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Summary: Round Ireland with a Fridge
Review: This book was the best laugh I've had in ages. What I loved most about it was how the fridge developed its own personality during its travels. Must be my bit of way-back Irish ancestry, but I found it a quite delightful idea to take a fridge surfing. What's going to happen next? Please write more!
Rating: 
Summary: laugh-out-loud funny
Review: This book will cause others to give you strange looks because of the laughter it induces. Since reading a borrowed copy, I bought one of my own, lent it, and have had to buy several more copies for friends and family. To date, I have bought 6 copies. The only reason I don't rate it higher is that the ending starts to drag a little, with the author's attempts to find a higher meaning to his silliness. Hawk's visit with an Irish King is not to be missed.
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Summary: Toaster Liberation Front
Review: This book will make you want to take your blender on the road.
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Summary: Hilarious tales of drunken and very silly behaviour!
Review: This is a book that will have you laughing out loud, as you read of Tony's varied stories of his travels around Ireland. It is a purely light-hearted and entertaining read, yet it shows the generosity and love of life that the Irish have. Written in a chatty way, you find yourself cringeing at some of the antics that he gets up to, such as surfing with the fridge, or sleeping in a dog kennel. This is a book you will definitely not want to put down, but at the same time, you don't want it to finish!
Rating: 
Summary: Sweet, cute, silly, and entertaining, but hardly uproarious
Review: This is a fine book if you seek a light, fun read. If you have an taste for the cute, the sweet and the absurd you'll find it entertaining. However, in terms of what you might expect based upon the setting and title, and recognizing how much more the book could have been, it is somewhat disappointing. As Hawks stresses, his is a pointless exercise and adventure. The fact that he enjoys such success, and encounters so many kind, good hearted people who are above taking themselves too seriously, and who are willing to play along and help him in his hitchhiking journey, is uplifting. Furthermore one is touched by the unhesitating generosity that he encounters. He comes to some realizations about the importance of human relationships which are truly substantive and profound. They are presumably the underlying thesis, and make the book worth reading. What detracts from the book is how Hawks contrasts most of Ireland from the more serious minded, task oriented world. While his intent is probably to draw a favorable contrast between Irish priorities and attitudes and those of other cultures, particularly the English who Hawks uses as his reference, he unwittingly betrays typically British attitudes about the Irish. This comes across through subtly condescending descriptions which convey the impression that he finds the Irish less productive, less focused, less mature, and even childlike. He also continually reinforces the negative stereotype that the Irish typically spend much of their time in ongoing, excessive consumption of alcohol. The book almost suggests that "only in Ireland...". Maybe it would be less grating if the writer weren't English. This would be a good book to read on the plane or by the pool. However, don't expect to learn much about Ireland, or even the Irish by buying it.
Rating:
Summary: Lighthearted and fun.
Review: This is a fun book, what else can you say about it other than FUN?
It won't elevate the mind and enlighten you, just entertain you on a long journey, I can highly recommend it for an easy going read in between bouts of tackling Ulysses. The idea of going around Ireland with a fridge (sorry hitchiking) is rather silly, but the people of Ireland took to it. This book is written in a very humourous manner, and will have you laughing out loud at several places so be warned if your reading this in public and dont want people thinking your some kind of psycho. Funny, well written, easy going. Sound good to you?
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Summary: Funny and Informative.
Review: This is a great read for its comedy factor as well as for its information on how an American woman can marry an Irishman at their marrage festivals. His next book about Moldovia is also excellent and comes highly recommended. Both are similar in feel to the book Prague, My Love by Hilary A. James and Jiri P. Musil. Travelling from the comfort of home is great!
Rating:
Summary: This is not supposed to be a travel book!
Review: This is one of those rare travel boks where you feel completely wrapped up in the adventure without learning anything about the country it takes place in. (Minus the fact that in Ireland, every pub has it's own drunk. Which is nice to know.) Tony Hawks mixes two great forms of comedy; One being his observational humor about the oddities of the characters he meets. The other being the fact that he was funny in real life. Hearing his recaps of what he did and the speeches he give are well worth the price of admission.
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Summary: More comedy! Less history!
Review: This is one of those rare travel boks where you feel completely wrapped up in the adventure without learning anything about the country it takes place in. (Minus the fact that in Ireland, every pub has it's own drunk. Which is nice to know.) Tony Hawks mixes two great forms of comedy; One being his observational humor about the oddities of the characters he meets. The other being the fact that he was funny in real life. Hearing his recaps of what he did and the speeches he give are well worth the price of admission.
Rating:
Summary: Drunk + Fridge = A Good Craic
Review: This very amusing book can be summarized as follows: British comedian gets sloshed at party, makes drunken wager that he can hitchhike around the circumference of Ireland with a refrigerator within one calendar month, wakes up, agrees to follow through on drunken wager, wacky antics ensue. Given that the mini-fridge with which to fulfill the bet costs £130, and the bet is for £100, it’s becomes clear that the book is not so much about winning the bet as it is about how the bet is won. It’s certainly not meant to be any kind of guide to Ireland. If anything, it’s a guide to embracing actions that have no point, to every now and then live outside the sensible boundaries we construct in out lives. Hawks strikes it lucky at the very beginning, as his silly bet is championed by a RTE2 (Irish national radio station) radio personality, giving him instant notoriety, which eases his path around Ireland. Hawks’ comedian background enables him to kind-heartedly poke fun at everything and everyone he encounters, with large doses of self-depreciation mixed in. He’s constantly amazed at the generous and warm receptions he receives throughout the country, and finds something positive in almost everyone and every place he visits (buoyed no doubt by the numerous free meals and beds bestowed upon him). The book is a silly good time, and the embodiment of easy reading. Toward the end the quirky characters he meets on the road and in bars start to run together a little, and it might have benefited from being fifty pages less or so. But still, it’s not every day you can read about a fridge surfing, a fridge baptizing, a fridge blessing, a fridge party (with requisite New Order cover band),… well, you’ll have to read it to believe it.
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