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Or Is That Just Me?
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Product Description
Review
'an enjoyable read but also reveals a sensitive side to the Hamster's personality' (CATHOLIC HERALD )
'often funny and always self-deprecating, describing in detail how a supposedly glamorous life behind the camera is often beset by pratfalls and indignities' (HUDDERSFIELD DAILY EXAMINER ) --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
'often funny and always self-deprecating, describing in detail how a supposedly glamorous life behind the camera is often beset by pratfalls and indignities' (HUDDERSFIELD DAILY EXAMINER ) --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
Book Description
Read by Richard Hammond. More antics from the much loved Top Gear presenter, in the same vein as AS YOU DO.
--This text refers to the
Audio CD
edition.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
27 of 29 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Mostly very, very funny with some fascinating behind the scenes descriptions of filming Engineering Connections, a doomed BBC pilot and Top Gear including the live stage version. Hammond writes fluently revealing a surprising emotional sensitivity perhaps heightened since his accident. However, he also has a tedious obsession with becoming 40 and with his clothes and appearance. The chapter 'Falling Apart' is hilarious and should be appreciated by anyone who has ever suffered intimate and humiliating procedures in hospital. With one or two hints that Hammond is far from recovered, there is an interesting sub-text on bullying and social exclusion. Hammond describes a school trip in which he took part in a bullying incident and claims he has never taken part in any bullying since. He also reveals his own dislike of some of the comments shouted out at him by members of the public. He seems happy enough to let his mates on Top Gear Live tease him when they discover he cannot remember the previous year's visit to South Africa but much less happy when strangers question his physical abilities and whether he actually did win the race on his bike across London. With stickers on the front to 'poke fun at the short bloke off Top Gear' you wonder if perhaps being on TV can sometimes feel like being in the stocks. But Hammond is very far from being a victim and shows an amazing ability to bounce back from adversity. He is one plucky Brit who will never finish last.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Another good read from a very engaging and essentially very serious personality. Richard writes an engaging story of what it is like to be a celebrity who is admired by boisterous petrolheads but is essentially a sensitive artistic character. He is an skilled writer of comedy (he has always been a fan of the great PG Wodehouse) whose descriptions of the horrendous pain of having treatment for kidney stones manage to pull off the rare trick of making the reader laugh and wince simultaneously. As another reviewer has said there is a serious subtext here about bullying and social exclusion. Richard is a fair-minded character and is clearly embarassed about a frankly bizarre act of teasing that he took part in when 13. I was in the next dormitory to that imaginative but rather tasteless act of bullying and heard about it over breakfast the next day. It certainly put me off breakfast! Richard clearly wants to get some guilt off his chest and writing about it must feel as cathartic as losing that kidney stone. In fact bullying of much worse kinds was rife at the Solihull School at that time and Richard showed his character by taking a stand against it. It has not made him popular with many of the perpetrators. This book is both his way of dealing with ageing (although he still retains the good looks that make him popular with females) and his way of distancing himself from the aspects of the past that he despised. "Or Is That Just Me" is not just a jokey title but a hint that Richard often feels doubts and uncertainties about his fame and how he is perceived.
16 of 18 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
Richard Hammond confronts his scariest challenge, yet - his fortieth birthday! - and a mid-life crisis of apocalyptic proportions is the unavoidable theme in this highly entertaining book. Hammond's minutely observed, and occasionally melancholic style may surprise those accustomed to the chirpy chappie on TV -a character he himself seems to regard with wry detachment- but it makes him far and away the most unexpected writer of the "Top Gear" triumvirate.
Not that this book isn't funny - His horse riding adventures are genuinely hilarious, as is a disastrous drinking session on board HMS Illustrious. Even a harrowing succession of encounters with the medical profession is recounted with the gleeful relish of a man who regrets having no decent scars to show off in the pub.
It is, however counterbalanced with darker moments - sombre reflections on childhood and adult bullying, and succinct, throwaway sentences that remind us that, for all his determination to live his surreally colourful life to the fullest, he continues to live with the lingering aftershock of brain injury.
We are invited, with a rather lovely set of stickers, to `Poke fun at the short bloke off "Top Gear"', but he lands constant pre-emptive strikes on himself, deflating his own impatience, paranoia and vanity at every twist and turn. Whilst a certain self-defensiveness is clearly at work, the result is delightfully self-knowing, revealing a flawed but genuinely likeable human being beneath the hyperactive TV persona.
The book has its faults. Some chapters end abruptly, without proper resolution, or explanation. There are also weird inconsistencies in the text. On page 71, for example, he describes wandering across a landing in pyjamas that, on page 57, we are clearly informed that he doesn't possess. Now whilst the fact that the Hamster may or may not own a pair of jammies is not a matter of overriding magnitude in the grand scheme of things, it does cast some doubt on the innate veracity of what we are reading.
In the final analysis, since he cheerfully confesses to sometimes not letting the truth get in the way of a good story, maybe we should simply accept it at that. These are good stories, and we can only hope that Richard Hammond ploughs manfully on through his terrifying middle years to deliver plenty more of them. With no obvious sign of a follow-up on the horizon, however, we may be in for a wait.
Not that this book isn't funny - His horse riding adventures are genuinely hilarious, as is a disastrous drinking session on board HMS Illustrious. Even a harrowing succession of encounters with the medical profession is recounted with the gleeful relish of a man who regrets having no decent scars to show off in the pub.
It is, however counterbalanced with darker moments - sombre reflections on childhood and adult bullying, and succinct, throwaway sentences that remind us that, for all his determination to live his surreally colourful life to the fullest, he continues to live with the lingering aftershock of brain injury.
We are invited, with a rather lovely set of stickers, to `Poke fun at the short bloke off "Top Gear"', but he lands constant pre-emptive strikes on himself, deflating his own impatience, paranoia and vanity at every twist and turn. Whilst a certain self-defensiveness is clearly at work, the result is delightfully self-knowing, revealing a flawed but genuinely likeable human being beneath the hyperactive TV persona.
The book has its faults. Some chapters end abruptly, without proper resolution, or explanation. There are also weird inconsistencies in the text. On page 71, for example, he describes wandering across a landing in pyjamas that, on page 57, we are clearly informed that he doesn't possess. Now whilst the fact that the Hamster may or may not own a pair of jammies is not a matter of overriding magnitude in the grand scheme of things, it does cast some doubt on the innate veracity of what we are reading.
In the final analysis, since he cheerfully confesses to sometimes not letting the truth get in the way of a good story, maybe we should simply accept it at that. These are good stories, and we can only hope that Richard Hammond ploughs manfully on through his terrifying middle years to deliver plenty more of them. With no obvious sign of a follow-up on the horizon, however, we may be in for a wait.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Sample only - Kindle - Scattered and rather ho-hum
I usually like Top Gear and most of the presenters' spin-off programmes and books, but this was the worst of the lot. Read more
Published 7 months ago by Andrew Ives
disappointing hamster
I have read the lads from Top Gear's books this holiday and I found Hamsters the most disappointing. Read more
Published 9 months ago by annie
Swift and funny.
Enjoyed this. It was a quick read. Some interesting thoughts, nice to have a male perspective sometimes. I found it 'laugh out loud' funny in places. Read more
Published 17 months ago by Hele
A great read.
Once again Richard Hammond writes a funny, well-written book about his exploits. A great read. Recommended.
Published 22 months ago by Thalia
Biographies
This arrived very well packaged and prompltly. Couldnt fault it the book was very good.
Published 22 months ago by C. Peace
Excellent book.
I've read it by now. Hamster is great!!!!!!!!!!!!! I have had lots of fun reading that book...
Published 22 months ago
Or Is That Just Me -- fantastic!!!
If you've read all his other book, you'll definitely love this one!!! He is so funny, and I never wanted to put the book down until I finished reading it ... Read more
Published on 27 April 2010 by R. Mitchell
A sluggish vehicle.
This book would have been much better if his wife had written this one too. Virtually every paragraph is padded to add length, and the sentences are turgid and overwritten. Read more
Published on 22 April 2010 by Windyoldman
not a bad read
i love top gear and this book lets you know what happens behind the camera,
Published on 18 Feb 2010 by mandy
What can a bloke do?
I have read reports that people complain that Richard spends a great deal of this book ruminating over the fact that he is "approaching 40" (he contends he would sooner "approach"... Read more
Published on 24 Nov 2009 by Y. Lawrence
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