Positively HILARIOUS

I decided to take a short break from the heavier non-fiction I've been delving into last week, and picked up a copy of Tony Hawks' Playing the Moldovans at Tennis.

I first learned about Tony Hawks some years ago during an NPR interview he did during the launch of his book Traveling 'Round Ireland With a Fridge, which if you haven't read yet, you MUST read. The premise of his first book is simple. One night, while both men are exceedingly drunk, a friend bets Tony that he can't hitchhike around Ireland with a dorm-size refrigerator as a traveling companion. The rest of the book you can imagine - I have never laughed so hard in my life.

In this book, Tony seems to fall prey to the same problem. While exceedingly drunk, the same friend bets him that he can't beat the entire Moldovan Football (Soccer) team at tennis. And so, with 11 names on his list, Tony sets off to Moldovia, a small country in the former-USSR area of the world, to win 11 games of tennis or sing the Moldovan Anthem in front of a crowd while buck naked for failing. I have to say that the second book isn't quite as inane as the first, but was a truly funny and quick read.