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Dave Gorman's Googlewhack! Adventure
If someone called you a 'googlewhack' what would you do? Would you end up playing table tennis with a nine year-old boy in Boston? Would you find yourself in Los Angeles wrangling snakes, or would you go to China to be licked by a performance artist? If your name is Dave Gorman, then all of these things could be true. Fuelled by a lust for life and a desperate desire to do anything except what he's supposed to be doing (writing that novel and growing up), Dave falls under the spell of an obscure internet word game - Googlewhacking. Addicted to the game, and gripped by obsession, Dave travels three times round the world, visiting four continents and the unlikeliest cast of real life eccentrics you'll ever meet in what becomes an epic challenge, a life-changing, globe-trotting Googlewhack adventure.
344 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2004
14 people are currently reading
739 people want to read
About the author
Dave Gorman
21 books204 followersDavid James Gorman is an English author, stand-up comedian and presenter. He has performed comedy shows on stage in which he tells stories of extreme adventures and presents the evidence to the audience in order to prove to them that they are true stories. He was a stand-up comedian before he became famous for Are You Dave Gorman?, then took a break from normal stand-up. He returned to stand-up in 2009 with a show called 'Sit Down, Pedal, Pedal, Stop and Stand Up' whose unique feature was that he cycled 1,563 miles from the southernmost point of Great Britain to the easternmost to the westernmost and then to the northernmost with a gig following each night.
He studied mathematics at the University of Manchester (but never graduated) and before his solo successes was in demand as a writer, having co-written three series of The Mrs Merton Show, as well as writing for many other TV series in the UK, including The Fast Show. His other writing credits include Jenny Eclair, Harry Hill and Steve Coogan.In 2003, he was listed in The Observer as one of the 50 funniest acts in British comedy.
Dave also regularly appeared on the BBC Three show, Rob Brydon's Annually Retentive, a comedy show about the making of a celebrity panel show hosted by Rob Brydon. Dave Gorman is one of the show's team captains. In 2006 he became an occasional contributor on Comedy Central's The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. He also hosts his own radio series, Genius, and his documentary feature, America Unchained, was shown on More4 in February 2008. The book of the series was published in April 2008.
He studied mathematics at the University of Manchester (but never graduated) and before his solo successes was in demand as a writer, having co-written three series of The Mrs Merton Show, as well as writing for many other TV series in the UK, including The Fast Show. His other writing credits include Jenny Eclair, Harry Hill and Steve Coogan.In 2003, he was listed in The Observer as one of the 50 funniest acts in British comedy.
Dave also regularly appeared on the BBC Three show, Rob Brydon's Annually Retentive, a comedy show about the making of a celebrity panel show hosted by Rob Brydon. Dave Gorman is one of the show's team captains. In 2006 he became an occasional contributor on Comedy Central's The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. He also hosts his own radio series, Genius, and his documentary feature, America Unchained, was shown on More4 in February 2008. The book of the series was published in April 2008.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 105 reviews
October 17, 2017
Well I happily sniggered & smirked my way through Dave's adventures. As you would expect, he meets some quirky & eccentric characters most of whom are happy to welcome him into their lives & become part of his googlewhack chain.
October 13, 2021
I am revisiting some stuff from college times, so gave this a go on audio. While it is quite funny it eventually just becomes a list, I would probably say the "show" is better this time. Still good.
January 23, 2009
(Yes, Dave Gorman was a Daily Show correspondent. For like a week or so.)
This book came into my house when my lovely wife (at the time my lovely girlfriend) moved in with me, and it amused the heck out of me. I'm adding it alongside The Areas of My Expertise because both books celebrate the random, even though Gorman's tale is almost completely true and Hodgman's book is completely fabricated.
Here's the premise: Gorman discovers a 'game' called Googlewhack, which involves opening up the Google search engine and entering two seemingly unconnectable words. Like "cephalopod" and "bluegrass". If Google returns multiple search results on those two terms, or zero, you lose, but if it returns one and only one hit, you win. Gorman takes the game to a whole new level when he decides to physically meet the people who have created these Googlewhack websites, like the marine biologist who also plays Kentucky banjo. (I may be misremembering the exact terms/details but you get the idea.) Furthermore, Gorman constructs a grand quest for himself - to meet someone whose website he discovers via Googlewhack, and then ask them to play Googlewhack until they win (twice), and then track down the cretaor of the new site, and have them play, and track down that creator, until he has formed an unbroken chain of ten Googlewhacks. (He has everyone he finds play twice so that if one branch of the chain fizzles out, he can try pursuing the others rather than starting from Googlewhack One.) He ends up traveling the globe in his quest (funded by an expense account from a publisher who thinks he is working on a novel) and creates something part travelogue, part near-existential-crisis, and part celebration of the bizarre all around us.
The sad thing about the Googlewhack Adventure is that you really can't have your own. In the time since Gorman had his, the world wide web has proliferated to such an extent that getting a single hit off two words is virtually impossible. But as a look back at a time when the web was practically virgin territory full of mystery and wonder, this book is endearing and entertaining.
This book came into my house when my lovely wife (at the time my lovely girlfriend) moved in with me, and it amused the heck out of me. I'm adding it alongside The Areas of My Expertise because both books celebrate the random, even though Gorman's tale is almost completely true and Hodgman's book is completely fabricated.
Here's the premise: Gorman discovers a 'game' called Googlewhack, which involves opening up the Google search engine and entering two seemingly unconnectable words. Like "cephalopod" and "bluegrass". If Google returns multiple search results on those two terms, or zero, you lose, but if it returns one and only one hit, you win. Gorman takes the game to a whole new level when he decides to physically meet the people who have created these Googlewhack websites, like the marine biologist who also plays Kentucky banjo. (I may be misremembering the exact terms/details but you get the idea.) Furthermore, Gorman constructs a grand quest for himself - to meet someone whose website he discovers via Googlewhack, and then ask them to play Googlewhack until they win (twice), and then track down the cretaor of the new site, and have them play, and track down that creator, until he has formed an unbroken chain of ten Googlewhacks. (He has everyone he finds play twice so that if one branch of the chain fizzles out, he can try pursuing the others rather than starting from Googlewhack One.) He ends up traveling the globe in his quest (funded by an expense account from a publisher who thinks he is working on a novel) and creates something part travelogue, part near-existential-crisis, and part celebration of the bizarre all around us.
The sad thing about the Googlewhack Adventure is that you really can't have your own. In the time since Gorman had his, the world wide web has proliferated to such an extent that getting a single hit off two words is virtually impossible. But as a look back at a time when the web was practically virgin territory full of mystery and wonder, this book is endearing and entertaining.
June 4, 2011
Dave Gorman is a real person, a comedian. He gets an email saying he has a googlewack on his webpage. A googlewack is when you enter two words into google and only one website comes up. The words must be in dictionary.com, which I guess underlines what you search. I don't use google, so i didn't know this. Or care. He starts trying to find googlewacks himself and contacting them and he finds an old friend, also named David Gorman (Dave also wrote a book on this search as well, which is in my queue) and David dares him to find 10 googlewacks in a row. Before his 32nd birthday.
The book is just about his adventures. He originally started the book telling the editors that he was going to write a work of fiction and they gave him a huge advance, which I assume is how he has the money to travel everywhere, meeting his googlewacks. Most of them end up being in the US, of course.
I don't know if it's the mood I have been in lately, but I didn't feel for the protag at all. When he failed or the search came to a dead end (like when the googlewack would no write back) I didn't feel sorry for him at all. He gets to travel all over for something stupid and as trivial at this! And I felt that the reason was so so stupid. googlewack? Who has time for this! This book did not make me want to find one at all.
What is it with british comics who write books based on bets, usually made while drunk at a pub? Tony Hawkes, an author I found when I was in London back in 2003, all his books where about stupid bar bets and where he traveled and what he did to complete them. funny, but when really thought about, very very stupid. This book was kind of too long.
grade: C+
The book is just about his adventures. He originally started the book telling the editors that he was going to write a work of fiction and they gave him a huge advance, which I assume is how he has the money to travel everywhere, meeting his googlewacks. Most of them end up being in the US, of course.
I don't know if it's the mood I have been in lately, but I didn't feel for the protag at all. When he failed or the search came to a dead end (like when the googlewack would no write back) I didn't feel sorry for him at all. He gets to travel all over for something stupid and as trivial at this! And I felt that the reason was so so stupid. googlewack? Who has time for this! This book did not make me want to find one at all.
What is it with british comics who write books based on bets, usually made while drunk at a pub? Tony Hawkes, an author I found when I was in London back in 2003, all his books where about stupid bar bets and where he traveled and what he did to complete them. funny, but when really thought about, very very stupid. This book was kind of too long.
grade: C+
June 29, 2016
Just plain fun!
Read
June 10, 2025From the same witty and mildly anarchic pen as Are you Dave Gorman;
'Like Bruce Chatwin, with a sense of humour, or like Don Quixote, a kind of holy fool of stand-up'
DG follows up the success of ‘Are you Dave Gorman?’ with another contrived and futile comedy travelogue adventure. Whilst avoiding writing a novel Gorman travels the world looking for the rare – or not so rare on this evidence – ‘Googlewhacks’, spiced with a challenge and a ticking clock, neither of which adds a great deal to the exercise IMHO. DG is funny in parts, but his internal dialogue is embarrassingly candid and a little bit too detailed, and it starts to wear a little bit thin.
Fav. Quote. ‘(Ken) had a dark moustache flecked with grey to keep his smile warm.’
One redeeming snippet is my favourite use of a Business Analyst in popular writing! Gorman meets American BA Christa using her WiFi laptop in the airport … a technological marvel way back in 2005!
‘Christa, who described herself as a business analyst, whatever that is, had immediately seen a way through the problem.’
After some diagramming and wisdom;
‘I [still] had no idea what a business analyst actually did for a living, but on this evidence I suspected that she was very good at it.’
Oh, did I mention that I am a Business Analyst?!
'Like Bruce Chatwin, with a sense of humour, or like Don Quixote, a kind of holy fool of stand-up'
DG follows up the success of ‘Are you Dave Gorman?’ with another contrived and futile comedy travelogue adventure. Whilst avoiding writing a novel Gorman travels the world looking for the rare – or not so rare on this evidence – ‘Googlewhacks’, spiced with a challenge and a ticking clock, neither of which adds a great deal to the exercise IMHO. DG is funny in parts, but his internal dialogue is embarrassingly candid and a little bit too detailed, and it starts to wear a little bit thin.
Fav. Quote. ‘(Ken) had a dark moustache flecked with grey to keep his smile warm.’
One redeeming snippet is my favourite use of a Business Analyst in popular writing! Gorman meets American BA Christa using her WiFi laptop in the airport … a technological marvel way back in 2005!
‘Christa, who described herself as a business analyst, whatever that is, had immediately seen a way through the problem.’
After some diagramming and wisdom;
‘I [still] had no idea what a business analyst actually did for a living, but on this evidence I suspected that she was very good at it.’
Oh, did I mention that I am a Business Analyst?!
September 22, 2021
It was quite quaint to read this in 2021 - it even explains what Google is! I enjoy the way Dave Gorman describes his adventures and the people he meets but I did get a bit frustrated with all the procrastinating and I felt sorry for his family and friends when he just disappears for weeks at a time.
February 1, 2023
An absolute tit
August 26, 2018
A story about procrastination at its finest!
Dave is supposed to be writing a novel but gets distracted when he discovers “google whacking” - the art of finding word combos that generate only one hit on Google.
An offhand comment becomes a challenge to get 10 Google whacks in a row before his 32nd birthday and Dave sets off to meet those behind the websites of his google whacks and rope them into giving him 2 more google whacks for his adventure.
It’s charming and fun, and listening to the audiobook was a joy. Not too long and really made me smile.
Dave is supposed to be writing a novel but gets distracted when he discovers “google whacking” - the art of finding word combos that generate only one hit on Google.
An offhand comment becomes a challenge to get 10 Google whacks in a row before his 32nd birthday and Dave sets off to meet those behind the websites of his google whacks and rope them into giving him 2 more google whacks for his adventure.
It’s charming and fun, and listening to the audiobook was a joy. Not too long and really made me smile.
June 14, 2013
I enjoyed the first third of this book, but as I progressed I found my interest waned. I like his style, but it felt a bit flat after a while. He is definitely funny and I admire his adventure. The arc of each chapter (find new guy - have assumptions - meet them and shatter stereotypes) became a little monotonous.
February 25, 2017
It's hard to divorce the book from the show, but Gorman's tale of his descent into the insanity of a Googlewhacking rabbit hole is enjoyable to read and helps to fill in the gaps that he has omitted from his show.
December 5, 2021
Only just 3 stars. I was expecting it to be funnier and well written but it wasn't quite as good as I hoped. An interesting idea and some good observations whilst he was travelling but it was very rushed at the end and I was glad to finish it.
February 1, 2018
'So, Dave, tell me more about these ...googlewhacks?'
I told him everything. Everything I've told you.
'So I'm number two in a chain?' said David.
'What do you mean?'
'Well, you didn't find my googlewhack, did you? You found Dork Turnspit and he found Unconstructive Superegos so I'm number two in a chain, said David, drawing a little diagram on the back of an envelope.
'I see what you mean.'
'Every link in the chain takes you one step further from your own imagination,' said David. 'Your imagination conjures up two words. Those two words lead you to someone and their imagination conjures up two new words ... it would be interesting to see how long a chain you could get, eh?'
'Yeah, I guess so, I said, guessing so.
Dave Gorman is meant to be writing a novel but is finding it hard to get started, so when he receives an email from a stranger in Australia telling him that he is a googlewhack, it comes as a welcome distractions. But he soon finds himself embroiled in a new challenge when a googlewhack takes him to someone he already knows, one of the 54 other Dave Gormen he met on a previous challenge.
This is a very amusing book, and it includes photos of a lot of the people he met along the way which is good, as I always like to be able to put a face to a name. I enjoy Dave Gorman's television programmes and have read the equally funny "Are You Dave Gorman?", so I grabbed this one straightaway when I saw it at a BookCrossing meeting.
I told him everything. Everything I've told you.
'So I'm number two in a chain?' said David.
'What do you mean?'
'Well, you didn't find my googlewhack, did you? You found Dork Turnspit and he found Unconstructive Superegos so I'm number two in a chain, said David, drawing a little diagram on the back of an envelope.
'I see what you mean.'
'Every link in the chain takes you one step further from your own imagination,' said David. 'Your imagination conjures up two words. Those two words lead you to someone and their imagination conjures up two new words ... it would be interesting to see how long a chain you could get, eh?'
'Yeah, I guess so, I said, guessing so.
Dave Gorman is meant to be writing a novel but is finding it hard to get started, so when he receives an email from a stranger in Australia telling him that he is a googlewhack, it comes as a welcome distractions. But he soon finds himself embroiled in a new challenge when a googlewhack takes him to someone he already knows, one of the 54 other Dave Gormen he met on a previous challenge.
This is a very amusing book, and it includes photos of a lot of the people he met along the way which is good, as I always like to be able to put a face to a name. I enjoy Dave Gorman's television programmes and have read the equally funny "Are You Dave Gorman?", so I grabbed this one straightaway when I saw it at a BookCrossing meeting.
January 19, 2018
Well, that's some funny story to tell your grandchildren. It started a bit inconsequentially, with Gorman just going to places, meeting pretty normal people, and being generally immature himself. It's towards the second half of the book that the actual weird situations start to crop up and some really funny moments take place, all this punctuated with some more immaturity. Finally, I really didn't like the interaction with the last person. Some really selfish behaviour right there, to top all the general immaturity theme.
A good £1 charity shop buy for Gorman's completionists, which works as a light commute read after a long work day. Don't expect much more.
A good £1 charity shop buy for Gorman's completionists, which works as a light commute read after a long work day. Don't expect much more.
December 7, 2020
Read in 2020 this is still rollicking good fun. It's surprising how some of it has aged, with him struggling to get online without lessons in WiFi hotspots and cyber cafes, and not always expecting everyone (whether met in the story or reading it) to be Internet literate, but Dave Gorman's openness, eagerness for people and adventure are still minty fresh. It's an energetic look back at a time of innocence online, when it could be used to meet intelligent, like-minded people up for a bit of quirky fun. How times have changed, but this oddball jape remains a book to consider at any time. Four and a half stars.
December 8, 2017
A rather good laugh once I got past the shock of someone travelling by air quite so much over a short period of time. Random meetings with random people based on a random game actually makes for an interesting story. I think I was more into the descriptions of the people and their websites than rooting for Dave to complete the actual game.
January 9, 2019
I love Dave Gorman's crazy adventure stories. His use of words and clever rhythmic sentences are enjoying to read. He's very witty, and both of his books I've read so far are good. The only downside to this one was that I felt the story plateaued in parts and towards the end was a bit of a filler to hurry the story along. Apart from that, I really enjoyed it.
July 11, 2020
Perhaps this doesn’t read as well in 2020 but the premise of meeting random strangers off the internet isn’t as wild and wacky as it once was. Relatively entertaining for the first half but then it started to feel overworked than fun. What I want to know is how he could afford all these international flights? Also sad you can’t googlewhack anymore.
February 15, 2022
Picked this up for a pound in the clearout zone at The Works and it was just what I expected - a silly, easy-going read that had me shaking my head at the nutty antics and giggling to myself on several occasions ! Just a quick look at the silly photo on the cover will tell you if this is the kind of book you're looking for !
January 10, 2024
Bit of a different read for me! First time trying non fic comedy and I thought it was very enjoyable .. it's like I was with him the whole time witnessing his questionable journey HOWEVER have to give it 3/5 because it made me weirdly anxious 😭
May 5, 2024
I really rate Dave Gorman, his previous book was brilliant. This one less so, but still a great story. I found it a little hard going at times, but potentially because time has moved on so much in the last 20 years since the book was written.
February 24, 2018
Fun read.
September 3, 2018
Immense silliness in typical DG style as he attempts to fulfil another bet, this time to get 10 googlewhacks in a row (two words which when googled get a single outcome page)
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 5, 2018
I don't like how much I relate to this insane man.
September 29, 2019
A very interesting book! Dave Gorman has an amazing around the world adventure! Excellent!
January 16, 2021
In theory, fantastic. But reading this book was so boring, I stopped half way. I am still looking for my own googewhacks though.
August 11, 2022
Following on from 'Are You Dave Gorman?", Dave goes down the rabbit hole of Googlewhacking and it's as funny, silly and curiously poignant as you would expect.
August 25, 2024
Brilliant! As funny and entertaining as the show. Will have you laughing, crying and everything in between.
Also a lovely description of meeting other humans in all their strangeness!
Also a lovely description of meeting other humans in all their strangeness!
February 8, 2025
Very fun read!!
May 5, 2020
Phantasmagorical sloth. Crusty Sartre. Energetic Lagoon. Put two words into google and see if you can get no hits. One of Dave's better books.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 105 reviews