Flatmate – DaneCobain.com

Tony Hawks – Round Ireland with a Fridge | Review

Title: Round Ireland with a Fridge

Author: Tony Hawks

Type: Non-Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 266

Rating: 8/10

Tony Hawks – Round Ireland with a Fridge

This book was interesting because it made me laugh out loud while I was reading it, which doesn’t often happen. In it, comedian Tony Hawks (as opposed to skateboarder Tony Hawk) treks around the coast of Ireland with a fridge, bumming lifts from people and generally having a jolly old time.

It’s particularly interesting because you can see how Tony’s adventures inspired later comedians and writers like Dave Gorman and his former flatmate, Danny Wallace. I’m a fan of both of those guys, and so it was fun to see where the genre started out. It’s also my friend Neil’s favourite book, and so it was cool to chat to him on the bus every day as I was working my way through it.

The writing is fun and funny, the adventure is frivolous and entertaining, and the book also comes with a bunch of photos from throughout the adventure. The fridge even seems to take on its own personality, and Hawks did a great job of showing off the real characters that he met along the way.

Overall then, it’s a pretty unique little book, and I definitely recommend it if you like to read true stories that make you laugh. And the good news is, Hawks has written at least one other book that I know of, so there’s more of the same if you like it. So grab yourself a copy and say hello to Saiorse for me.

Tony Hawks

Click here to buy Round Ireland with a Fridge.

Danny Wallace – Join Me | Review

Title: Join Me

Author: Danny Wallace

Type: Non-Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 400

Rating: 8/10

Danny Wallace – Join Me

It never ceases to amaze me how Danny Wallace manages to get himself into awkward situations – in fact, he’s written two books called Awkward Situations for Men, and he shows no signs of slowing down in his (slightly) old age. In Join Me, though, he accidentally starts a cult from his flat in London, after whimsically posting an advertisement in his local paper saying ‘Join Me’ and eventually receiving letters and e-mails from people that were based all over the world.

I won’t go any further into what happens in the book, because that’s pretty much the whole point of reading it – Wallace and his cult get into all sorts of hijinks, and because Wallace is a writer (as well as a presenter and Dave Gorman’s former cameraman and flatmate), it’s a great read as well. He has an entertaining sense of humour and a deep desire to see ‘what if’, and I share both his sense of humour and his drive to do anything for a cheap laugh.

The writing style is fluid and easy to read, and despite the fact that the book is 400 pages long, it’s easy to read it across a period of a week or so, and maybe in a couple of days if you’re a fast reader. That’s because it’s difficult to put down, and you feel like you whizz through the pages, which means that it’s easy to feel like you’re making progress. It’s a quality that’s common throughout Danny’s books, but perhaps never more so than it is here.

Danny Wallace

For me, it’s hard to decide which of Danny Wallace’s book to read first, because there’s so much choice and because they’re all as good as each other, but it can’t hurt to start with this one – it’s a great introduction to his work (and his sense of humour), and it’s a pretty good bet that if you don’t like this then you won’t like any of his stuff. But it’s fine, because I’m sure you’ll love it.

It’s even worth considering this if you’re looking for a gift to give to someone else, because it’s the kind of book that has a lot of appeal for everyone. That’s why I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it to you, whatever walk of life you’re from.