I think I'm prejudiced
A couple of weeks ago it came to my attention that there was a surplus secret Santa pressie. The guy it was meant for was a contractor whose final day was two days after our team lunch. He lives miles away, and we'll never see him again.

But there it was. Quite obviously a hard-backed book. I put it on my desk and left it there for a couple of days. Then...I opened it.

What would it be? What COULD it be?? The secret Santa limit was just £1.00, must have been a charity shop purchase. Still, who knows.

I opened it and found a book I so DIDN'T want to read that it was perfect - the ultimate WTF present. With a colleague, we discussed who in the team would be the best recipient of this special book. Oh yes, Jon - erudite, literate, sensitive, a family man with a young child: perfect.

When he went to the toilet, I slipped it into his rucksack (he cycles to work) on the last working day before Christmas.

A week later, I asked him if he'd received any unexpected presents?

'No, but judging from your expression, I must have missed something.'

'Take a look in your rucksack.'

And then, out it came, the least readable book in the world, perhaps:
Richard Hammond's autobiography 'On the Edge'.

Now it's Jon's job to slip it into someone else's bag.
(Che Grimsdale Best before:, Thu 5 Jan 2012, 15:40, 3 replies)

I've read that - someone left it next to the shitter in a holiday cottage I was staying in this year



spoilers - he survives the crash, gets better and goes back to work at Top Gear
( emvee cruor deo cruoris, Thu 5 Jan 2012, 16:00, closed)

I've read that - I thought it was quite good.
You can tell the people who haven't read it because they just assume it's all "blah blah blah top gear blah blah I was driving so fast blah blah accident blah blah blah hospital blah blah I'm just brilliant me".

It's not, particularly. Obviously there is quite a lot of discussion of Top Gear and the rest of the the team (cast and crew), and indeed the jet dragster crash - these are, after all, the whole reason he had that accident.

Most of it is about the very slow and difficult process of recovering from a very severe brain injury, and will be horribly familiar to anyone who has had a friend or relative who has had a similar experience. It's well worth a read, even if you aren't particularly into Top Gear or the cult of celebrity around it.
(gordonjcp, Thu 5 Jan 2012, 17:57, closed)

Sorry, you lost me at:
I've read that -....
(Che Grimsdale Best before:, Fri 6 Jan 2012, 12:20, closed)