Dave Gorman Vs. The Rest Of The World: Whatever The Game — Dave Takes On All Comers! (2011) - Plot & Excerpts
The last time I read a Dave Gorman book (America Unchained) I was disappointed by the lack of funny, but fairly interested in the topic. It seems that this is just Dave Gorman’s style of writing now, more about topic than funny. In America Unchained it did at times feel a bit preachy, but it’s probably pretty difficult to be preachy about games. With Are You Dave Gorman? and Googlewhack it was really the humour I liked about Dave Gorman’s writing. With this one it was certainly finding out about different games that I enjoyed- seriously I would love to attempt to play Khet, and the German style games sound fun (even if one did kind of sound like a board game version of Farmville!). Don’t get me wrong there were still the funny moments that you expect from Dave Gorman, it’s just more about the interesting games, and the people. I have been a big fan of Dave Gorman's books, but I found this to be the weakest by far. The premise seemed good - playing games with strangers wherever the whim took him. However, it had none of the bizarre twists of the previous books. At one point he chortles at having to double back along a route rather than taking stops in a logical sequence - forgetting that doing this on a global scale was part of the most engaging things in his first two, more substantial odysseys (Are you Dave Gorman and Googlewhack Adventure).The book is drawn out with pointless observation, at the expense of what Dave does best - enjoy the absurd and engaging with the mixed bag of regular folk he encounters. As a project, it never seemed to take off in the way he intended, and this comes across in the lack of zip in the book. A disappointment from a great storyteller.
What do You think about Dave Gorman Vs. The Rest Of The World: Whatever The Game — Dave Takes On All Comers! (2011)?
Better than I'd been expecting. Not much happens, but I found it an enjoyable read all the same.
—gina123
Ok in parts. Got some good ideas of games to play so can't be too bad.
—holly
A nice rambling tale that delivers a very unexpected ending.
—Gsmhelper
