Dave Gorman's Googlewhack Adventure - Dave Gorman > Reviews > Are You Dave... Sorry, are you a Googlewhack?

Author's product rating:   

Advantages:	Funny
Disadvantages:	Feel like the joke has been done before

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

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!