... I bet you’re thinking “that sounds like an innocent diversion”, and you are probably right, unless your name is Dave Gorman.
Dave thinks that he has grown up since his last adventure; he is now 31, and he has now ended his flat-share with Danny, and all that is left is a bottle of Tequila ... Read review
If someone called you a 'googlewhack' what would you do? Would you end up playing table ... more
tennis with a nine year-old boy in Boston? Would you find yourself in Los Angeles wrangling snakes, or would you go to China to be licked by a performance artist?
Postage & Packaging: refer to website Availability: in stock
If someone called you a 'googlewhack' what would you do? Would you end up playing table ... more
tennis with a nine year-old boy in Boston? Would you find yourself in Los Angeles wrangling snakes, or would you go to China to be licked by a performance artist?
If someone called you a 'Googlewhack' what would you do? You might reasonably ask them ... more
what it meant but you wouldn't probably end up playing table tennis with a 9 year old boy in a Boston basement. You probably wouldn't wind up in Los Angeles with three snakes on your head either. It is highly unlikely that you'd end up in a car with a gun toting dot-com millionaire en-route to Mexico to buy coke (cola) and drugs (prescription). But then you're not Dave Gorman are you? Dave was meant to be writing a novel a big grown-up piece of fiction. He's failed. But he's had a Googlewhack adventure instead. So now he'd like to tell you all about it in a show that will prove once again that in his world at least truth is really stranger than fiction. It wasn't meant to be a show and yet it's an exhiliarating story that just has to be told about one man a search engine and some of the strangest people in the world.
Postage & Packaging:£0.00 Availability:3-5 working days
If someone called you a 'Googlewhack' what would you do? You might reasonably ask them ... more
what it meant but you wouldn't probably end up playing table tennis with a 9 year old boy in a Boston basement. You probably wouldn't wind up in Los Angeles with three snakes on your head either. It is highly unlikely that you'd end up in a car with a gun toting dot-com millionaire en-route to Mexico to buy coke (cola) and drugs (prescription). But then you're not Dave Gorman are you? Dave was meant to be writing a novel a big grown-up piece of fiction. He's failed. But he's had a Googlewhack adventure instead. So now he'd like to tell you all about it in a show that will prove once again that in his world at least truth is really stronger than fiction. It wasn't meant to be a show and yet it's an exhiliarating story that just has to be told about one man a search engine and some of the strangest people in the world.
Postage & Packaging:£0.00 Availability:3-5 working days
If someone called you a 'googlewhack' what would you do? Would you end up playing table ... more
tennis with a nine year-old boy in Boston? Would you find yourself in Los Angeles wrangling snakes or would you go to China to be licked by a performance artist? If your name is Dave Gorman then all of these things could be true...Fuelled by a lust for life and a desperate desire to do anything except what he's supposed to be doing (writing that novel and growing up) Dave falls under the spell of an obscure internet word game - Googlewhacking. Addicted to the game and gripped by obsession Dave travels three times round the world visiting four continents and the unlikeliest cast of real life eccentrics you'll ever meet in what becomes an epic challenge a life-changing globe-trotting Googlewhack adventure.
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Advantages: Funny Disadvantages: Feel like the joke has been done before
...right, unless your name is Dave Gorman.
Dave thinks that he has grown up since his last adventure; he is now 31, and he has now ended his flat-share with Danny, and all that is left is a bottle of Tequila with a note on it reading “For Emergencies Only”. Dave decides to prove his new “grown-up” status by growing a beard and getting a deal to write a novel. One day whilst sitting at his computer trying to start the novel (he had got ... ...to what a “Googlewhack” was, Dave decides to reply to the e-mail; to find that his website (Davegorman.com) contained a Googlewhack (Francophile Namesakes). This got Dave’s curiosity going, and he decided to find a few googlewhacks of his own.
Once Dave has found a googlewhack, he finds the e-mail address for the author of the site, and e-mails them to let them know that they are a googlewhack (he thinks that it is the only polite ... more
Okay, I am meant to be doing my dissertation, so what am I doing instead? Yes that’s right, I’m writing a review (oh hear, I’m going to fail!)
The idea of Googlewhacking was first thought up by Gary Stock, who runs the website googlewhack.com, and you can go there to view any current googlewhacks, and add any that you find. Googlewhacking – what’s that? I hear you ask. Well it’s fairly simple really – “Googlewhacking” is an internet phenomenon, that takes up a few minutes whilst you are bored in the office – to play you simply need to go to the internet browser “Google” and type in two dictionary words – if you get one solitary hit (1 of 1 of about 1), and it is not a word list (or similar), and both of the words that you have typed are underlined (that means that they are in the dictionary) then you have a Google Whack! (You’re also not allowed to use quotation marks). I bet you’re thinking “that sounds like an innocent diversion”, and you are probably right, unless your name is Dave Gorman.
Dave thinks that he has grown up since his last adventure; he is now 31, and he has now ended his flat-share with Danny, and all that is left is a bottle of Tequila with a note on it reading “For Emergencies Only”. Dave decides to prove his new “grown-up” status by growing a beard and getting a deal to write a novel. One day whilst sitting at his computer trying to start the novel (he had got as far as writing “chapter one”), Dave receives an e-mail saying “you are a Googlewhack”. After much deliberation down the pub as to what a “Googlewhack” was, Dave decides to reply to the e-mail; to find that his website (Davegorman.com) contained a Googlewhack (Francophile Namesakes). This got Dave’s curiosity going, and he decided to find a few googlewhacks of his own.
Once Dave has found a googlewhack, he finds the e-mail address for the author of the site, and e-mails them to let them know that they are a googlewhack (he thinks that it is the only polite thing to do), and leaves it at that. However, Dave’s mind works in a curious way – he starts making up ways of trying to find googlewhacks easier, like taking two answers from a cryptic crossword and typing them into google, he even calls is “Gorman’s first theory of Googlewhacking”!! After a while, and some correspondence, Dave ends up meeting “his” googlewhack (Dork Turnspit), and he then has a go at finding another googlewhack…..
….which leads to a website run by another Dave Gorman – one that he already met in his quest to meet 54 other Dave Gormans. Anyway, Dave goes to stay with David (as the other Dave likes to be called, and it also makes it slightly less confusing) to get away from the stress of writing a novel (he still hasn’t written anything!) Whilst there, David challenges Dave that he wouldn’t be able to meet 10 other googlewhacks in a chain. He lays down some rules: each googlewhack is only allowed to find two other googlewhacks, and they have to be in a chain (one googlewhack leading to another googlewhack, which leads to another googlewhack and so on) not just ten random googlewhacks. David also stipulates that it would have to be done before his 32nd birthday (when he *really* had to grow up). Dave actually turns down this challenge and goes home….
…until the tequila is broken out on New Years Eve…..
…what follows is Dave’s journey to try and discover other googlewhacks and his resistance to actually take up the challenge, to keep a chain going and some of the strange coincidences that keep occurring. Oh, and trying to write his novel, of course.
-=What I thought=- Whilst this book *is* funny, I did not find myself practically wetting myself as I did with Dave Gorman’s other books and TV programmes. However, it is amusing, and it did raise a smile on occasion, having said that though, my boyfriend laughed out loud for the entire book, so I guess it just depends on your current mood/sense of humour. For me, the book was kind of samey in comparison to “Are you Dave Gorman” – the meeting of random people just because they were Googlewhacks, and travelling wherever in the world just to meet them – I felt that this particular joke had been played out before. I did also start thinking that he either needs to get out more, or find a simpler hobby. I am starting to sound negative, but I don’t mean to! I’m not sure I would read the whole of this book again, but as something to dip in and out of, I’m sure I’d pick it up again and flip through it.
You don’t necessarily have to have read Dave’s other book, since he mentions the main parts throughout, and his “adventure” is pretty well known now, especially if you have seen the TV version of it. However, if you want to find out more read: http://www.ciao.co.uk/Are_You_Dave_Gorman__Review_5326063.
Although this book is fairly long, the typeface and spacing is quite large and easy to read, so it wouldn’t take you long to finish the entire thing. The language is also very accessible, and it’s really like listening to a mate down the pub telling you a tall-tale. Except it isn’t. It actually happened.
-=Cost and Availability=- Since this book was only published in January, it is fairly easy to get hold of since it is in the New Releases section of most bookshops. I paid £10.99 for the book, but I have seen it for slightly less online. The version I have is in paperback, although I am not aware of any hardback version.
-=Extras=- Like Dave Gorman’s other book, the middle of the book contains some glossy pages with pictures of his adventures including some of his ‘whacks, and an interesting tattoo… (Actually, the book is worth reading just to find out about that, trust me).Recommended if you like a bit of stupidity in your life.PS Due to a high number of articles appearing on the internet about the book, most of the ‘whacks that Dave mentions are no longer valid! However, there are plenty still to be had – it just takes a bit of imagination and lateral thinking!
PPS I'm not sure how valid some of the little boxes are below, but I've filled them in anyway!
Barbsie 26.02.2004 (26.02.2004)
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Review of Dave Gorman's Googlewhack Adventure - Dave Gorman
Advantages: A Good Fun Book Disadvantages: Could Start You On a Time Consuming Internet Game
...study the results. So when Dave Gorman wrote a book about Googlewhacking he combined the Internet with humour to produce an intriguing and must read book that I simply could not ignore.
As Dave Gorman skipped through his inbox one morning little did he know his life was about to change dramatically. Amongst the offers of cheap Viagra and even cheaper Ink cartridges was an intriguingly titled email from an unknown sender, the email was titled “Googlewhack” ... ...a googlewhack? Stevo”
Naturally Dave was completely nonplussed by the whole email and so contacted the aforementioned Stevo with the simple question “What the hell is a Googlewhack?” Stevo`s reply was to trigger a journey taking in many thousands of miles and countless hours of cramped leg room on plane after plane. According to Stevo a Googlewhack was part of a game called Googlewhacking played with the internet search engine of choice, Google. ...
stuleg 15.03.2004
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Dave Gorman's Googlewhack Adventure - Dave Gorman
Advantages: Funny and quite interesting really Disadvantages: A tad unbelievable in places
...would be a review of Dave Gorman's debut novel.
But, like just about everyone who works from home, the comic was just too easily distracted to actually get down to the work for which he'd been handsomely paid.
Unlike the rest of us, though, Gorman's displacement activities went a bit further than cleaning the oven or cataloguing his CD collection. Instead, he embarked on an adventure that took him several times around the globe, running up a five-figure ... ...that first novel written.
As anyone who saw any of his sell-out stage shows knows, Gorman's imagination was sparked by the online diversion of googlewhacking - a usually harmless game in which you try to find combinations of two legitimate words that throw up just one unique webpage from the three billion or so online.
And so he is challenged to meet an unbroken chain of ten people responsible such 'whacks. This book chronicles the result.
While ...
lost_in_muse 21.08.2006
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Dave Gorman's Googlewhack Adventure - Dave Gorman
...me.
----------------------------------
Who is Dave Gorman?
----------------------------------
Quite a question. There are actually 55 well known Dave Gormans. There is the original and the 54 that he found on his search for people who share his name. This is included in another of his books. This was the first time I ever heard of him on a BBC2 show called "The Dave Gorman Collection" based on the book. He was challenged and he went all over ... ...Then there was the Dave Gorman Astrological Challenge. He followed what his horoscope told him to do every single day. Again, he treated this like a serious experiment in a comical fashion. He had measures of happiness and a control experiment to work out how much more happy he was for following his stars.
So I was somewhat of a Dave Gorman fan. I loved his TV work and was very upset that I didn't spot his theatre show (based on "Are you Dave Gorman?") ...
C_W_Monkey 13.06.2004
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Dave Gorman's Googlewhack Adventure - Dave Gorman
Advantages: Nice structure, interesting premise Disadvantages: Flimsy on the details, drops away in second half
...turn of the year 2003, Dave Gorman found himself at Heathrow Airport with a ticket to Washington, D.C., his passport and a hazy memory of the night before. As things become less fuzzy, he remembers his drunken acceptance of a mission to find a chain of ten googlewhacks in a row. This book chronicles this mission through the highs and lows, and comes on the back of a sell-out tour where the adventure was chronicled. I didn’t see that tour, but I hope ... ...that returns just one hit. Dave comes across the term when someone lets him know that his own site features a googlewhack – Francophile Namesakes. Dave sets out to find some of his own, and after meeting the person whose website was linked to by his googlewhack, he is stunned when this person finds two googlewhacks of his own, one of which leads to another man called Dave Gorman living in France. Anyone who has heard of Dave before will know his ...
Drooboy 03.02.2004
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Dave Gorman's Googlewhack Adventure - Dave Gorman
...Following on from "Are YOU Dave Gorman" this book is just as funny if not more so. Dave is just so naturaully funny in everything he does, says and writes. I expect that a lot of people reading this review have never heard of Googlewhacking. Before you start to be rather concerned, its nothing perverted! Its where you type two words into the Google search engine which are both in the English Language (defined as being listed on the www.dictionary.com ... ...database etc...
In true Dave Gorman style, having been introduced to something he naturally gets obsessed and decides to follow his new found hobby all the way around the world, meeting some really weird people and does crazy crazy things (mainly when drunk). I believe that one of the classic studpid things is probably getting his ID card tatooed onto his arm. I think he regretted that...
If you are in need of a smile and what something to cheer ...
MBailey 08.07.2005
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Dave Gorman's Googlewhack Adventure - Dave Gorman
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Advantages: Incredibly funny, easy to read book written in a very accessible style. Disadvantages: Laughing our loud on buses and trains is not to be recommended! Found in travel section at my local bookshop, not comedy.
Award in 2002, and has since been followed by DaveGorman's GooglewhackAdventure, by DaveGorman, and Join Me, by Danny Wallace.
Amazon have it available for £5.59 at the time of writing, cheaper through their marketplace service.
Some of my ratings that Ciao make me complete don't necessarily apply, it certainly isn't your average travel book - best read as fiction rather than a guide to travelling. Well, unless you're looking for DaveGormans too? ...
Advantages: well written, funny, good book Disadvantages: sags a little in the middle
that you're back from watching "the DaveGorman collection" I can tell you that his flatmate was Danny Wallace who joined him on the adventure. Danny also helped produce the show. Dave went on to do a book on Googlewhacking while Danny did a book called "Join Me".
Join me was alright I suppose and mildly amusing. But it became rather repetitive and boring and I never finished reading it. He basically started a cult by accident. He put an advert in a paper "Join me, call ***********" which lead to him travelling the world to meet people who wanted to join him (despite not knowing what they were joining, neither did Danny).
One could perhaps see the chain of books as an autobiography of Dave and Danny's lives. For instance we see where Danny is with his (now ex) girlfriend Hanne and other friends we've met in other books.
Danny is ...
Advantages: very funny & intriguing Disadvantages: nothing really
back in London.
Gorman Wisdom*
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This is a most enjoyable read; it doesn't take very long to finish, and is a real page turner as you can't wait to see what they will get up to next. It's also nice to see they've included the photographs they took of each person they met, along with the numbers, which not only means you can see who they're talking about, but also proves they've done it, and that he really was as weirdly obsessed as he appears.
I'd recommend this book to anyone who likes reading comedy or travel books, especially if your name is DaveGorman. The only trouble is, it makes you wonder how many people share your own name?
Also by the authors
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DaveGorman - DaveGorman's GooglewhackAdventure
Danny Wallace - Join Me
Danny Wallace - Random Acts of Kindness
www ...
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