In the past I was never a fan of autobiographies, but having a love of reading and rock/metal music, the two were bound to coincide one day. Oddly I'm also not the biggest fan of Guns and Roses either - obviously I know who they are and I like some of their music, but I don't actually own any of their CD's.

I spied this book while browsing the aisles at The Works in Penzance while on holiday this past August and for the sum of £1.99 I thought it would be rude to leave it on the shelf, that said it sat on my shelf at home until December when I finally got around to reading it!

For those of you who don't know, Steven Adler was the original drummer of Guns and Roses - one of the most famous bands of the 80's. This book charts his whole life from growing up to almost the present day, and includes a nice dose of images in 2 sections throughout.

Having now read numerous autobiographies of this type, I have noticed they all follow the same pattern - it really is sex, drugs, rock and roll. Without 'giving it away' it also always seems to be a case of dodgy childhoods with lots of moving around, followed by revelations about life without drugs once their career has taken a nose dive. In this sense this book is incredibly predictable, but as a non fiction bit of writing, you're not exactly reading this for plot twists.

Personally I found this flowed well - it was simply written and for the most part engaging, despite the recurring themes. Unlike many of the rock star autobiographies I have read, to me Steven Adler came off as genuinely quite a nice person - he's made a hell of a lot of mistakes, but he seems to admit when he's been wrong and is more than willing to hold his hands up and say he's far from perfect, I definitely found myself warming to him.

You don't need to be a fan or even know who he is, to enjoy this book. If you like autobiographies or are interested in life styles of excess and/or rock stars then you should like this book. While I wouldn't have bought it at RRP, in my opinion it is certainly worth the £2-3 you seem to be able to obtain it for.