I've just finished reading...

You may know Richard Hammond from the car show, "Top Gear". I'm not much of a car person myself, I tend to describe cars by colour only (Friend: "Oh what kind of car did you get?"; Me: "Um.. I silver one!? Apparently it's got mags or something...")

However, I do quite enjoy sitting down to watch Top Gear each week.

And Richard Hammond is a funny man. His book had a great number of laugh-out-loud moments for me (but that could just be speaking volumes about my sick sense of humour).

The book details the 'behind the scene' moments of some of my favourite Top Gear adventures.

It begins with the Polar Adventure, where Richard, James and Jeremy race across the Arctic to the South Pole: Richard behind a sled of dogs (usually not on it), and James & Jeremy in an SUV-type vehicle. You may remember that the car won, and it was quite a heartbreaking moment (for me anyway) to see Richard's dejected face as he heard the news that he had lost. His own stories about the adventure are very interesting, funny, and sometimes just a teensy bit rude.

The second adventure is the one where the team travel across Botswana in beat-up old cars.. you may remember Richard names his car Oliver. Again, a very interesting read from the persepective of Richard - especially enjoyable if you have seen the episode in question (it actually aired last week on SBS).

Hammond then recounts some other mini-adventures, like the time he ran home over 40km in severe flooding so he could be there when his daughter woke up on her birthday.

I have to admit, I lost interest a bit in the last part of the book, when Richard talks about making a documentary about his childhood hero, Evel Knieval. Not that it was boring or badly written, but because I don't have much of an interest in Evel, don't know much about him and therefore the stories weren't all that exciting for me.

All in all, I quite enjoyed the book, and I'll be pinching my brother's copy of his other book (where he talks about his near-fatal accident) as soon as he finishes reading it.

I would recommend reading it if you're a fan of the show, I can't imagine it would be quite as exciting if you weren't familiar with the episodes. It's a great laugh, and there are some VERY funny bits.

[Stay Tuned... Next I'm reading, "The Jane Austen Book Club" by Karen Joy Fowler]

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