One of the biggest stars of New Zealand sport has visited east Auckland to meet fans and sign copies of his first published book.
Former Kiwis and One New Zealand Warriors league player Shaun Johnson is the author of the book entitled Perspective, which is published by Penguin.
Johnson became a household name in this country by playing in 268 games in the National Rugby League (NRL) competition, and he represented New Zealand in the Kiwis 35 times.
During his playing days he was considered one of the fastest and most elusive runners in the sport. He’s now a podcaster and co-host of a SkyTV programme focused on rugby league.
More than 100 of his fans turned out on a recent Sunday to meet him and buy copies of his new book at Paper Plus Howick in Picton Street.
Before Johnson arrived the line of people queuing up outside stretched about 50 metres in length. He told the Times he never had any intention of writing a book.
“I got approached by Penguin and thought about it and realised there’s something there to be told. I’ve just gone and told my story.
“It’s my perspective, hence the title, through my eyes and through certain versions of events throughout my career.
“So far it’s been received really well. The feedback has been really cool and people are getting to hear about my journey through a different voice.
“I think people will read the points I’ve included and remember them. They’re the main points, highlights and lowlights, and bits of adversity. As well as talking about family and some of the things that put me in good stead.”
He’d love for people who read his book to take away a different view about how to talk to others online.
“I state in there that words carry weight, and sometimes throughout my career things that were said about me affected me.
“It’s not a ‘help me’ book, but I think people will realise there’s an underlying message there of self-doubt and at times realising that as an athlete, or a human, they’re going through it, and there’s no need for anything else to come in on top of it.”
Paper Plus Howick owner Ziahad Mohammed was thrilled to see how many people turned out to meet Johnson and buy the book. He was hoping to sell 150-200 copies that day.
“It’s fantastic,” Mohammed says. “When we saw the book was coming out I thought it was really important around the Howick area to have him come in.
“I’m not sure how popular league is compared to rugby, so I really wanted to test that. I contacted the local club [the Howick Hornets Rugby League Football Club] and they said, ‘it’s a big deal, please get him in’, so that’s what we did.
“We went back to the publishers and said in Howick it would be fantastic because he hasn’t been here before signing like this.
“Also we wanted to have it on a Sunday when there’s not too much chaos, because we didn’t want to add to it, and Sundays are pretty quiet, and look what we’ve done.
“A lot of people have come into Howick and some of these people may not be regular customers, so that brings people from outside.”
