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How To Land An A330 Airbus: And Other Vital Skills For The Modern Man (2011)

by James May(Favorite Author)

3.57 of 5 Votes: 3

ISBN

0340994584 (ISBN13: 9780340994580)

languge

English

genre

Humor

publisher

Hodder & Stoughton

review 1: When you think about it, we do a lot of things in preparation for events that are very unlikely to happen to us. Fire drills, first aid training... we end up with decent knowledge of what to do in situations which, chances are, we won't find ourselves in. But that doesn't stop those training courses from being useful, interesting, and sometimes even entertaining.That's why this book of James May is actually quite a good read. It gives detailed instructions on what to do in a variety of situations which, let's face it, we're never going to find ourselves in. And in fact, as the book states quite clearly several times, if you should find yourself in one of these situations there's usually someone more qualified than you to handle it, so you still don't need to know this stuf... moref.But that's not the point. It's just interesting to know what all those controls in a commercial aircraft do, how a steam train actually works, and where the Isle of Wight's defensive frailties are. It was with some trepedation that I approached the chapter on eating your best mate, but even that was interesting, and thankfully not as gruesome as I thought it was going to be.While the book is lighthearted in tone, May has taken the research seriously. Each chapter has been meticulously researched and, as is apparent from the acknowledgements at the end, written in cooperation with the relevant subject matter experts. This isn't a joke book; if you really did need to land an Airbus A330, disarm an unexploded WW2 bomb, deliver twins or drive a steam train and you found yourself there with this book in your hand, it would indeed be incredibly useful, albeit a bit late to start reading it.Reviewing and assessing this book is quite hard as there's not much to compare it to. The great things is, there's a whole heap of other fantastical situations we might find ourselves in that I would happily read James May's instructions for; the book could easily be the first in a long series, should May wish to continue in the same vein. I would happily read the lot, which means this book must have been good.
review 2: ‘Do not actually do any of this. This book is intended for male fantasy entertainment purposes only.’Yes, you should judge this book by its cover. And take, very seriously, this advice:‘Neither the author nor the publisher can accept any legal responsibility or liability for any harm arising from the techniques, advice or situations described in this book.’But if you want step-by-step instructions on how to land an A330 Airbus in an emergency, how to fight a duel, or invade the Isle of Wight then this may well be the book for you. Especially if you are a man who reads (and follows) step-by-step instructions. You may (or may not) be enlightened by the chapters telling you how to drive the Peppercorn Class A1 4-6-2 Pacific Locomotive ‘Tornado’ and how to deliver twins, and I certainly wouldn’t suggest defusing an unexploded World War II German bomb, or preparing and eating your best mate. The other two chapters tell you how to escape from Butlins and how to play the first movement of Beethoven’s ‘Moonlight’ sonata.I enjoyed the first chapter most, and liked the underlying idea that the book came about because James May was bored with the portrayal of men as endearingly hopeless and that there was a need for a book like this which showed men how to do really useful things instead of things like tying a bow tie in fifty different ways in less than 30 seconds.Whether or not you find this book funny will depend a lot on your sense of humour. I found some parts funny but thought that others were too silly to be funny. But, then, I’m not really part of the target audience.‘The chances that you will ever meet with the circumstances outlined here are, frankly, very remote.’Jennifer Cameron-Smith less

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