What Did I Do Last Night?: A Drunkard's Tale

I was at the bookstore, picking up a cookbook for a dinner party I was hosting. I saw this on the shelf and grabbed it, commenting on the insane front cover. What the hell, I hadn't read a book in a while. At 256 pages, it would be a quick read and it would keep me busy at work for the week. I cracked the cover Sunday night before bed, before I knew it I was 60 pages deep and it was getting a bit late. I re-opened it during my lunch break at work the next day and read for about a half hour. I didn't want to stop, but I had to work. As soon as I got home from work that night, I tossed my keys and purse aside, snuggled up in my chair with my dog and finished the book, less than 24 hours after starting it. It was a great read. Although Tom and I are two completely different people, at times, I felt that we were completely the same person. His battle was my battle. His thoughts were my thoughts. "I'm not that bad, I'm in control of this. I can stop anytime. If I just smoke one more joint, I have to feel better." and of course "What the hell did I do last night?" was a question I often asked of my friends. Tom Sykes begins us near the end of the story and then hurls us backwards in time to the beginning of the story. (One of my favorite literary devices... the anticipation of "How did it come to that???") We learn of his early teenage plight with drugs and alcohol and how it came to this. He navigates us through benders on several continents, nights full of drinking, snorting coke, popping e and smoking weed. I know this sounds fruitless and as a recovered drug addict, some of it even had me longing for my old days... but maybe that's all just part of it. I was really feeling what he was feeling. His highs, his lows, his emotional instability. His nights on the "couch of shame" and his shining moments of excitement and ecstasy. When he came down, I came down. When he was happy, I was happy. Tom had his dream job, it was the best and worst thing that ever happened to him. It was making him feel alive, but it was also killing him. He was far from in control. It was so obvious when you read along. You wanted him to win though. You wanted him to make it out on the other side. As I was explaining to my friend while reading it, I just wanted it to end well for him. She looked at me and said, "Well, he wrote the book... so it can't be that bad." Good point... After reading this book, I felt closure to the tale. I felt good about the outcome and I felt moved by the story. So much, in fact, that I wanted nothing more than to contact Tom Sykes himself and explain to him how much I liked his book and why. After little success trying to google his contact information, I realized the last thing he probably wanted after writing this book, was a bunch of ex-junkies writing him letters about all the parallels in our lives. So I let that little dream die. I'm rambling now, but the point is, this book was really great and as an ex-alcoholic/drug addict, I coul

This was a good/meaningful book to me as I am a recovering alcoholic. Made me VERY grateful that my story didn't sink to that level -- but a good reminder that it could if I had continued to drink. Page-turner!

Tis is a brilliant book full of hair raising tales and high jinx. Incredibly funny. The author was an alcoholic who managed to wangle a job as the chief night life writer and bar reviewer at the Evening Standard and then the New York Post with disastrous (but hilarious) results. Highly recommended. Not for the squeamish!

Tom Sykes writes without being sentimental or judgmental. This guy is now sober but he used to drink like a fish and race around New York and London misbehaving. His is a cautionary tale, but he writes it with panache and a light touch. Buy this book now and you'll read it in one sitting. Cleverer than Toby Young or Candace Bushnell, most astute than Milan Kundera, as straightforward as Bill Bryson, and as disreputable as Jay McInernery or Brett Easton Ellis. This is a sure-fire hit.

I picked this up and started reading it, and it is a pretty funny autobiographical work on a British guy who really, really liked to party and drink. At one point, he makes the point that if you don't really know what a blackout is, you are not a true alcoholic (that definition is no doubt not the one the medical community in the U.S. gives, but it also is probably pretty accurate). He explains it as like having your "memory chip" for the past (x) hours totally erased. So, he often wakes up on a couch somewhere (Britain and then New York when he moves there), not knowing where he was last night. Hence, the title of the book. I think this book is actually pretty outrageous, in the good and bad sense of that term. I found it very, very honest and compelling. I don't think we need really to go into all the "you shouldn't do what he did" stuff. I think that will be clear to people who read the book. The book is actually very funny, and very outrageous.