I enjoyed Hawks' Round Ireland with a Fridge, and wanted to read more of his work. Got this ex-library softcover from Better World Books.

As with Hawks' other books, this one involves him making a pretty obscure bet, and then going to mind-bending lengths to win it: here, he bets that he can break the top 20 in a musical-hits chart. His experience in musical composition and performance so far is... on the humorous/quirky side, and trying to find a market that he can adequately write for is only part of his problem...

His writing style is amusing enough that this whole unlikely adventure is entertaining, but I admit that at times I just wondered how the guy managed to be able to make contact with so many high-powered celebrities. Is it all a game of "six degrees", or is it just that he has some friends and an agent or two in the industry, and they all know each other? Anyway, by the time he decides to write a song for aged humorous actor Norman Wisdom - who is apparently wildly popular in Albania, so they plan to take the show on the road there and top the Albanian charts - events have conspired to bring lyricist Tim Rice and his family into the project as well.

It's quite funny in places, with some unnerving bits here and there, but I didn't love it as much as "Ireland". Still, his efforts to pin down a musical genre that he could both perform and not be asked to stop performing were pretty hilarious...

Guidelines for safely visiting and stocking Little Free Libraries during the COVID-19 pandemic, from the LFL site here.

I left this book in the Little Free Library near the Stark Street entrance to City Hall; hope someone enjoys it!

[See other recent releases in NH here.]

*** Released for the 2020 e-less challenge. ***