Al Roker Shares Life Lessons In New Memoir, 'You Look So Much Better In Person'

Here & Now’s Tonya Mosley speaks with NBC “Today” host Al Roker about his new memoir “You Look So Much Better in Person: True Stories of Absurdity and Success.”

Book Excerpt: ‘You Look So Much Better In Person’

By Al Roker

I was scheduled to take the road test for my driver's license that afternoon, so my dad was going to take me out in the ole Country Squire station wagon for some last-minute practice. The Roker family car was an absolutely enormous vehicle, turd-brown, featuring a steering wheel as hard as concrete, lap belts, and flip-back seats in the rear that faced the traffic (where the youngest usually sat; those kids would have been guava jelly if the car was hit from behind). When the Roker family went on a Sunday drive back in the 1960s or '70s, they were taking their lives in their own hands. The safety features in cars were so lacking back then that we might as well have been climbing Mount Everest without oxygen.

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As a bus driver, Dad knew that driving anywhere in New York City was like going to war. You had to be ready for anything. You couldn't just sit back, casually dangling your arm out the open window while singing along to Earth, Wind & Fire. There's an insane traffic battle out here, and New York City drivers are very aggressive. A typical drive in the city will likely include a near miss with another car or maybe being cut off by a massive speeding bus. In) And there's no point in honking your horn these days; no one will hear you. People are too busy walking and text-messaging and they can't hear anything! They are listening to their favorite true-crime podcasts, wrapped up in a murder mystery that could very well be their own, but they are oblivious!