The Ridiculous Race - A Must-Read
Many travel books follow the same basic recipe:
1 life event
1-3 countries
1 epiphany
Dash of love
Blend and cook at 350 degrees.
Yawn.
The Ridiculous Race will have none of that. This hilarious book is written by two friends as they carry out a pact to circumvent the globe – one going west, the other east, to see which arrives first. The only rule is that they may not travel by air – only by sea or land.
Written by young but seasoned comedy writers Vali Chandrasekaran and Steve Hely, the book is as much about their silly experiences as the places they go. But that’s what makes it so good. There’s very little of the naval-gazing, mind-bogglingly boring-if-you’re-not-the-actual-person-it-happened-to standard travel book fare. Yes, there are a few sweet parts where you know the writers’ hard shells were cracked a bit but quickly they’re back to their snarky selves.
By their count, they traveled through a total of 29 countries in about 6-8 weeks. We won’t give too much away and tell you each country or who won the race, but suffice it to say, it’s an entertaining ride. We actually burst out laughing on the Metro (the Metro!) while reading one part of the book. We’ll let you guess which part. We didn’t even care that people were looking at us like we were high. We were. High on life, yesiree.
A piece from Steve:
“And I’m just starting at him and thinking, Dude, I don’t know how you got here, or what you’re doing, but if you don’t like beige fat with fried egg, you’re gonna have a hard time in Mongolia, man.”
From Vali:
“In nine days of driving I had put 4,525 miles on the car. To get an idea of how far that is, imagine driving one mile 4,525 times.”
It’s too hard to pick other quotes because the book is chock-full and you just need to read it. You’ll be laugh-out-loud-on-the-Metro-happy you did.
Happy to know there is a out-of-the-box non-formulated travel book out there. I’ll let you know what I think. I may or may not be on the metro while reading.