The World According to Clarkson

The World According to Clarkson #1

by Jeremy Clarkson

Jeremy Clarkson shares his opinions on just about everything in The World According to Clarkson . Jeremy Clarkson has seen rather more of the world than most. He has, as they say, been around a bit. And as a result, he's got one or two things to tell us about how it all works; and being Jeremy Clarkson he's not about to voice them quietly, humbly, and without great dollops of humor. In The World According to Clarkson , he reveals why it is that too much science is bad for our health, 1970s rock music is nothing to be ashamed of, hunting foxes while drunk and wearing night-sights is neither big nor clever, we must work harder to get rid of cricket, and that he likes the Germans (well, sometimes). With a strong dose of common sense that is rarely, if ever, found inside the M25, Clarkson hilariously attacks the pompous, the ridiculous, the absurd, and the downright idiotic, while also celebrating the eccentric, the clever, and the sheer bloody brilliant. Less a manifesto for living and more a road map to modern life, The World According to Clarkson is the funniest book you'll read this year. Don't leave home without it. The World According to Clarkson is a hilarious collection of Jeremy's Sunday Times columns and the first in his The World According to Clarkson series which also includes And Another Thing ; For Crying Out Loud! and How Hard Can It Be?

Genres: Nonfiction, Humor, Comedy, Biography, Essays, Cars, British Literature

327 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Jeremy Charles Robert Clarkson (born April 11, 1960) is an English broadcaster and writer who specialises in motoring.

He writes weekly columns for The Sunday Times and The Sun, but is better known for his role on the BBC television programme Top Gear.

From a career as a local journalist in the north of England, he rose to public prominence as a presenter of the original format of Top Gear in 1988. Since the mid-1990s Clarkson has become a recognised public personality, regularly appearing on British television presenting his own shows and appearing as a guest on other shows. As well as motoring, Clarkson has produced programmes and books on subjects such as history and engineering. From 1998 to 2000 he also hosted his own chat show, Clarkson.

His opinionated but humorous tongue-in-cheek writing and presenting style has often generated much public reaction to his viewpoints. His actions both privately and as a Top Gear presenter have also sometimes resulted in criticism from the media, politicians, pressure groups and the public.

As well as the criticism levelled against him, Clarkson also generated a significant following in the public at large, being credited as a factor in the resurgence of Top Gear to the most popular show on BBC Two, and calls for him to be made Prime Minister. Clarkson himself was keen to downplay his perceived influence on the British public, stating he regularly contradicts himself, and would make a "rubbish" Prime Minister.

Reviews

[Magdalena aka A Bookaholic Swede · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first audiobook I have listened to in forever because I'm just not an audiobook person. But I wanted something to listen to at work when I got bored with listening to music, and what to listen to at Volvo? Of course The World According to Clarkson. This has taken me a while to listen to, probably a couple of months since I listen to the audiobook sporadically.

The great thing is that every chapter in this book is around 6-7 minutes long and since it's a collection of Jeremy's Sunday Times columns is every chapter about a different subject so it wasn't a story I was following so it was no problem listen to some chapters now and then. I liked the narrator's voice, but I wished it has been Jeremy Clarkson himself that had been the narrator. That would have been more fun to listen to!

[notgettingenough · Rating 4 out of 5]

What’s that? You can’t hear me? Brrrm, brrrmmm. BRMM. Well, I’m living a hundred yards from the first Formula 1 Grand Prix of the season and it’s bloody noisy. I can – vrm vrrrm VROOM – hardly hear you either, so we’re just going to have to pay attention aren’t we? More attention, in fact, than we usually do.

First I want to start with a word from my sponsor, Ferrari, who is paying me to go down the road to write this review over breakfast as they know a writer needs a bowl of porridge and a bit of peace and quiet. The word from Ferrari is this: would I mind – and not to make this dependent for one moment upon the fact that the caramelised bananas on top of my porridge is something for which they’ve footed the bill; nope, they insist that my review stays independent despite their financial investment in my wellbeing – would I mind if Jeremy Clarkson put in a bit of a foreword to this review. Of course I can say no, or yes. (In fact, looking at the last sentence, I suspect no would mean yes and vice versa…)

Hello. This is Jeremy Bloody Clarkson here; that’s right, Jeremy – there’s nothing wrong with boys getting about in fast cars around a track – Clarkson. It’s called having fun and any bleeding heart liberals out there who have a problem with that can leave right now. Go on. Go and find a fox to be friendly with and if it lives anywhere near me, tell it to stop eating my chickens.

Anyway. I’ve have a look around this goodreads site. A lot of wanky smart-arses if you ask me. Half of it doesn’t even make sense. I mean look at: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/... This guy’s had a university education. At my considerable expense. He’s a doctor, for God’s sake. He’s probably allowed to say what’s wrong with me. Doctor Rayner. A PhD in linguistics. Well. You’d think he’d be capable of putting a few words in his review, wouldn’t you? I mean, what is the point of a book review without any words in it, anyway?

And another thing. Why is it that all the reviews of my book are two lines long? ‘He’s funny.’ ‘He makes me laugh.’ Well, yes, thank you. I already know I do that. It’s what I get paid for. It’s why I’ve got a very large house in the country and a fox-chicken problem. I was expecting insights, though. ‘What I’ve learned about life from Jeremy Clarkson.’ That sort of thing. I have no doubt this review here by NGE will be different.

But before I hand it over to her, this thing about her not getting enough. I’ve looked at the pictures in her profile and frankly, my estimation of chaps who read is going down all the time. She’s got a bunch of male friends on this site – what’s wrong with you all for God’s sake? Stephen – you have a harpsichord. The girl loves boys with harpsichords. I know that to be a fact because she asked me if I had one. And Whitaker. You live practically next door. Paul and a few others, well, okay, I see you are married and yes. Thinking back to that thing I wrote in The Times the other day about threesomes with supermodels – well, I won’t tell you exactly what my wife thought about it because I see content here can get flagged. So, yes, issues there. But Doctor Emmanuel Rayner. You really have to pick up your act if you want to pull birds, mate. I’ve had a bit more of a look at your stuff and it turns out that the reviews with words in them are worse than the one with the weird lines. I mean, what you’ve done with Shakespeare. We start off with perfectly good sonnets from the best writer ever in the whole world and that’s what you’ve done with them. Forget the poetry. Get yourself a fast car, doc. You’ll have them lining up.

What I’ve learnt about life from Jeremy Clarkson
By NGE.

This is what I don’t understand. Like most people who hold views that we tend to label ‘conservative’ he is easy to understand. What he says is what he does. I don’t even know if we should give his views on global warming the compliment of being called sceptic. He loves cars. His views on global warming are consequently derived from that. If he is in one corner, in the other are people probably pleased to label themselves ‘left-wing’, who tell us global warming is this really important thing we have to believe in. And the last thing you can say about these people is that what they say is what they do. When I suggested in a discussion here re global warming last year, that we should all be giving up unnecessary air travel – specifically I referred to chess and bridge tournament and conferences – not one person was willing to agree. When I suggested it on my bridge blog, ditto. We are creatures of inertia and we don’t want to be the ones doing the right thing if nobody else is. Fair enough. But honestly. Don’t turn your noses up at Jeremy Clarkson, please. The guy’s funny and he has the odd crusade in his life which is well worth being on.

Not least, aspects of environmentalism, I might add. He has a thing about packaging and good on him. I’ve been shoppping lately at a new organic-fair-trade-shop-locally sort of place and I’ve never seen so much packaging in all my life. Clarkson routinely leaves loaded supermarket trollies and walks out – or so it is reported – I like that. It’s probably more than I do for the whole idea of helping out the environment. Not that I’m a shining example.

He thinks injured British soldiers should be treated better. Absolutely. He thinks we need a radically different attitude to mistakes. This is so true. We haven’t always perceived mistakes through the eyes of lawyers. I don’t really understand how it is that we have permitted them to take over our sense of right and wrong.

And what about this: he has never liked Tony Blair. Now, most of my ‘left-wing’ friends did like Tony…and then didn’t. What does that mean? Me, I couldn’t stand him from the start. He seemed to me one of those loathsome new Labour types who look and behave exactly the same as the other side while paying lip service to the idea of caring about the things you pay lip service to caring about too. That’s democracy at work, I guess. You do get what you want.

I don’t actually have to prove he is funny, do I? He’s the sort of person girls like even though he’s sexist. Yes, this is a good example, lifted from wiki and without a citation, I might add:

Clarkson is opposed to the opening up of the countryside to ramblers, under the right to roam, and became involved in a protracted legal dispute about access to a "permissive path" across the grounds of his second home on the Isle of Man since 2005. The dispute has since been resolved amicably, with Clarkson accepting honorary life-membership of The Ramblers' Association.

He’s that sort of guy and if you’d just remember, as you are jet-setting from conference to conference, or holidays, or whatever you are avoidably jet-setting to, that you ARE doing that, even though you know you shouldn’t be…well, you’d find him funny too, even though you disapprove of his straight-forwardness. I’m just saying here, should you really be on your moral high-horse in the first place.

But, okay, this is one I rather liked.

Willkommen and Achtung, This is Austrian Hospitality

A small tip. The border between Switzerland and Austria may be marked with nothing more than a small speed hump, and the customs hut may appear to be deserted, but whatever you do, stop. If you don’t, your rear-view mirror will fill with armed men in uniform and the stillness of the night will be shattered with searchlights and klaxons.

I’m able to pass on this handy hint because last week, while driving in convoy with my camera crew from St Moritz to Innsbruck, a man suddenly leapt out of his darkened hut and shouted: ‘Achtung.’

I have no idea what ‘achtung’ means, except that it usually precedes a bout of gunfire followed by many years of digging tunnels. I therefore pulled over and stopped, unlike the crew, who didn’t.

The man, white with rage and venom and fury, demanded my passport and refused to give it back until I had furnished him with details of the people in the other car which had dared to sail past his guard tower.

I’d often wondered how I’d get on in this sort of situation. Would I allow myself to be tortured to save my colleagues? How strong is my will, my playground-learnt bond? How long would I hold out?

About three seconds, I’m ashamed to say. Even though I have two spare passports, I blabbed like a baby, handing over the crew’s names, addresses and mobile phone numbers.

So they came back, and the driver was manhandled from the car and frogmarched up to the stop sign he’d ignored. His passport was confiscated and then it was noticed that all his camera equipment had not been checked out of Switzerland. We were in trouble.

So we raised our hands, and do you know what? The guard didn’t even bat an eyelid. The sight of four English people standing at a border post in the middle of Europe, in the year 2001, with their arms in the air didn’t strike him as even remotely odd.

We have become used to a gradual erosion of interference with international travel. You only know when you’ve gone from France into Belgium, for instance, because the road suddenly goes all bumpy. French customs are normally on strike and their opposite numbers in Belgium are usually hidden behind a mountain of chips with a mayonnaise topping.

But in Austria things are very different. Here you will not find a fatty working out his pension. Our man on the road from St Moritz to Innsbruck was a lean, front line storm trooper in full camouflage fatigues and he seemed to draw no distinction between the Englander and the Turk or Slav. Nobody, it seems, is welcome in the Austro-Hungarian empire.

The camera crew, who were very disappointed at the way I’d grassed them up and kept referring to me as ‘Von Strimmer’ or simply ‘The Invertebrate’, were ordered back to Switzerland. And me? For selling them out, I was allowed to proceed to Innsbruck.

Which does invite a question. How did the guard know where I was going? We had never mentioned our destination and yet he knew. It gets stranger, because minutes later I was pulled over for speeding and even though I had a Zurich-registered car, the policman addressed me straight away in English.

This puzzled me as I drove on and into the longest tunnel in the world. This was puzzling, too, as it wasn’t marked on the map. What’s happening on the surface that they don’t want us to see?

Finally I arrived at the hotel into which I’d been booked, but a mysterious woman in a full-length evening gown explained menacingly that she had let my room to someone else. And that all the other hotels in Innsbruck were fully booked.

Paranoia set in and took on a chilling air when I learn that one of the army bobsleigh people I was due to meet the following day had been kicked to death outside a nightclub.

I ended up miles away at a hotel run by a man we shall call ‘The Downloader’. ‘So, you are an Englisher,’ he said, when I checked in. ‘There are many good people in England,’ he added, with the sort of smile that made me think he might be talking about Harold Shipman.

Something is going on in Austria. They’ve told the world that the Freedom Party leader has stepped down, but how do we know that he’s gone and won’t be back? Let’s not forget these people are past masters at subterfuge. I mean, they managed to convince the entire planet that Adolf Hitler was a German. Most people here do think Haider will be back. As chancellor. And that’s a worry.

I’m writing this now in my room, hoping to sent it via email to the Sunday Times but each time I try to log on, messages come back to say it’s impossible. Maybe that’s because The Downloader is up in his attic, looking at unsavoury images of bondage and knives, or maybe it’s because I’m being watched. Journalists are.

Either way, I’m nervous about smuggling text like this past customs tomorrow when I’m due to fly home. I shall try to rig up some kind of device using my mobile phone, hoping these words reach you. If they do, yet I mysteriously disappear, for God’s sake send help. I’m at the…

[Vikas · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was a collection of around 3 years worth of articles by Jeremy Clarkson for a Newspaper in UK. And many of the articles are from continuous weeks.

Clarkson is a funny guy and it shows in his observations but seeing how the articles were originally written between 2001 and 2003 and I read the book in 2018, it was already quite dated but still fun enough to read and finish.

I liked it but since it's not a book in the traditional sense I could only finish couple of chapters at a time. If you wanna read some funny thought pieces go for this. Or go for some other book but keep on reading.

People who don't read generally ask me my reasons for reading. Simply put I just love reading and so to that end I have made it my motto to just Keep on Reading. I love to read everything except for Self Help books but even those once in a while. I read almost all the genre but YA, Fantasy, Biographies are the most. My favorite series is, of course, Harry Potter but then there are many more books that I just adore. I have bookcases filled with books which are waiting to be read so can't stay and spend more time in this review, so remember I loved reading this and love reading more, you should also read what you love and then just Keep on Reading.

[Jim · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was not intended as a book, it is a collection of articles written by Jeremy Clarkson for the Sunday Times. I often violently disagree with his viewpoint but he is tremendously entertaining and very funny. We need more commentators like him to stimulate public debate which is all too often stifled by the PC brigade afraid to offend anyone. Jeremy Clarkson doesn't care a hoot what you think, which is refreshing.

[audrey · Rating 1 out of 5]

Things Jeremy Clarkson hates: women, lesbians, foreigners and effeminate footballers.
Things Jeremy Clarkson likes: 70s prog rock, travel and Jeremy Clarkson.

The most disjointed and dis-satisfying collection of short essays I've ever read. And I do mean short: at one point Clarkson mentions he's being paid to hit a set word limit, which explains why all the articles end abruptly and in most cases with non-sequiturs.

[Simon · Rating 2 out of 5]

One thing should be made clear: Jeremy Clarkson is basically an internet troll in real life, i. e. he's to automotive journalism what the late Seth Putnam was to music. The only difference's a matter of subtlety.

Since it hence follows that finding anything Clarkson says publically to be insightful is more or less the same thing as deriving your political views from the lyrics Seth Putnam wrote for his band Anal Cunt, how does a book entirely consisting of Mr. Clarkson's alleged opinions read?

Not how I expected it to, that's for certain. Most of it basically comes across as the written-down rants of some drunken bar patron on various topics, but there's also assorted humourous anecdotes from working at the BBC and his usual "make sarcastic comments about ugly sports cars by referring to national stereotypes about the countries they're made in" shtick. Then, occasionally he'll suddenly write something that even I find to have some seriously worthwhile insight in it, and even stylish writing. The piece on his stay in Basque Country, for example, develops a "Hunter Thompson for dummies" feel. I don't know how he does it.

The funniest thing about the book, though is something that I'm not even sure is intentional: At least a third, possibly even a half, of the articles concerned things nobody outside of Britain has likely ever heard of or will even ever want to care about... which makes the title decidedly ironic.

How stereotypically British is that?

[Yana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Неймовірна для легкого читання книга. Фактично, це збірка статей, які Кларксон щотижнево писав до газети, але як написано! Щирий британський гумор та сердечна стурбованість про долю планети.

[Will Ansbacher · Rating 2 out of 5]

Lent to me by someone who said it was hilarious. Well, I did crack a smile a couple of times.
Clarkson is that “Top Gear” guy on BBC TV; I watched for a few minutes once then switched him off. Here he is writing a column for the Sunday Times from 2001 to 2003, and these are mild diatribes about, oh, everything you would expect a slightly-right-of-centre guy to rant about if you stood him a pint in the pub.
They are all exactly 3 ½ pages long, so he must have been held to a pretty tight word count, which might explain why so many lack any real punch-line.

[Gosia Kowalska-Kiszka · Rating 5 out of 5]

I would never thought that I will give this book a 5-star rating. But his humour is so brilliant, that I have to do this absurdity and put him on a shelf with 1984 or Pride and Prejudice. I think he would also laugh at this.

[Peter Derk · Rating 3 out of 5]

From Top Gear's most entertaining presenter, this book collects a bunch of short pieces Jeremy Clarkson wrote for the paper.

As an Ugly American, or at least an Average-Looking American, I'll say that there are definitely a lot of references I didn't really understand. I don't blame the book for that. I mean, we're talking about London cultural references from 2001. Even the U.S. equivalents probably wouldn't make a ton of sense to people around here. If I compared a politician from 2001 to Limp Bizkit, well, let's just not even take it any further.

I wonder if Americans really are so bad about learning other cultures. Or, to put it differently, is this one of the few cases where it's not so much our fault?

Consider:

A Forbes article from 2013 pointed out that the U.S. is the only "Advanced" economy in the world that does not have any mandated paid vacation. Additionally, U.S. law does not enforce any holiday vacation while other "advanced" economies mandate between 5 and 13, these in addition to the required paid holidays.

Apparently there are also 5 countries that pay HIGHER wages for vacation days to help offset expenses incurred while traveling.

Consider Also:

When it comes to sheer size, it's no small feat just to get across the U.S. In fact, if you lay Texas over Europe, you'll cover parts of France, Belgium, The Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, Austria, Italy, and just a bit of Poland for good measure.

Texas is a big-ass state, but it's only 8-10% of the entire U.S. landmass, depending on whether you count Alaska and Hawaii.

I'm not trying to use the old argument that other countries are too far away. I don't know why they built Spain way the hell over there, but what's a fella to do?

What I am trying to say is that, culturally, your traveling miles go a lot further in Europe than they do in the U.S. You can make your way to a lot of very different spots with their own, much older cultures while actually putting far fewer miles under your belt.

Consider Finally:

The Dollar is about .75 Euros. It's been this way or worse since I've been old enough to travel on my own.

I'm not suggesting that any one of these factors should prevent Americans from exploring the world. When you consider, as is done in some of the book's last essays, how much easier travel has become with the rise of the jet engine, there's not much excuse.

...except when one considers that the average American is dealing with all three of these factors, at best.

I feel pretty strongly that most of the people I know, most of whom are Americans AT LEAST as ugly as I am, would be happy to visit places outside the U.S. for extended periods. Given the opportunity, many, many would go.

But I have to say, it limits the desire to learn about a culture when you'll only read about it in books and see brief glimpses on TV. It's tough to learn French when you figure you'll maybe get to Paris for four days sometime in your life. Or, [shudder] Canada.

I feel The System, The Man, The Whatever It Is in America really lends itself to jumping on a plane for a few hours, spending two days a couple states away, somewhere that has beaches if you don't have those, or somewhere that has nice beaches if you have suck beaches, and then coming back after a long weekend.

Anyway, for better or worse, Top Gear is my primary exposure to European culture at this point in my life. God help us all.

[Fred · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars for The World According to Clarkson. I must say, reading this book took me what felt like a very long time to finish! I was shocked (and slightly disheartened) to find that it was only around 320 pages long (reading it on a Kindle meant I was totally oblivious to the page count). This book is, in a nutshell, a series of entries written by Clarkson which discuss his views on certain aspects of life!

The reason I read this is because I watched the 20th anniversary of Millionaire hosted by Clarkson, and after absolutely LOVING it (and him!), it provoked me to buy one of his books. It is not a book I would typically read with my tastes but I thought I would give it a go nonetheless. Personally, I think my reactions to this book fall into three different stages!

Stage 1
I STARTED it and I began to really, really enjoy it. Jeremy Clarkson, whilst controversial, is an absolutely hilarious man and his honesty is incredibly contagious. A lot of his opinions I would completely NOT agree with but one can still read them knowing that they are in jest! Some other things he says, however, are (admittedly) 100% true and would do the world some good to be said. If nothing else, Clarkson encourages the reader go through life with open honesty.
Additionally, the comedy levels in this are off the scale. Some chapters had me laughing less often than others...but those that WERE really funny had me guffawing. If you are in need of some light relief, this will be the book for you!

Stage 2
I was getting on for halfway through and I started to get a little bit bored. Even despite my disappointment at realising my ten days of reading were in fact only for a 320 page book, I still think this was too long. For me, it ended up getting a bit repetitive: NOT to the extent that I wasn’t enjoying the book anymore; just to the point where there would be some chapters I would only glance at. This doesn’t mean the book was any harder work! I was just chuckling and loving the chapters I did really enjoy, and skimming through the ones I didn’t.

Stage 3
Then RIGHT at the end (I had about another 25% to go), I decided to just go ahead and finish it so I skimmed through to the end. For this book, do not be afraid to skim through some parts! A lot of this book is full of wit and very worth it; however, whenever Jeremy Clarkson started talking about politics (for example), I completely zoned out. This isn’t particularly the fault of the book because, in general, there are few things which interest me less than politics; but it is undeniable that certain parts of this book were a lot LESS interesting than other parts.

I will admit that getting to the end did require some pushing through as I felt that it had been going on for long enough. If this book had been shorter, I would have appreciated the GOOD chapters even more and been able to look on the book as a whole with a fresher, more positive light. There was a SMALL element of it getting all too much the same by the end.

Yet I shall not be ending this review on a negative because I DID enjoy this book and I do think it has a lot of merit! Here are a few of my favourite quotes:


(This is about people giving directions.)
“...some launch immediately into a bunch of militaristic directions, involving clear, concise hand signals and bushy-topped trees at nine o’ clock.
But that’s no help because you won’t be listening. It is a known medical fact, and it has been so since the dawn of time, that a man will hear the first word and then shut down.”

“Why do I need to have a man poke about in my mouth with a sharpened screwdriver when I know that my teeth will last about 50,000 years longer than the rest of me?
Nobody dies of tooth decay. It’s always some other part of the body that gives up, but despite this we don’t go to the doctor twice a year demanding a full service. Come on, doc, there’s nothing obviously wrong but I want you to examine every single bit of me minutely. I want X-rays and then I want to see your hygienist, who will spray jets of ice-cold grit up my backside.
No, we go to the doctor only when something is wrong and that’s how it should be at the dentist.”

“...there’s no such thing as an accident these days. If you trip over a paving stone or eat a dodgy piece of meat, there will be an enquiry, someone will be culpable, and steps will be taken to ensure it doesn’t happen again.
...
Nobody is allowed to die either. George Carman QC, for instance, pegged out at the age of 71, which is not a bad innings. But oh no. His death has been chalked up to cancer as though it might have been avoided if he’d not eaten cheese and broccoli.”

That above one, in particular, is very true! I have seen examples of this in my life before and I am sure many others have too.

“The human being is programmed to take risks. Had our ancestors spent their days sitting around in caves, not daring to go outside, we’d still be there now.
...
Telling us that speed kills and asking us to slow down is a bit like asking us to ignore gravity.”


In other words, half of these precautions people set are pointless. Live life without worrying! Life’s too short to worry about the health defects of cheese and broccoli (quoting back the other point).


“I have just finished a book by Philip Roth...it’s almost as though Roth rang the publishers and asked: ‘How long would you like my next novel to be?’ And when they said 250 pages, he said ‘Oh good, I’ve finished.’”


In short, this is a brilliantly funny book which can teach you a lot of stuff to apply in life (and a lot of stuff NOT to apply in life!). My advice upon reading this book would be a) separate his jokes from what he ACTUALLY means, and b) don’t be afraid to skim through the marginally more uninteresting parts.

Overall, however, thumbs up to this! Absolutely fantastic.

[Redfox5 · Rating 4 out of 5]

After reading a bunch of dull books, this is just what the doctor ordered. I like Clarkson anyways which helps, he's funny enough to make a show about cars seem interesting and that's good enough for me!

This is a collection of articles he wrote for the Sunday Times back in the early noughties. Made me chuckle a fair few times. Some articles were written as speculation, like what if Ebola got on a plane....switch Ebola for Coronavirus and were living it today. Makes me feel a bit funny when I read stuff like that!

Don't read if you don't like Clarkson or are a bit of a snowflake, as you won't like this, you'll get triggered and upset yourself.

If you have a sense of humor though, crack on!

[Meteori · Rating 2 out of 5]

"Posao kolumniste je da pronađe sve što ne valja", napisao je g. Klarkson u ovoj knjizi.

Možda je istu najbolje posmatrati kao duhovito štivo jer on toliko kritički piše o svemu da to čak djeluje brutalno. A najviše voli da kritikuje Amerikance i Vladu svoje zemlje. Dakle, po njemu ne valja gotovo ništa.

A kako kritikuje "svoje" tako isto radi i sa drugima. Nije bitno iz kojeg dijela svijeta dolaze.

Da zaključim, posmatrajte knjigu kao komediju (koja po meni to nije).

P.S.
Jedina smiješna stvar u knjzi je opis karlinga (sportske discipline).
"... i ono na ledu gdje žene usisavaju ispred lončeta na vodu."

[Anastasia Solomakha · Rating 3 out of 5]

я це зробила - дійшла до фінішу! Занадто багато непотрібних деталей, фактів, персонажів, відсутність сюжетної лінії (так, знаю, що тут її і не повинно бути, так як це просто підбірка статей з колонки Кларксона), але все ж..."вона може читати щось хоч би й рік, мені ж до вподоби книжки, які стають для мене важливішими за саме життя." Власне, для мене теж. Тому "його світ довкола" мав всі шанси залежатись на полиці недочитаних книжок на рік, а то й довге..але щось таки перемогло, гумор напевно)

[AndrewP · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is collection of Jeremy Clarkson's Sunday Times columns from January 2001 to December 2003. Each one only amounts to about 4 pages in print, so it's very easy (and preferable) to read in small snippets.

Most people seem to enjoy Clarkson on Top Gear, but his writing you either love or hate. It follows that same wise cracking style as on TV, but I found it can get a tad annoying if you read to much at one sitting. In these collected columns I think he manages to insult just about every nationality and ethnic group. He pokes fun at himself just as much, so the overall feeling on finishing this book was "why are we all so stupid at times" :)

One for fans only I think.

[Evelyn Evertsen-Romp · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hoewel Jeremy Clarkson politiek incorrect kan zijn, is hij ook vaak hilarisch én voorspelt hij de Corona pandemie akelig correct, in dit boek uit 2009. Ik snapte niet alles omdat ik geen Brit ben, maar het meeste wel en ik heb vaak geproest van het lachen.

[Ray O'Hare · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like his patter & sense of humour, but I need to read it amidst a thriller otherwise it could get a bit monotonous

[Gilles Puelings · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5⭐️

[Marley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Too funny to read on public transport. Clarkson predicts covid in 2003.

[Vasilisa Petlitzkaya · Rating 1 out of 5]

Не мій стиль, не мій гумор, не мій типаж чоловіка. Змусила дочитати до 50% бо дуже радили книгу, але глибокі думки так і не знайшла

[Akshay Pai · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would say this is an okay book. It does have many humorous and sarcastic incidents or narrations. However, there were way too many things that I was clueless about. Some of that I agree is due to the lack of political/ geographical knowledge about the UK but most of it is because I'm not a native from there.

So, a lot of things that the people from the UK might get, just flew over the head. When I was reading those bits, I would realise that it is meant to be a sarcastic remark at someone or it is something funny, but I don't get it. This made a good part of the book kinda boring.

Another thing is that since it is a collection of columns from back in the early 2000s, I couldn't recollect many incidents that kinda left me clueless about what Jermy was trying to say.

Overall, read it if you are from the UK and you will like it and for the rest of them, this can be something when you need a light read and something humorous to pass time.

[Alexander · Rating 3 out of 5]

Its okay… I have found the main issue with these type of books is that the references all become incredibly dated. He goes on about Tony Blair and Iraq. Although, there are some good essays in this book that aren’t really affected by the passage of time.

It was easy to read. It is just a collection of his newspaper articles though. I find these sort of books a little bit tedious (the same with David Mitchell’s ones). So I won’t be going out of my way to read them I don’t think…

[Ана Хелс · Rating 5 out of 5]

За човек като мен, който различава колите като черни и цветни, не отбира много каква част от онова кръглото се състои от джанти, кое – от гуми , и все му е тая колко вдига нещо си, и колко магарета може да подкара по сунгурларско нанадолнище , Топ Гиър би трябвало да ми звучи като разговор за ядрена физика, антропоморфна психология и висша математика от осми порядък в едно. Но ако нърдовете бяха такива изроди като Кларксън и компания – очевидно щяхме да сме малко по-богати общокултурно същества. И така че аз – голям враг на автомобилите, които винаги подозирам , че искат да ме сгазят на вътрешно – метално ниво; която си затварям очите в потрес на всяко кръгово и се моля на всички богове и ангели при поредното изпреварване от джип каран от дебелоуста кифличка , се кълна в Кларксън, Хамънд и Мей като светата троица на интелектуалния хейт , ебаващ се с огромни компании, надути страни и въобще всичко , което никой друг не пипва заради политическата коректност и надеждата за бъдещи приходи.

Та в своята книга, една от около десетина досега всъщност, най-големият изрод светлейши на светата автомобилна триада – Джереми Кларксън изнася майсторски урок за това как се хейти всичко качествено. Ама хейти като ебасимуси мегаломасимуси хейта. Ама всичко , като наистина съвсем всичко. Ама качествено така , че се заливаш от смях и се почесваш леко виновно за това, че май тоя човек би ти се изпикал в бирата докато не го гледаш , като откровена проява на лично отношение. От Коледа до Великден, от децата си до децата на другите, от собствената си страна до последната дупка, в която му е стъпвал крака , независимо дали става въпрос за суперлуксозен хотел на райско местенце или ветриво забито алпийско селце – всичко минава наравно под ножа. Той ще ви мрази защото сте дебели, и защото не ядете всичко; защото се пъчите, че карате еди каква си кола, и защото криете , че ходите пеша; за това, че имате политическо отношение и подкрепяте държавата си, и затова че сте политически пасивни и ви е през пеперудката или гущерчето за това кой точно ви управлява. Можете ли да се сравните с това?

Книга – учебник за тролове, справочник с интелигентни закачки и готини лафчета за маса, идеалната тоалетна книга с малки статии, подходящи за някои кратки срещи с факта на перисталтиката, подобрявайки я многократно – Кларксън е всичко това. Библия, клозетно четиво, фешън книжле. Всичко и много повече. Надявам се Вакон да продължат с издаването на Кларксън – може и да не е новия Булгаков, но е едно от най-забавните и отрезвяващи неща, на които съм попадала скоро. Препоръчвам със всеки свободен крайник, който не държи книга в момента.

[Zane Eglīte · Rating 4 out of 5]

Grāmata, ko lasīju ir sarakstīta angļu valodā, un tas nosaukums „The World According To Clarkson” varētu tikt tulkots kā „Pasaule balstoties uz Klarksonu”. Grāmatas nosaukums jau ietver autora uzvārdu un grāmatu ir sarakstījis Džeremijs Klarksons (Jeremy Clarkson). Daudziem cilvēkiem šis rakstnieks ir vairāk pazīstams kā viens populārā auto raidījuma „Top Gear” vadītājiem. Pēc profesijas Klarksons ir žurnālists un papildus savam darbam televīzijā viņš raksta gan grāmatas, gan slejas tādās plaši pazīstamās avīzēs kā „The Sunday Times” un „The Sun”.

Grāmata ir rakstīta dienasgrāmatas veidā. Klarksons aprakstījis savas domas, izjūtas un novērojumus, aprakstījis lietas, kas konkrētajā brīdī nodarbinājušas viņa prātu, vai lietas, ar kurām saskāries ikdienā.

Autors grāmatu rakstījis visai brīvā veidā, iekļaujot grāmatā gan lamu vārdus, gan smalkus izteicienus franču valodā. Grāmata bija viegli lasāma, jo daudzas no grāmatā izlasītajām lietām varēju saistīt ar savām pārdomām. Visspilgtāk man atmiņā palicis lasītais par to, ka vīrieši ir ļoti ietiepīgi un viņiem svarīgi ir saglabāt savu godu, un, piemēram, Klarksons, būdams apmaldījies svešā pilsētā, neizkāptu no mašīnas, lai pajautātu garāmgājējam ceļu, bet pats, kaut vai piecas stundas maldītos pa svešo pilsētu, lai tikai galamērķi būtu atradis pats saviem spēkiem. Grāmatā ir aprakstītas ļoti daudzveidīgas lietas, kā, piemēram, tas, ka cilvēka zobi ir viens no visspēcīgākajiem materiāliem uz zemas, vai arī tas, kādas sekas būtu gaidāmas, atstājot septiņgadīgus bērnus vienus pašus mājās.

Grāmata mani piesaistīja ar to, ka pat par tik pašsaprotamām lietām, par kurām es ikdienā nemaz neaizdomājos, Klarksonasm būtu ko teikt, un tieši tas mudināja uz dziļām pārdomām gandrīz katras lappuses beigās! Un tas arī ir tas, ko es meklēju grāmatā – lai tā mani piesaistītu un radītu man pārdomas.

[Grace · Rating 1 out of 5]

I have had this book on my shelf for a very long time, after initially knicking it from my Mum. Never in that time had I felt the need to open the book and check the format, as I had always naively believed that it was an Autobiography. After finding out it was simply a collection of his articles for the Sunday Times, I was disappointed but ploughed on.

These articles are from 2001 to 2003 which presented two issues for me;

1. I was between the ages of 5 and 8 at that time and therefore unaware of the current affairs - appauling, I know. That meant that I didn't know about a lot of the events & happenings that were referenced and ended up a little lost at times

2. Attitudes were different. The way he talked about certain things didn't sit right with me in the 2020 landscape. For example; suggesting that Britain wasn't sure about it's identity anymore because of the growing number of Mosques, referring to heterosexual sex between a man and a woman as 'proper sex' and describing graduates from Brunel as 'brown and yellow faces'. In addition to this, he enjoyed discussing women's appearances, the size of their breasts or them being 'too fat' for certain clothing items.

Most of the time, in the present, I quite like Jeremy Clarkson. So please don't think I've picked up this book just to criticise and complain about him. There were some points when I found his articles funny. I even find him funny in the present day, however you cannot get away from the fact that he is an upper middle class, rich, white male with some very stereotypical views.

I won't be picking up the rest of his books - mostly because I don't like the format. But if he ever comes out with an actual autobiography, I would definitely consider picking it up.

[The Bookish Wombat · Rating 2 out of 5]

I couldn't be more different from Jeremy Clarkson - I'm a woman, a feminist (these two don't always go together),a bit of a Leftie, interested in green issues and I can't drive. However, as I'm currently on a mission to read every book in our house before I'm allowed to buy any more, it had to be Jeremy's turn eventually.

The book is a collection of his columns from The Sunday Times from 2001 to 2003. It was published in 2005 which meant that some of the events mentioned were quite a while ago at the time of publication, but reading it in 2011 means that I had no idea about some of the news stories he refers to.

This is no great loss though as most of his columns are pretty much the same. This isn't quite as obvious when reading them a week apart in the paper, but reading this many at one time makes it very plain indeed.

Some of it is mildly amusing, but only one paragraph in one column made me laugh out loud (it was about passports for donkeys - I like donkeys).

So I've read it and it was ok - can't really say any more than that.

[Clarissa Brincat · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good thing I read this at home and never on public transport because it made me snort several times. Yes, Clarkson is judgmental, opinionated and sometimes downright insulting...but his acerbic wittiness can be highly amusing. The book is actually a collection of articles that appeared in the Sunday Times in the early 2000s. The article-length chapters make for easy reading (each rant about a specific topic isn’t longer than 6 pages 😅). It is basically a commentary on current affairs at the time, which I found interesting. However, it also means that I didn’t always know what he was talking about and putting the book down to google names/events can be tiresome. This is the reason for taking down a star. At one point I was sure I’d be taking down another star for Clarkson’s dismissive views on environmental destruction. But at some point between July and October 2001, something made him change his mind, and I respect a person who can admit they were wrong.

[Judit]

An entertaining and easy read. A selection of articles by Jeremy Clarkson, most of which aren't longer than 3,5 pages and it's topics vary from personal anecdotes, to opinion pieces about everything from wold politics to food, child care, and of course engineering.
It's fast and entertaining, even though it's not up there with the works of Aristotle in terms of depth (neither does it aim to be). I occasionally found myself thinking more deeply about the various problems mentioned. I also found the writing style enjoyable but that may not be the case for most, but I'm quite sure it will be enjoyed by those who read mostly British authors.
So all in all a worthwhile read, even if you are not a fan of Top Gear because it talks about cars as much as you might find yourself discussing the latest developments in biology.

[rosie ౨ৎ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Clarkson can make columns written from 2001 to 2003 for Sunday Times - and mostly related to British culture - sound entertaining even for someone born during that time. His sarcastic humor is not for everyone. Many may even find it obnoxious at some point - but I enjoyed it. I even laughed out loud while reading, which I rarely do. (Thank god I didn’t read it in front of other people).

4.5⭐️

[Okute Wonah]

Hilarious. With a lot of good info in it.