Karl Kesel

Advantages: Hilarious, light-hearted and easy to get into
Disadvantages: Quite short

...Quite simply the funniest book I've ever read, and one that highlights the genius that hides behind Karl Pilkington's clueless exterior. The book is made of up transcripts from the podcast series featuring Ricky Gervais, Karl Pilkington and Steve Merchant. All of the transcripts make the adaptation from sound to print very well and I defy anyone to read through them and not laugh out loud on several occasions. Added to the transcripts are amusing illustrations as well as diary extracts from Karl. The true genius behind Karl Pilkington is that behind every silly thing he says, there is a twisted logic. The book captures that very effectively. The book is fantastic to read for a largely irrelevent but hilarious view on life.... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: A charming insight into the mind of Karl
Disadvantages:

...Karl Pilkington's rise to fame came during his work as the 'producer' to Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant's Saturday afternoon show on XFM Radio. Between 2001 and 2005 Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant brought out the best in Karl, exposing him and his views to the listen public for the first time. Whilst Gervais and Merchant spent much of their week writing and filming the award winning show "The Office," Karl spent his time thinking up ideas for the show, bringing such features as "Monkey News," "Songs of Phrase" and "Rock busters." When the trio left XFM radio they began recording the first of three series of podcasts. These podcast's would become the top downloaded podcasts of all time. They also brought about the introduction of "Karl's Diary." During 2006 Karl spent the year writing into his diary and reluctantly allowing... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: Incredibly funny stories with some good pictures to back it up
Disadvantages: There aren't any... I wanted more!!!

...This is one of the funniest books, I've ever read. The book is transcripts from the The Ricky Gervais Podcast featuring Gervais, Steven Merchant and Karl Pilkington. As well as transcripts Karl has included more material and drawn his own pictures. The book features the fantastic monkey news and covers so many topics of discussion. When I read the book, I had already heard all the podcasts, but I still found the nonsense to be absolutely hilarious. No other book will contain stories about flies and condoms, monkeys flying rockets and children with big heads and webbed feet. Its hard to fill out the Ciao criteria for this book. Degree of information? The book will not be read as an encyclopaedia because a lot of the stories are factually incorrect which makes it even funnier. Similarly - how useful? The book does contain some material... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average somewhat helpful