HOT CORNER

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What: “George Foreman’s Guide to Life: How to Get Up Off the Canvas When Life Knocks You Down.”

Author: George Foreman, with Linda Kulman.

Publisher: Simon & Schuster.

Price: $14.95.

In this easy-to-read 125-page hardcover book, George Foreman, the former heavyweight boxing champion, provides guidance on living. Now, keep in mind that Foreman is an eighth-grade dropout who has been married five times. He was a thug as a teenager growing up in a tough part of Houston and might have ended up in prison had it not been for boxing.

So, on the surface, it may seem that Foreman isn’t the best person to be offering advice. But, Foreman says, he learned from his mistakes, and he shares that knowledge in this book.

“There’s hardly a single lesson I’ve learned in life that didn’t come the hard way,” he writes in the introduction. “So I know that life can sometimes seem like a big hole, and that you have to be pulled out of it from time to time. But I also know you can pull yourself out.”

Foreman, on the comeback trail after losing his title, was about as down as one can be after he lost to Jimmy Young in 1977.

A year later, he shaved his head. He was so embarrassed about how he looked, he wore a ski cap everywhere. And then one day, he left it home and discovered he didn’t have to hide from himself. He began to like himself the way he was.

Of all the advice Foreman offers, maybe the best is that there’s always a reason to smile. Foreman these days is happily married, a successful boxing commentator for HBO and has been involved in a number of successful ventures.

-- Larry Stewart