favourite place. It's where the road ends and the sun and the sea meet; it's rum and tequila; it's flame-gridled surf and turf; it's Duval Street carousing and the Mallory Square sundown festival; it's Hemingway and Audubon; and of course it's Jimmy Buffett and the original Margaritaville, and much, much more; Key West isn't so much a place as an attitude [and yes I am a bit of a parrot-head].But this thankfully short book is awful, is it meant to be a story or a travelogue? Either way the writing is sloppy, poor, unimaginative; in short this is little more than primary school start of term what-i-did-on-my-holidays writing. The story, if that's what it's meant to be is almost absent and the hero unlikeable; and the Jimmy Buffett references lack substance and are no more than a trap to sucker passing parrot-heads into buying the book [I know 'cos I was one]. Alternatively if this is meant to be a travelogue then it's a great advert for staying at home.There are three more books in this series, I won't be reading any of them.

Quite well written. The story appeals, but our hero(?)s constant state of intoxication could only appeal to and resonate with a binge drinker. I know that Buffett is in the title but the book comes out as a major advert for the Buffett brand, something a Brit like me knows little of. I googled Jimmy Buffett and find that he is or was a serious flyer and plane owner. I feel that the image of a mainline boozer conflicts with the real mainline pilot.I was a bit disappointed with the first book in the series, but feel that I will have to try number two.I preferred the Mango Bob stories which not so well written told a better yarn.

I’m a Jimmy Buffett fan so had to buy this book. I enjoyed it, love the tropical vibes. Purchased the full series, enjoyed the second book also.

One of the worst books I have ever read. In fact there were times when I was angry at the fact that I had purchased it.