Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.68 AVERAGE
3.68 AVERAGE
An excellently written guide to one man's travel around Scottish distilleries. If you don't like whisky, don't bother. If you do, well worth a read.
I learned less about whisky than I thought I would. learned more about Ian Banks than I thought I would.
Overall a good read, but not the introduction to whisky I thought it would be. Still, I now have a list of whiskies to try out.
Overall a good read, but not the introduction to whisky I thought it would be. Still, I now have a list of whiskies to try out.
This book made me forget the joy of reading.
It promised so much. It purports to be about whisky and travelling around dramatic Scottish landscapes, but it is actually about massaging Iain Bank's ginormous ego. Throughout the book, Banks regularly embarks on lengthy and tedious tangents about the juvenile behaviour of him and his mates. He also spends half the book just talking about his various pals and how much fun they have together. And when he's not on about that, he is talking about roads or cars or drunken stupidity. The whole book screams of Banks thinking that every aspect of his life is riveting but it really really isn't.
It promised so much. It purports to be about whisky and travelling around dramatic Scottish landscapes, but it is actually about massaging Iain Bank's ginormous ego. Throughout the book, Banks regularly embarks on lengthy and tedious tangents about the juvenile behaviour of him and his mates. He also spends half the book just talking about his various pals and how much fun they have together. And when he's not on about that, he is talking about roads or cars or drunken stupidity. The whole book screams of Banks thinking that every aspect of his life is riveting but it really really isn't.
I would have picked this book up in any case, as I'm a big fan of Banks and could probably enjoy reading him write about the intracacies of inventory management, but since we are headed to Scotland next September, I found this book--about Scotch whiskey and the Scotland distilleries that make it--quite fortuitious. This is Banks's first book of non-fiction, having made his career on both the literary fiction that appears under his own name and the science fiction that appears under his obvious nom de plume of "Iain M. Banks" (a full explanation of just why appears within this current text), and he spends quite a bit of time just coming to terms with the joy that is his as a successful author who can suggest to his publisher that he write a book based on his hobby--drinking whiskey--and then actually get paid for not only writing it, but have an expense account with which he can indulge his hobbistic fantasies. And, of course, there's all the friends who are incredulous at first, but quick to offer to lend a hand (well, I would have, too!).
As a tour book or even a guide to Scotland and its distilleries, this is a poor entry, but as a travel book in which something is discovered about the land and the man, Raw Spirit fits the bill perfectly. Perhaps there's something inherently Scottish in the fact that this could likely have been billed as Banks's autobiography, rather than a drinking quest. In either case, it's probably of much more interest to a fan of the man than a fan of the drink. Even as such, I identified a number of potential stops along the way for my own trip as well as now having a template for my own travel diary.
As a tour book or even a guide to Scotland and its distilleries, this is a poor entry, but as a travel book in which something is discovered about the land and the man, Raw Spirit fits the bill perfectly. Perhaps there's something inherently Scottish in the fact that this could likely have been billed as Banks's autobiography, rather than a drinking quest. In either case, it's probably of much more interest to a fan of the man than a fan of the drink. Even as such, I identified a number of potential stops along the way for my own trip as well as now having a template for my own travel diary.
Let me say at the outset that I know nothing about whisky, and, indeed, am teetotal. However, this book, ostensibly about that liquor, is not really anything of the sort. Banks is invited to travel his native Scotland "in search of the perfect dram". And so we set off, touring distilleries, with lengthy detours to discuss Great Wee Roads (GWRs) and his passion for cars and driving, generally; anecdotes from his past (including the infamous urban climbing at the Brighton WorldCon, which I had always thought took place in Glasgow); ramblings about the second Gulf War; and a general enthusiasm for Scotland.
This is probably the closest that Banks ever came to writing his memoires or to autobiography, and it's a pleasure to read. I didn't know Banks, but I met him a few times, and had the pleasure of buying him a drink at a wee con once. The book reads exactly as I remember him talking. Excited, enthusiastic and full of joie de vivre. I'm still astonished and shocked that a man so full of life died so suddenly when so (comparatively) young.
So don't read this as a guide to whisky. Read it for a mighty enthusiasm about it, and enjoy the ride around Scotland in the company of some of Bankie's pals, in his fun cars as you're laughing down a GWR somewhere in the Highlands.
This is probably the closest that Banks ever came to writing his memoires or to autobiography, and it's a pleasure to read. I didn't know Banks, but I met him a few times, and had the pleasure of buying him a drink at a wee con once. The book reads exactly as I remember him talking. Excited, enthusiastic and full of joie de vivre. I'm still astonished and shocked that a man so full of life died so suddenly when so (comparatively) young.
So don't read this as a guide to whisky. Read it for a mighty enthusiasm about it, and enjoy the ride around Scotland in the company of some of Bankie's pals, in his fun cars as you're laughing down a GWR somewhere in the Highlands.
Part an exploration of whisky and whisky-making, part a tour of Scotland, and part memoir, this is an enlightening and fascinating book. Although it does go on a bit long, and bloats a bit even for a driving enthusiast like myself. Less about driving and more about whisky would have been good.