I recently received an email from The Works about an opportunity to write a review of a book. You get to keep the book too, so naturally I applied. I'm not sure which book I originally selected, it was one of Karl Pilkington's, they didn't have that in stock but they send me " Further Adventures of Idiot Abroad". It is based on the second series of An Idiot Abroad. 

If you know who is Karl Pilkington, you know what to expect. I'm quite a fan of Karl Pilkington and his ramblings so I was looking forward to reading this book.

Ricky Gervais and Stephan Merchant sent off Karl to  experience what other's may put on a "bucket list", he gets to travel to wonderful places to do very exciting things and yet he moans and whines most of the time. He chooses which things to do and gives reasons why he is not interested in doing the others,  his reasons are rather funny. Ricky tried to make him to do bungee jumping but Karl went out of this way to avoid this to the point that he had to spend £2500 and make a member of the crew to jump for him with this hat and lie about it to Ricky. It was hilarious!..

 Good thing about the book is that rather than just plainly retelling the things that were in the show, Karl has fill in the gaps about things that weren't shown, more thoughts on his adventures.  It is very easy to read and it's not hard to imagine Karl writing it as the editors have chosen to leave the accented writing style. The book made me chuckle quite a few times, Karl views world differently than most people and he often comes with very funny insights. It's a good read but I'm not sure if it's not just easier to watch the show, they tried to bridge the gap between the book and show by including many pictures from his adventures but not sure if it was enough, I think some of the comic effect has been lost as a lot of it comes from his face reactions.

When reading his books or listening to Ricky Gervais Show podcasts, it's hard to say is Karl truly an idiot or just genius. I'm not sure. But what I'm sure about is that he's quite extraordinary.

The book is only £4.99, I think it's a steal! If you also want to review a book for  The Works, apply here