Product Description

A charming tale of a year in the life of a serial 'pointless project' addict. Written with a warmth and depth, interspresed with humorous childhood memories, witty recollections of military service and unorthodox observations on life.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #141839 in Books
• Published on: 2008-07-04
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

Review
Irreverent and real, with moments of unselfconscious poignancy, this is a fantastically funny book whether you start at the beginning, the middle or the end The Crack 20081101

About the Author
John Donoghue has travelled the world as a sailor and soldier whilst pursuing a host of stupid projects. In between enraging Russians in the Arctic Circle and corrupting Cowgirls in New Orleans, he has collected a wealth of humorous anecdotes.This is the man who wrote 'The Ten Commandments of Dog', invented a titanic new text language (it sunk without a trace), went on an odyssey around the bizarre named places in the UK (No Place, Pity Me, Wetwang...) along with his companion Barney the Labrador and more...much more!

Customer Reviews

Barney & George
How strange - I have a friend called Barney, who has a dog called John!! Maybe that is why my wife bought me this book? Anyway, it was a very refreshing read, following author John and his beloved dog on their adventures. And after reading the quotes on the cover, I was further inspired to buy a Bill Bryson book - which incidently was not nearly as good, nor as funny, as I did indeed laugh out loud, and having served abroad in the forces found some of the tales strangely familiar.....I would recommend this book to anyone and everyone. So easy to read, but that in no way detracts from the content, which is lively, educational, relevant, witty and 'real'. Great Book!

Pure Gold
This book should come with a warning! The book arrived the day I was going on holiday so I popped it in my bag thinking I might read it on the plane. As is my wont, I started to read the first page and by the time I forced myself to put it down (or to put it more accurately when the stewardess came to ask me if I was OK) I was crying with laughter and we had almost touched down. The next day, I embarrassed myself on the sun lounger by snorting with laughter at the punchline at the end of tale of the Lambton Worm. There are some real classics in there. Some introspective, touching moments too, but all told in a witty, amusing way. He seems to see humour in everything. I loved the bit about origins of the saying we use today, the Ten commandments for dogs is worth the admission price alone as they say, the stupid projects are inspired...there is so much variety in there it's hard to pigeon hole (if you want to do such a thing!)...subtle humour, travelogue, bloke manual, laugh out loud humour, pop psychology (for dogs and people), belly laugh humour, tales of stupid obsessions, did I mention humour?... it's just a brilliant read. Pure gold.

Barney the Bridge Builder
I like the way Barney is a bridge to other people that the author's obsessions sometimes burn...whose increasing capacity for self reflection is beautifully traced. Did that happen as a result of the writing I wonder, or just as a part of being a mid-life kinda guy?
And I couldn't help wondering what happened with Barbara...