Title: The Second Q.I. Book of General Ignorance
Author: John Lloyd and John Mitchinson
Type: Non-Fiction
Page Count/Review Word Count: 349
Rating: 8/10
John Lloyd and John Mitchinson – The Second Q.I. Book of General Ignorance
If you’ve read my review of the original Q.I. Book of General Ignorance then you ought to know roughly what to expect. Lloyd and Mitchinson, the two men who were behind the show’s creation in the first place, are back again to debunk some more of the myths and misunderstandings that plague our modern society. If you’re anything like me then you like to be correct, and this book is the perfect book to help you be just that.
I mean, this really is just an extension of the first book – it’s as simple as that. There’s so much material out there for the authors to choose from that they could continue to write General Ignorance books almost indefinitely, and so it’s kind of a relief to know that they’ve tried a few different ideas, like the Q.I. Book of the Dead and the Q.I. Book of Advanced Banter.
Because of that, I felt compelled to give this book a slightly lower rating than the previous one, purely because other than the fact that my copy of the second book is a hardback in contrast to the paperback I own of the first book, they might as well be exactly the same. They say that when you’ve hit upon a winning formula, you should stick with it – whilst that’s true, I feel as though a couple of changes could have helped this book to stand out, and not to be overshadowed.
So put simply, if you haven’t read the original Q.I. Book of General Ignorance, you might as well read that instead of this. Then you can move on to this one if you just can’t get enough of it – the content of both books is certainly interesting enough to keep you going. Plus, you can always read it aloud to yourself in your best Stephen Fry voice to make it feel like you’re actually on the show!
John Lloyd
Tony Hawks – A Piano in the Pyrenees | Review
Title: A Piano in the Pyrenees
Author: Tony Hawks
Type: Non-Fiction
Page Count: 312
Rating: 4/5
This non-fiction book tells the story of what happened when a middle-aged British comedian called Tony Hawks decided to buy a house in France, almost on a whim. He also decided to take his piano over there so that he could finally learn to play the thing.
It was a fun little book, and overall I found it to be a pleasure to work my way through it. My only real complaint would be that the pacing was a little off, in that it felt as though the whole book covered a period of just a couple of months or so.
Other than that though, there were some great little insights into French culture here, as well as a few smatterings of French dialogue that were enjoyable for me as someone who’s slowly but surely trying to learn the language. There were also some great little examples of culture shock or of misunderstandings, particularly when Hawks was trying to navigate the complicated French legal landscape to purchase properties and to build swimming pools, despite being utterly useless at assembling basic flat packs.
I’ve read a couple of Hawks’ other books at this point, and tonality and sense of humour wise, it’s pretty similar to those. That means that if you enjoyed Round Ireland with a Fridge, for example, then you’re probably going to enjoy this one too. Sure, his sense of humour might not be quite right for everyone, but Hawks has always made me laugh and he did so here, too.
There were occasional borderline sexist comments in it here and there, but then I suppose that gave it a certain sense of realness. He was a single bloke surrounded by Frenchwomen, after all. But overall, yeah.
Learn more about A Piano in the Pyrenees.