An epic tale involving a beard, a tattoo and Google. - Rated 
I read this after thoroughly enjoying "Are you Dave Gorman?" and wasn't disappointed.
I've spoken with some people who felt this was weaker than the book of the previous adventure, and I would have to say that I preferred "Are you Dave Gorman" - but this is still a quality book, and one of the funniest I've ever read.
For those who don't know what this is about; Dave Gorman received an e-mail saying he's a Googlewhack, from a guy in Australia. Thinking this might be an insult, Dave Gorman e-mails the guy only to find out that a Googlewhack is where you enter two words in Google and only get 1 result. This seems like an easy thing to bag, but try it - it's anything but easy.
This kicks off an adventure where Dave aims to find Googlewhacks. He arranges to meet them and accepts a bet to find a chain of ten Googlewhacks. So he finds the owner of a Googlewhacked site, and get them to find a Googlewhack, he goes to meet them, and so on....
Dave forms relationships with people all over the globe, by Googlewhacking his way around the world he makes some good friends - and this is the strength of the story. If the adventure was purely one of comedy then this would seem a bit hollow, but the human story is what makes this a magical read.
It's not all plain sailing either, towards the end of the Googlewhack Adventure Dave is feeling down and doomed to failure, in a depressed rage he sends a spiteful e-mail to a vulnerable person and starts to regret it.
This is a book which can't be tied to a genre, it's neither a simple comedy book nor a travel book, it's not a biography either - although it reveals masses about the author.
I can't recommend enough that you read this book, and then perhaps enjoy the DVD of the Stage show around this amazing Googlewhack Adventure.
Brilliant - Rated 
Very funny book about a fantatic little idea gone mad.
Some people can carry such adventures off (John Donoghue - Shakespeare My Butt!)
...some seem a little contrived to be purely 'natural'(Danny Wallace - Yes Man, Join Me Tony Hawks - Around Ireland with a Fridge)
Gorman is on fire here....very funny book and it flows. He appears a naturally comic and impulsive person, and that is what makes the book for me. Are you Dave Gorman was good, but seemed to drag at the end. This is better, much better. Dave Gorman at his best (and consider getting the DVD too)
dave gorman - Rated 
this is a great book to read and so easy to pick up at any time. its a must if you have lots of drunken nights out and lots of laughs!!
Dave Gorman is infectious ... - Rated 
Having read and seen Are You Dave Gorman, I was well accustomed to DG's inane ramblings. He is both mad and highly engaging. This book starts off with a basic precept of trying to write a novel, and getting nowhere (although I liked the sound of the concept) and like everybody, resorting to work-avoidance tactics - however DG takes this, as is his style, a stage further than we might!
The tone of the book is impersonal and entertaining, and fully vindicates the view that the digital age has not (fully) removed the souls of those who see the internet as a way of communicating with people. It mixes humour with sadness (his final contact in Australia) and by the end you are willing him on to the finish line.
DG takes a small idea, which isn't even his, and largesses it to the nth degree!
A great, quick read.
A grippingly funny story of an obsessive traveller - Rated 
In a hotel room in Austin, Texas, Dave Gorman drops his razor into the sink. Despite his despair about what he has become he cannot bring himself to shave his beard off. This is the beard that was grown to prove he was a mature thirty one year old who had abandoned his foolish youth, the beard that was also a key element in securing him a commission for his first novel. However, after Dave's good intentions to sit down in front of his PC and become a novelist go astray, he considers shaving to reveal the young fool that he still is. He leaves Texas with facial hair and gets back on course to find ten Googlewhacks in a row.
In this book Dave tells the story of how an e-mail informing that he was a 'Googlewhack' led him to embark on a journey, zigzagging across the world, meeting authors of websites which confirmed the 'whack criteria. A journey that sees him: take an uncomfortable fast spin with a Welsh Mini enthusiast; meet a man who collects random photos of women and their dogs; and take a trip, with a cowboy, over the Mexican border in the search for Coca-Cola made to the original sugary recipe.
Gorman's lust for the mundane oddity that occupies the various characters he meets, together with the hilarious account of his own obsession driven behaviour, will draw you in to a comfortably insane world. This book shows everyone's need for purpose and the immense dread that the threat of failure brings.
Maybe one of the funniest tales of international travel ever told, the Adventure is a must read for anyone who finds it hard to let go and accept defeat. So brew up or pour a shot of tequila and get Googlewhacking.
|