“I was beginning to understand how the Irish mentality worked. The more foolish, illogical or surreal one’s actions were perceived to be (and mine surely fell into one of these categories), the wider the arms of hospitality were opened in salutation.”

-Tony Hawks

I’m gonna be honest: I thought this book was going to be goofy and dumb. And it is, but in a good way!

Round Ireland with a Fridge is more or less exactly what it sounds like–Tony Hawks (not Tony Hawk) is challenged to hike around the country or Ireland toting a minifridge. Along the way, he runs into a surprising number of people who not only accept his reasons for doing this, but think it’s rather spectacular. Of course, maybe Hawks doesn’t write about the negative encounters, but it genuinely doesn’t seem like he had any. Sure, not everyone is going to pick up a random man hitchhiking, especially not when he’s toting seventy or so pounds of metal and freon, but everyone he strikes hitches a ride or strikes up a conversation with seems delighted to be talking to him.

In the world we’re living in now, it was great to escape into a tale made up of real people where everyone is kind to each other, people want to help each other out, and someone can accomplish a task that is both difficult and genuinely serves no purpose…other than to maybe spice life up a little. Maybe we should all be a little more open to helping strange men schlepping appliances through the countryside (for safety reasons, this is a joke).

A hell of a fun time!