Dave Gorman’s GoogleWhack! Adventure

Title: Dave Gorman’s GoogleWhack! Adventure
Author: Dave Gorman
Narrator: Dave Gorman
Length: Abridged
Running Time: 3 hours
Genre: Non-Fiction; Travel; Humour

Dave Gorman has, I think, made a lot of money out of, what is essentially an exercise in procrastination. When he turned 31, Dave decided he was going to be serious: become an official adult, grow a beard, and write a novel. But each day he would sit down at his computer to start writing, and immediately find something else to do instead. An e-mail asking “Did you know you are a GoogleWhack?” sends him off on a journey around the globe in search of more people who are GoogleWhacks. GoogleWhacking is a word game played by entering two random words into Google without using speech marks. If your search comes up with just one result, that is a GoogleWhack. A friend persuades Dave to meet ten GoogleWhacks in a row in the space of three months, and Dave reluctantly accepts the challenge.

In addition to a book, Dave has a stand-up show detailing his GoogleWhack! Globetrotting, that I recommend seeing (the DVD is available for purchase). It’s a very funny and oddly moving story that will no doubt have you tapping away on Google trying to find a GoogleWhack of your own. Good luck – I have yet to find one. The audio book is certainly entertaining, and very well written. At three hours, it’s a nice length too if you are travelling, and sometimes I just feel the need to have a story that is shorter than eight hours. Where the audio book falls down, I’m afraid, is it’s narration.

I’m disappointed with Dave Gorman’s narration. The reason for this is that, despite Dave’s claim that he has a wandering accent – easily picking up the accents of others, especially strong ones, he does not display this talent. He starts off promisingly with a Bromley (I think) accent for Marcus, but when it comes to the Australians and Americans he meets, Dave doesn’t even try. Consequently, there is little or no difference between the various people he meets, they all sound the same. Since the narration is such a large part of audio listening, that is rather a let-down.

Dave Gorman’s GoogleWhack Adventure is well worth the listen and is a highly entertaining true story. I really enjoyed it and hope to hear some more of Dave’s work (especially “Are You Dave Gorman?” co-written by Danny Wallace) made available as audio books.

Formats

Cassette: N/A
CD: Amazon
Download: Audible

Louise the Audio Bookworm

I am Louise, and one of my greatest loves is audio books. I am a bookseller by trade, and of course one of the sections I manage is Spoken Word.

My parents used to read to me a lot as a child, and we used to borrow audio books from the library. This was especially good if they were busy or tired -- after all, who better than Stephen Fry, Tony Robinson or Sian Philips to read a book to you?

Many people tell me that listening to an audio book instead of reading the book itself is cheating. I don't see why. The right narrator can bring a book to life, and it enables you to enjoy a story while keeping your hands free.

In this blog, I aim to review the audio books I listen to, with details of where they can be purchased. I hope I can spread my love of audio books far and wide.