I Know You Got Soul
RRP £18.99
Hardcover, 256 pages
Buy NEW for £7.75
Reviews
(Rated 5 out of 5)
This book is simply brilliant. It re-ignited my lust for a Riva speedboat (I could never afford to own one) and it really sobered me up with his very astute thoughts about Concorde. Even if you are not into machinery, Clarkson's take on it all will ignite a spark in you that will allow you to begin to understand why so many of us love fast cars, fast aircraft, and beautiful bridges. Perhaps why some of us revel in man's ability to construct huge awesome things like aircraft carriers. Of course the Riva is perhaps the epitome of this. When I see one now I just stand in awe and almost drool. They are just so beautiful. Is this book Clarkson's best ever? Quite possibly.Perhaps you should read it to find out what all the fuss is about.If you do you won't regret it.
(Rated 5 out of 5)
I am a big fan of Jeremy Clarkson's writing, either in the newspaper or in his books... He has the most hilarious way with words and, sometimes, I find it hard to breathe from laughing at his occasional rants...
This book is pretty much about the things that Jeremy feels have exceeded engineering and are the most breathtaking inventions he's ever seen... It holds much information on each subject he encounters, and is considerably laced with wit and humour that you can only expect from Clarkson...
For me, it is a brilliant, informative read and I would definately recommend it to everyone... Except if you hate jeans...
(Rated 3 out of 5)
Once again if you enjoy Clarkson and his style you will enjoy this book. I enjoy nice cars and motorbikes but I would say my machinery knowledge is very, very limited. But still Clarkson hit the right note with me and I found he realy brought them to life for me, whether it was a U-boat or an airship. Throughly enjoyable read.
(Rated 5 out of 5)
There are two types of writers,in my view:serious,and tongue in cheek.Jeremy Clarkson belongs to neither category,he is an unreconstructed throwback someone who speaks their mind.
When he gets his mind into something he likes ,or dislikes,he is an excellent writer,and communicates in a funny yet informative manner.People who criticize him just don't get it.He can convey more information on a subject he likes,in one volume than others can in perhaps three books.His message is not always P.C. nor does it matter,and his politcal ideas are his own,but deep down plenty of his readers will be nodding their collective heads in agreement,that he is a bit of an icon.(albeit a seventies one.).
He should ,to my mind bring out a book/dvd on the great engineers of 19th century,like Brunnell etc.
(Rated 1 out of 5)
I picked this book up last summer from one of those crates that people leave out together with an honesty box (this one was by the side of a canal) for your donations. Never having seen Clarkson on television, I had only a vague idea of who he was, but I thought this book might be interesting. I suppose there are one or two points that stick in the mind (such as his comment that the wingspan of a jumbo jet is longer than the first manned flight), but overall, reading this is more like listening to an opinionated rant from a drunk in a pub. Perhaps that's the effect that he was trying to attain, but the received value of the opinions here depends entirely on what you think of the character or qualifications of the person making them.
Based on what I've read, they don't seem to have any value at all. For example, here is Clarkson on the Millenium Falcon: "In a fight between the Enterprise, Stingray, Thunderbird 2 and the Millenium Falcon, the Falcon would reign supreme. It just would. The end." I guess this is supposed to look funny in a childish sort of way (it comes immediately after a similar assertion about who would win if Superman, James Bond and The Terminator had a fight), but I found it hard to care about what he thought "would happen", and this indifference remained when he was talking about non-fictitious machines - e.g. "Possibly, just possibly, the Spitfire is the greatest machine ever made". Is it really? What does this mean? So what?
Printed in a large typeface to fill up the space, the book includes an index (goodness knows why) and a blurb on the back that describes how Clarkson has "discovered" not only who would win in the fight mentioned above, but also "how Jeanne-Claude Van Damme might get eaten by a lion". This last refers to a single sentence on p45: "Maybe Jeanne-Claude Van Damme could be eaten by a lion at some point." Well, gosh. Or maybe he wouldn't. What do you think? Do you really care?
Finally, the book includes the same boilerplate comment ("Extremely funny" - Daily Telegraph) on its cover which appears on all his other books, thus rendering it misleading, at least. Unless they meant that he was extremely funny. But I can't see how that could be. Just my opinion, of course.