Them Florence boys…

Nathan Florence got himself into the nosebleed section at Nias during the much vaunted, and justifiably so as it turned out, recent Indonesia swell.

This forty-four-second clips shows the middle brother of the famous Florence cabal hitting the 45-miles-an-hour speed limit within seconds of take off.

Of course, Nathan ain’t just about surfing. He’s also the most well-read surfer west of Kelly Slater.

Here are his ten favourite books.

1. THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE by CS Lewis 

This was the first book I ever read and it’s what really turned me onto reading.  Four kids in wartime Britain get sent to live in the countryside so the Stukas don’t get ’em in London. These  kids explore the house and discover they can enter a magical world called Narnia through a wardrobe. The killing of Aslan sure gave me the yips. But, then, ah yes, the plot thickens…

2. THE TALISMAN by Stephen King

I’ve read it twice and its still one of my favourites. It’s about a 12-year-old kid who flips into another reality and goes on this crazy adventure so can save his ma who’s dying of cancer.

3. THE DARK TOWER: THE GUNSLINGER SERIES by Stephen King

This is the most creative series of books I’ve ever read because every one of his other books has a little part of the other in it. It’s all about a gunslinger called Roland Deschain searching for “a man in black.” And, he’s a gunslinger, but it ain’t the Wild West but a kind of parallel universe.

4. THE EGYPTIAN by Mika Waltari

This was first published in Finnish and it was deciphered from from ancient scrolls. It’s the autobiography of a guy’s life in ancient Egypt. Eight hundred pages and ain’t a page where your eyes glaze over.

5. THE FORGOTTEN SOLDIER by Guy Sajer

Here’s a book, originally in French, about a German conscript soldier fighting the wild Russkis in World War II. Read about the unbelievable cold, the viciousness of the Russkis and the endless cycle of horrible violence. The best war book I’ve ever read.

6. A GAME OF THRONES series by George RR Martin 

I’ve read all five of the first series and I like ’em because they keep you guessing the whole time and, always, somehow, they continue to baffle  you. Man, it’s hard to explain this twisted, radical series.

7. THE RED BADGE OF COURAGE by Stephen Crane

This book set in the American Civil War is about something we can all relate to, or at least in surfing. It’s about overcoming your fear and pushing your own limits, although, yeah, surfing is a lot less dangerous then war and especially this particularly nasty one.

8. WHERE THE RED FERN GROWS by Wilson Rawls

I read this in, like, the sixth grade and was so hooked I couldn’t put it down for a week. Then, man, I ended up so depressed cause the dog, that beautiful ol coonhound, died in the end. Yikes! Sorry bout the plot spoiler!

9. EDUCATION OF A FELON. A MEMOIR. by Edward Bunker

This is by far the craziest non-fiction that I ever read. I think it’s why I liked it so much. It’s about a guy that had been in and out of prisons and institutions since he was 10, wound up in drug dealing, robbing banks etc. He’s, like, the toughest human ever.

10. ANYTHING by Charles Bukowski

I got psyched on all of Chuckie’s books  because he would just write about all his chicks he was getting while being an alcoholic writer living in shitty little apartments.