As a young child, I enjoyed reading – I loved to read books from the Golden Book series. A lot of fun, engaging stories. As the years passed by, I slowly lost interest in reading. It wasn’t until the summer of 1990, when vacationing in the Traverse City, MI area with family, we went to Horizon Books in downtown Traverse City. I was thinking to myself – if I were to read, what would what would I want to read? The more I thought it over the more I realized I would love an adventure story. I had always been fascinated by the wild west, cowboys, Native Americans, etc. (we had vacationed out west a few times – Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, etc. Walking around Horizon Books, I narrowed in on the Westerns section and zeroed in on Zane Grey. I bought one or two of his books; that night I started reading one book and I was hooked. I have since loved to read, although my enthusiasm ebbed and flowed with the times, depending on how busy I was and other stuff going on.

Eventually I got really sick right after college (well, started during my college years, but wasn’t diagnosed until right afterwards), so eventually my reading interests gradually shifted towards memoirs, biographies, etc. of people who’ve been through what I was going through. I still love to read books about people, but I’ve also realized over the years how interesting historical fiction, documentaries, books on local history, etc. are. (I hated history through high school, but once I hit college and took some history classes there, I then realized history is extremely fascinating. Your instructor makes a huge difference in whether or not a subject is interesting!!!)

Fast forward to today…. I am currently living in Michigan (northwest corner of the lower peninsula). I do love it here, lots to offer; you can find a little bit of just about everything here. I am becoming more and more interested in local history and reading books about people. I met a wonderful and sweet gentleman, known in this community as “Fast Eddie,” a year or two ago. He is very sociable and loves to talk with just about everybody. I recently learned that someone had literally just wrote a book about him. The title of the book is “A Course in Fun with Fast Eddie: 10 Ways to Turn Life’s Journey into a Joyride,” written by Karen Wiand. If you are in northern Michigan, I highly suggest you check for the book at your local bookstore or you can get it on Amazon as well. (This is an affiliate link, but has no effect on the cost of the book to you!!)

Part of the reason I was attracted to this book was, not only because I personally know Fast Eddie, but he’s been through his own personal challenges in life. Even though his life has taken a very different route than mine has, he’s been through his own personal “hell” and made it out on the other side a very happy, gentle and kind person. I, myself, had gone through my own personal “hell” as well and I feel I have a lot to learn from him!! For the longest time I was a very bitter and angry person, but over the past few years I’ve really started moving away from that, realizing that yes, stuff happens – everyone has their own battles, some are harsher than others – but why be so bitter about it? Continue to be loving, kind, happy. You can control how you react and deal with the things you can’t control. I recommend reading this book simply because he’s been through so much more than I can imagine (he was malnourished as an infant and wound up becoming developmentally disabled, grew up and wound up going into the adult foster care system – in and out of AFC homes (many of which were abusive towards him) but taught those closest to him that you do what you need to do to survive and thrive with a positive attitude.

Fast Eddie grew up downstate Michigan and now lives in Traverse City, and the author is a Michigander as well.