Rating: 
Summary: A light, entertaining read...
Review: This book doesn't claim to be anything but what it is: a rollicking good time. Hawks has detailed his misadventures with a fridge whilst traipsing around the Green Isle. It makes for a fun time, it really does.The premise is so absurd it has to be real: the author makes a bet with a mate in the midst of a party... that he attempt to take a fridge all the way around the country of Ireland - and do it in 30 days or less. Hawks, not being of right mind, agrees. Then he gets sober and realizes the enormity of this £100 bet. The first hilarious mis-step in the adventure is that the fridge he bought for the trek cost him roughly what the bet was for. From there things get better (or worse, if you're Hawks) and a great time begins. The book doesn't just reflect Hawks' strange experiences whilst hitching with a compact fridge - it also shows the generous and good-natured heart of the Irish. I bought this book for my trans-atlantic flight home and it keep me fully entertained for the entire 8 hours. This isn't a challenging read, but it's darn good fun all the same. I give it a recommend.
Rating: 
Summary: Very highly entertaining...but Bryson it is not
Review: I picked this up on a whim from an Amazon UK travel e-mailing and I am quite glad that I did. Hawks' tale is quite amusing - how could a tale about carting a fridge around a country not be? - and is a progressively better read as it goes along. Yet after reading the likes of Bill Bryson's _Notes From A Small Island_, I couldn't help but be slightly disappointed. It is perhaps an unfair comparison, because travel writing has not seen any better than Bryson's work in that volume - where the humor and insight on the culture being examined (that of the UK) was simply impeccable. Bryson knew his subject very well, and his past experience with the native culture made the book so effective. Hawks essentially went into the fridge experience knowing nothing about the culture, and thus the treatment of Irish life is somewhat superficial. Invariably, any book taking the same sort of approach of Bryson's book (itself the Dave Barry version of Paul Theroux) will seem somewhat weak in comparison. Yet, all the same, of its own merits, _Round Ireland..._ is a quite enjoyable read - laugh-out loud funny enough to justify the cover price, and will be of particular interest to Eirephiles.
Rating: 
Summary: miracles do happen
Review: this book restored my faith in them
Rating:
Summary: How can you not like it.
Review: The title explains the book's plot quite well. Tony years before saw some guy trying to hitch around Ireland with a large refrigerator. Drunk, a theme throughout the book, he relays this story, and before he knows in he made a 100 pound bet that he too could hitch around Ireland with a fridge (his is a small dorm fridge, kind of a cop out). He has many adventures, drinks much, and even gets lucky. I just ordered his newest book from the UK site, Playing the Moldovans at Tennis. Looking forward to reading it.
Rating:
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: Laughing Out Loud Funny!
Review: It was great! It's hard to read this book in public, lest one's laughter upset nearby people! The book is best represented by an excert of an Irish Times Review, that the publishers put on the cover to represent the book! --"Part autobiography, part travelogue, part Guiness-addled ramblings"...well, that about sums it up....
Rating:
Summary: Funny and light -- a great summer read
Review: I had no idea what a "laugh out loud" book this would be! Imagine, taking someone up on a bet to hitchhike around Ireland with a dorm-sized fridge, then writing a book about your exploits of fulfilling the terms of the bet. Tony Hawks did it, and here we have the fruits of his efforts. From the beginning, he admits that it's a frivolous idea....but I think that's what makes it that much more interesting. In 30 days, Tony works his way around the perimeter of Ireland with the fridge on a dolly. We get to read of his encounters with various Irish, English and Americans who help him reach his goal. We see how the fridge becomes more of a celebrity than Tony (an ego-reducing reality!) and how people banded together behind this crazy idea. I have traveled extensively in Ireland, and while some of the incidents and reactions may seem a bit over the top or overly charitable, I can believe that they happened. I haven't read a travelogue that more fully captures the true heart, spirit and imagination of Ireland better than this. Bravo to Tony for completing the task...and for letting us accompany him on his journey.
Rating:
Summary: FUN FOR THE FAMILY!
Review: I read this book (entirely) on a flight from Boston to Brussels on the way to a family vacation in italy and France. Luckily, the plane's ambient noise was so loud most people couldn't hear me laughing. Two days later, my wife had finished the book. Two days after that my 16-year-old daughter had finished it. And a day later my 13-year-old daughter had finished it. I didn't give it to my 8-year-old son. But I can say all of us enjoyed it immensely, and that I believe, as opposed to a previous reviewer, that it is FUNNIER than Bill Bryson's Walk in the Woods. Buy it and enjoy. I'm buying five more to give as presents!
Rating:
Summary: A fantastically funny and entertaining romp
Review: For lighthearted, enjoyable, and fun reading, you can't do better than this book. I picked it up in Gatwick Airport on my way back home to Cleveland, and managed to finish it before the wheels touched down. At some points, the person sitting next to me on the plane must have thought I was a bit nuts the way I was giggling and stifling guffaws. Quite simply, the book is a great story, written in such an accessible, breezy, and comical style that I found it impossible to put down. The experience was heighten for me because I had spent much time in Ireland hitting many of the same spots Hawks did in his travels. But you needn't have traveled to Ireland to appreciate this book. Even if you've never been to the Emerald Isle you'll find this well worth six hours of your time. But read it alone, lest the people around you begin to stare!
Rating:
Summary: A delightful and humorous read
Review: Tony Hanks is a parttime standup comic and it shows in this humorous book which has as its premise a drunken bet to hitchhike around Ireland with a fridge. Hanks makes it with the help of a radio disc jockey (Ireland has a national radio station.)It must be fun to live in Ireland as apparently most evenings are spent in a pub drinking and singing. Hanks ends up in a pub most evenings. I rate this book slightly below Bryson's a Walk in the Woods and Helen Fields Bridget Jones Diary in terms of laughter intensity.
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