The Wolf of Wall Street

I had seen the 60 Minutes interview of Jordan Belfort recently by Liz Hayes, his book had been seen perched on bookshop shelves in the business and finance sections for a number of years now. I am a reasonably frequent flyer so I spend a reasonable amount of time browsing airport bookstores for reading material. Perth, Sydney, Darwin, Changi, Manila, Dubai and London are all bookshops I searched. By lets be clear, I am a cheap bastard and not keen to spend $25 - $30 on a paperback.

Mind you, I have to fork out anywhere from $60 - $160 for a textbook, but that is meeting my educational goals, this is money going to a shyster and convicted fraudster, somewhat different to the texts I have been purchasing.
I had hoped to see the movie on in-flight entertainment, yet Singapore Airlines, American Airlines, British Airlines, Qantas or Emirates have failed to play the movie. I missed my opportunity at the cinema due to heavy workloads and scheduling issues. So, since I would be travelling around Europe and the United States on a very tight budget, the book was the best alternative.

There seems to be renewed interest in Belfort's escapades after DiCaprio's portrayal of him in Martin Scorsese's film of the same name. I am sure that the people who lost significant amounts of money to his lavish lifestyle would not be purchasing his book nor handing out cash to see the film. As a neutral observer, I believe royalties go to him, I would be somewhat hesitant to say the proceeds would go to his creditors though.

Wandering the streets of Budapest, we came across an open air book conference, at first we were not too interested in the books as they were all Hungarian language, who would have guessed. We were drawn to a noticeable English langauge section, searching through, we found Rabbit Proof Fence for Noriko, then in another pile I saw the distinctive yellow colour of The Wolf of Wall Street for 2020 HUF. A quick calculation in my head, this is cheap, I pulled out my tablet to check, I didn't believe myself, this was $10. 

I snatched the only copy and headed to the counter, I handed over two crisp 2000 HUF notes fumbling in my pocket for the 20 HUF coin, the teller tells me, no no, this book has a 20% discount and hands me change. I am dumbfounded, I am truely happy I held out, very happy with this deal. I must say, reading with extreme interest Belfort's exploits - he is nothing more than a crass, ego-centric wanker who never really showed any remorse for the people's lives he affected in a negative way.