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Friends Like These

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Danny Wallace is about to turn thirty and his life has become a cliché. Recently married and living in a smart new area of town, he's swapped pints for lattes and had even contemplated buying coasters. Something wasn't right - he was feeling way too grown-up.

Until - Danny finds an old address book containing just twelve names. His best mates as a kid. Where are they now? Who are they now? And how are they coping with this scary concept of being grown-up?

And so begins a journey from A-Z, tracking down and meeting his old gang. He travels from Berlin to Tokyo, from Sydney to LA. He even goes to Loughborough. He meets Fijian chiefs. German rappers. Some ninjas. And a carvery manager who's managed to solve time travel. But how will they respond to a man they haven't seen in twenty years, turning up and asking if they're coming out to play?

Friends Like These is the story of what can happen when you track down your past, and of where the friendships you thought you'd outgrown can take you today...

406 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2007

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1081 people want to read

About the author

Danny Wallace

60 books639 followers
Daniel Frederick Wallace is a British filmmaker, comedian, writer, actor, and presenter of radio and television. His notable works include the books Join Me, Yes Man, and the TV series How to Start Your Own Country. As an author, Wallace's bestselling books have been translated into more than a dozen languages.

He began writing reviews for video game magazines at the age of 13 for school work experience: a reviewer had become ill and so Wallace was given the opportunity to review a game. At 18 he started writing comedy, mainly through the magazine Comedy Review. He specialised in radio production at the University of Westminster.

At 22, he became a BBC producer. He was part of the production team behind British Comedy Award-winning Dead Ringers, the original producer of the critically acclaimed cult hit The Mighty Boosh, and the creator and producer of Ross Noble Goes Global. As a journalist, Wallace has worked for The Scotsman, The Guardian, The Independent, Elle, Cosmo, The Times and other publications.

In 1999, Wallace challenged comedian Dave Gorman, who at the time was his flatmate, to find 54 other people called Dave Gorman ("one for every card in the deck, including the Jokers"). Wallace accompanied Gorman on his quest and the men created Are You Dave Gorman?, an award-winning comedy stage show about what happened during their journey. A BBC series, also co-written and co-produced by Wallace, followed, as did a book, written by both men.

In 2003, Wallace's book Join Me was published. The book explains how he "accidentally started a 'cult'" called Join Me. The movement would go global, with each member committing to undertaking one random act of kindness for a stranger every Friday ("Good Fridays"). Tens of thousands joined. Join Me celebrates "Karmageddon 10" in December 2011. Traditionally, hundreds of members travel to London for the meet-up and undertake good deeds for strangers, with Wallace present. The movement is now generally referred to as the "Karma Army", although members are still typically "Joinees". He became a minor celebrity in Belgium whilst on his quest for Joinees. While on a book tour through America, Wallace was dubbed a "Generation X legend" by the Wisconsin State Journal.

Wallace next wrote a short book called Random Acts of Kindness: 365 Ways To Make the World A Better Place, with the help of submissions from Joinees. It includes many humorous Random Acts of Kindness (RAoK) ideas, such as "Contradict Demeaning Graffiti", and "Make An Old Man Very Happy."

Wallace's second solo book, Yes Man was published in July 2005. In it, he describes how he spent six months "saying Yes where once I would have said No", to make his life more interesting and positive. In this book he shows the tribulations and mischief that he got up to while he said yes to any question or proposal. The book was described as "one of those rare books that actually has the potential to change your life" by the San Francisco Bay Guardian and as "a fascinating book and a fascinating experiment" by David Letterman. A film adaptation of Yes Man was developed with Warner Bros. and stars Jim Carrey and Zooey Deschanel. It was released in 2008 in the US and the UK. Wallace appeared on screen in a cameo in a bar scene in the last ten minutes of the film, holding a British pint glass.

Danny Wallace and the Centre of the Universe was published in 2006. It is linked with World Book Day which in 2006 was on Thursday 2 March. It tells the story of Wallace's trip to Idaho, to visit a manhole cover in a small town, whose residents have proclaimed it the centre of the universe. The cover identifies it as a "Quick Read"; the price and length of the book have been curbed in order to encourage people who may not often read books to purchase it.

Wallace's book, Friends Like These, was released on the 3 July 2008, and tells the story of how he spent a summer trying to track down his old school friends from his days in Dundee,

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5 stars
769 (24%)
4 stars
1,287 (41%)
3 stars
874 (28%)
2 stars
147 (4%)
1 star
30 (<1%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 183 reviews
Profile Image for Michelle.
1,554 reviews256 followers
September 4, 2025
Loved this book, Charlotte Street by Danny Wallace is one of my favourite books of all time and this one by him is just as good!

Four stars.
Profile Image for Anton.
387 reviews101 followers
December 21, 2017
I read this some time ago... just as I was turning 30 myself (spoiler alert: this is what happens to the author/narrator in the story).

It is a fun book and full of heart. I enjoyed it a lot and would recommend it to anyone who is just about to stop being 'twenty-something'.

If I were to pair this book like a bottle wine with a meal... I think it would strike a harmony when read together with:
Ready Player One,
Of Dice and Men: The Story of Dungeons & Dragons and the People Who Play It and
Kings of the Wyld.
But it could be a personal thing...
Profile Image for Steven Scaffardi.
Author 2 books79 followers
June 7, 2013
When I grow up, I want to be like Danny Wallace! Because here is a man who has carved out a career for himself still doing all the things you might drunkenly discuss and laugh about whilst in the pub, but would then never actually do when you came to your senses the morning after. But looking at Danny Wallace’s back-catalogue of books and you see that not only is he the man that still carried out these immature boy tasks, but he has wrote a whole bunch of books of them. I guess we shouldn’t be surprised, he is the Yes Man after all...

To read the rest of this review please visit my blog:
http://stevenscaffardi.blogspot.co.uk...
Profile Image for Nicholas Karpuk.
Author 4 books76 followers
December 3, 2009
Dear Daniel Wallace,

I won your book in a Goodreads Giveaway. I enter any giveaway where the synopsis seems halfway interesting.

First, I must take you to task for the book jacket. It looks awful, like a scrap-booking mishap, with photos of people that will mean nothing and make no impact on anyone who hasn't already read the book.

I must also take umbrage with your hyperbolic quotes:

"Irresistible" - Daily Mail

No part of this book defies resistance. It's slow paced, only intermittently funny, and as I've indicated, the artwork is not a grabber.

"The funniest book you'll read this year." -Shortlist

It has its moments. The jokes that are made hit home about 75% of the time. But they're sporadically placed. Also, I've read books by both David Sedaris and Sarah Vowell this year, making that claim virtually impossible.

"Another comedy masterpiece." - The Bookseller

The Bookseller apparently mostly reads books about famine and war. Very dry books about famine and war.

Now that I'm done judging a book by its size, I must condemn it for bulk. This book is 400 pages. It's not about any real dramatic series of events, it's not full of research, and it's light on jokes. I would have cut out 100 pages minimum, possibly up to 200.

That's because the subject matter is utterly flighty. It's about Daniel Wallace finding an address book from his childhood and deciding he needed to hunt them all down because he was freaking out about turning 30.

This isn't really compelling because most people with access to Facebook are already doing it.

This self-absorbed bloated book gives the reader way too much detail about what's often a boring childhood. He was into ninjas, he liked the A-Team, he though Michael Jackson was pretty amazing. Very few of the anecdotes felt like a story that needed to be told. Most of it reeks of blind nostalgia.

Beyond that, the book was inspired by an upper class B-list celebrity freaking out because he was turning 30. At times it seems like he removed details about his life specifically to try and engender more likability. He doesn't mention that all this was done on a hiatus between well-paying television work and probably didn't really hurt him financially since the optioning of that awful looking Jim Carrey movie "Yes Man" could most likely cover his expenses. There's a lot of weird omissions like that, moments where I felt Danny wasn't playing it straight with me and didn't even have the decency to say why.

I can understand it in a way, because listening to a affluent, semi-famous british guy whine about turning 30 in good health with a stable marriage doesn't sound like a terribly good pitch.

Overall this reeks of "I have a three book deal and two good book ideas". The gap in time between him experiencing all this in 2006 and its release in 2008 seems suspect considering it's a book a halfway competent writer could crap out in a month or two.

The shame is that there are some funny moments, a few interesting stories, a kernel of humorist storytelling talent. Unfortunately, it's nailed to a framework too lazy and uninspired to hold it all together.
Profile Image for J.M..
Author 301 books567 followers
September 18, 2015
A fun and humorous look at a man's quest to reconnect with his childhood friends, not just through email or text or Facebook but rather to get back in touch with them in an old-fashioned way and see if they can't be friends again. Parts of this book are so silly, I laughed out loud. Great fun.
Profile Image for Angus McKeogh.
1,376 reviews82 followers
October 11, 2015
Impressed. The comedy is always there in a Wallace book and he manages to slip in some humanity too. There's usually something a little heartbreaking but it's always a great story. Really liked it.
Profile Image for Natasha Adams.
140 reviews1 follower
August 16, 2017
Such a funny book! A great (true) story of the hilarious Danny Wallace trying to get in contact with his old childhood friends. Only gave it 4 stars because I felt it was a little bit slow at times and it didn't quite have the heart-warming life-affirming effect of Yes Man.
Profile Image for Shana.
1,369 reviews40 followers
September 26, 2012
How could you resist a title like that? It’s friendly (har har), engaging, and describes the book down to a T. As his 30th birthday approaches, Wallace begins to really feel the transition from boy to man, and fears it. By chance, his parents send him a box full of photos and random objects from his childhood, including an old address book. An idea dawns on him: Why not hunt down these old friends and see how they’re handling adulthood?

The journey that ensues is hilarious, both in Wallace’s antics and the ways in which he describes them. He’s got the witty writing down pat, and you’ll no doubt snort a few times (er, not that I did), like when he travels all the way from London to L.A. to carry out a practical joke.

This is the kind of book that most likely will not exist in the future as we grow more and more connected through technology. Now that children are growing up with Facebook and email, they will be able to maintain some semblance on contact, even if they move away or go to different schools. Part of me thinks it’s great, in that we don’t ever have to lose touch. But then can we truly enjoy the magic of catching up after a long time apart? Or is it just awkward to one day decide to message your kindergarten friend with whom you’ve been “friends” on Facebook for the past seven years?
Profile Image for Jak.
535 reviews11 followers
January 12, 2010
This feels a little bit like he’s running out of ideas for what wacky adventure he can get him self mixed up in next while trying to live up to the truly excellent ‘Join Me’ and entirely original ‘Yes Man’. Not to mention that is some parts it just feels a little contrived. These minor criticisms aside ‘Friends like These’ is still a very enjoyable read.

It is also heart warming and life affirming in that it demonstrates that while a friendship may well be lapsed it’s never lost and reconnecting with old pals can be truly rewarding. Not to mention as with all his books, the basic message is that life is for living and taking risks often brings rewards.

One thing that did irk me quite a bit was his over reliance on italics for emphasis. I mean the fella use it a lot!
Profile Image for Catherine  Mustread.
3,031 reviews95 followers
December 23, 2010
Turning 30 is more than a looming milestone for Danny Wallace in this book about his search for his childhood friends after his mother sends him a box of keepsakes from his early years. His quest to reestablish contact with twelve of his long lost friends is filled with humor, self-doubt and a touch of sadness. I give it four stars for humor, two for overdoing the seriousness of "becoming a man" and three for the insight of recognizing and propounding the importance and benefits of maintaining friends and reconnecting with those in our past.

He does travel to Ireland, Australia, Germany, Los Angeles, and Japan and spends enough time that I consider this a road trip book.
Profile Image for Penny.
419 reviews67 followers
May 12, 2015
What a damn good idea! Setting out to meet up with the friends you had in primary school, to prove that even though you haven't seen each other for many years, you're still friends at heart! Thanks Danny - geez I really appreciate your work and the honesty you convey. I wish you were one of my primary school besties, I do. And I really wish I'd met you when you wrote part of this in New Zealand. What more can I say except...well...POTATOO!!!
Profile Image for Clinton Sweet.
108 reviews1 follower
October 24, 2014
I often feel like a big kid despite being 30 years old. It was nice to read from someone who is the same. I got really excited when he mentioned he had a pint in South Yarra and was visiting the Corner Hotel #nostalgia
Profile Image for Adi Alsaid.
Author 29 books1,283 followers
May 8, 2012
Funny, engaging read. It will make you want to go on an adventure or three, and that's always a good thing.
Profile Image for Teresa.
80 reviews
March 22, 2025
Danny Wallace's books aren't highbrow, they're for the everyman and are easy to engage with. His style in FLT is very reminiscent of Join Me (my fave) and Yes Man so if you like those, I think you'll like these. It was written a while back but I just caught up with it, not on the cusp of my 30th birthday like the author, but just as I turned 50. The themes apply, as kidulthood has taken hold as an era defining cultural phenomenon. He's the same age as my brother, born in 1976 (the year of THE heatwave) so I expect another book, a coming of middle-age missive maybe, soon. Thanks for the soothing reassurance we're all just bumbling along Danny
2 reviews
March 14, 2017
I’d like to begin this by making it clear that I should not like Danny Wallace. The pervading Western portrayal in advertising and television of men as overgrown children rescued from social, sartorial, hygienic and even physical catastrophe by their benevolently bemused spouses that has reached an irritating saturation point and (you have been warned) is in danger of becoming a self-fulfilling outlook, is almost perfectly espoused by Wallace’s gormlessly infantile on-page alter ego. Long sentence and rant over, the book is rescued from this by flashes of cynicism that run through it like veins of gold through rock, without damping the bittersweet tone, by the author’s charm and by some of the funniest sequences I’ve ever read (I had to put it down for a while trying to get through the passage where a friend’s mother insists on feeding her visitor plate after plate of increasingly potent curry).
While the spokesman-for-a-generation mantle suggested elsewhere might be a bit too strong, Wallace has clearly written with one eye on the prevailing zeitgeist and the theme is cleverly universal. In a fast-paced and fragmented world increasingly reliant on digital communication, the idea at the core of the book is appealing and told with trademark heart and humour. Your old friends may not be as exotic a bunch as Danny’s mates, but after reading this you’ll be digging out those long-buried numbers for a simple text : PINT?
I loved it.
239 reviews1 follower
October 20, 2023
After recently struggling through Join Me, I’m delighted to report Friends Like These is excellent. Unlike Join Me, this is a much more personal story for Danny Wallace. Approaching 30, he decides to track down his best friends from his early childhood. It’s quite beautiful in some ways but by and large very funny. Highlights include finally getting revenge for a prank, a brilliant side story about dealing with an unreliable handyman, and a very big Indian meal. I read this in a few short days and confirms what I’d already known- that Danny Wallace is a great writer!
Profile Image for Scot Haynes.
144 reviews
June 25, 2020
Loved this book. I didn’t go looking for all of my old friends before my 30th but I did manage to reconnect with them all by my 50th.
I love the way that Danny works his way through his old address book and the lengths he goes to to reconnect with old friends. I think my favorites are his trips to LA and Tokyo. Not sure I’d walk round a foreign country with a pic of my friend, aged 12, on a t-shirt. Great quick read with a good pace. Read it. You’ll love it.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Deborah LaRoche.
481 reviews1 follower
July 21, 2021
True story...I put this title on hold at the library, intending to check out the novel by Kimberly McCreight, but alas, it was not that book. I read it anyway, and it wasn't bad. Could have been much shorter with some better editing, but the ending was poignant enough to make me glad I had stuck through it. Spoiler: no one gets murdered in this book, as I believe is not the case in the other book of the same name.
Profile Image for Adam Thomas.
844 reviews11 followers
October 1, 2022
Danny Wallace is always a joy to read. I’ve no idea why I became so invested in his attempts to track down people I’ve never heard of, but I did, and it was a fun journey to join him on. Plus, you get retro references to MySpace and Friends Reunited.

“It’s funny, sometimes, how life works out, if you give it the chance.”
Profile Image for Diana.
136 reviews1 follower
April 28, 2023
This is actually quite an inspirational book, based on Danny’s real life adventures. It makes the reader stop and think about friendships you’ve had from primary school, college, university and work etc. it also makes you want to reach out to those who were such big parts of our lives but who, for whatever reason we have lost touch with!
A real joy to read
118 reviews
December 19, 2025
Wallace has come up with some interesting concepts for his books, but having read most of them, this is the least engaging. Unlike "Yes Man" etc, the premise here must have surely occurred to lots of people and really is just him looking up his old school friends. It's readable in a chatty kind of way, but not very creative or entertaining and I nearly gave up on it midway through.
Profile Image for Darla Ebert.
1,193 reviews6 followers
August 21, 2021
It was just ok. Interesting as a premise, basing an entire book on reuniting with old friends from grade school and highschool. For Danny Wallace the outcome was positive, which was good for him. There, for me, was just something missing..perhaps more drama or comedy or pathos.
Profile Image for Charlotte Smith.
66 reviews
August 15, 2023
I think this is one of my favourite books. Felt happy reading it as it made me reminisce on school friendships too and the idea of a reunion. Again-feels like Danny is one of your friends beside you, telling you his story. Love love love it
445 reviews
November 19, 2023
Surprisingly insightful for what seems at first like a joke book. Old friends don't just disappear, you lose them somewhere along the way and forget to go back to look. Going back provides pleasure and some insights. An enjoyable read. (Purchased secondhand at Dasa Book Cafe, Bangkok.)
Profile Image for Kristen.
148 reviews
December 30, 2024
I really loved the premise of this - a guy approaching 30 goes on a quest to locate and meet face-to-face with his childhood friends the old-fashioned way (not with social media). No offense meant to Mr. Wallace but truly his wife, Lizzie is a saint.
Profile Image for Wolfie.
270 reviews1 follower
September 10, 2017
Inspiring, funny, and quirky coming of adulthood story
Profile Image for Faith.
164 reviews6 followers
October 2, 2017
It didn't CHANGE MY LIFE like Yes Man did, but I still enjoyed reading it. I laughed a lot, and sometimes that's what you need from a book.
50 reviews
January 18, 2019
I really enjoyed this book. I felt like I was with Danny every step of the way. I read this before I read Yes Man, and it inspired me to buy it after.
Very enjoyable, funny, sad and real.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 183 reviews

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