Quick review, without it being a spoiler. I was bought this for Xmas, and sat down to enjoy a good read, as Casey is nothing if not a controversial character. Even mentioning his name within the ducatisti seems to set off a riot! I also thought he was a great rider. How disappointing??!! Aside from the fact that the book is actually the length of a good magazine article (it is printed in size 18 font for those aged over 75!), there is nothing contentious in it at all. The tiny extracts published in advance were the sum total of the book...... Is it because no-one can afford to put anything out these days for fear that the litigation costs of defending a libel suit would wreck him financially? I suspect that would be a legitimate concern when considering those people he would be commenting on, but really, as dumbed down as this? It is very clear he had a view on matters, strong enough to kill his lifelong love of racing bikes, and yet barely a whimper? In any case, it wasn't an uninteresting read for the four hours it took (max), but rather underwhelming considering the potential subject matter at hand...... Anyone else read it?
Yep, got it for crimbo. I too found it very disappointing. More like a career resume of all races and results ( could have Googled them). Lorenzo`s book was along the same lines.:frown:
You mean he didn't spend the first 4 chapters saying it was all him and not the bike? that would have padded it out.
I had a quick read of the Stoner book at a local bookshop, and what I couldn't work out was... did he go to school? Maybe in Oz but I'm not at all sure when he moved to GB at age 14.
Apparently he was "home schooled" by his mother. Not entirely sure how much of a focus that was given. Is the quality of the book a good proxy?! He did say it was all him and not the bike actually Derek - good point - without that it would have been no longer than an internet article..... Talented racer, lousy writer. I wasn't expecting much more, but I was presuming that the ghost writer was going to contribute more.... Sorry - it wasn't meant to be a spoiler for those that had bought it, I didn't give away any trade secrets from within, mainly due to the scarcity of them therein!
Neil Hodgson just tweeted "Best book ever!!" with a pic of the Casey Stoner book. I don't think he was being ironic, either.
If you want a book of good bike racing stories, try the Jim Whitham book "What a Good Do" as that has some cracking tales in it. Plenty of cheap copies available on t'internet - ebay has it for the price of a pint.
Cant be as bad as that James Toseland book about his first year in MotoGP. Had a flick through it in Waterstones and that pretty much covered it
The James Whitham one is the best of the lot by a long way, it really is. He is a personality though and much more of a wild child in an era where bike racing was (I guess) a lot more relaxed and fun. I read the Stoner book, but I have to say although there were some interesting LCR stories but generally I think he held back a lot. He may well have had more in there and then it get 'chopped' out, also I am not 100% sure he can't be lured back to Ducati in a testing role (after 2014) so maybe he doesn't want to burn bridges.
Got to agree with post above, why would he publish something that might hinder his return to racing in the future ? those expose's only come at the end of a riders racing career. Just a stocking filler IMHO
As it happens I have just bought some cheap books off e-bay. They include James Whitham's 'What a good do', Niall Macenzie autobiography and Steve Hislop 'Hizzy'. The lot cost just over £3. That's for well over 1,000 pages. How much was Stoners effort?
I also had the book for Xmas. While there were no great surprises in there, it was an enjoyable read. As someone has said, with the amount of litigation around these days, I would imagine the publisher's lawyers would say no, even if Casey wrote it. As for knocking Casey as a rider, no one else has performed on the Ducati to anywhere near the level he did. Even Valentino (yawn) gave a piss poor performance. Let the track do the talking I say. Why would Casey be hedging his bets with Ducati? Honda offered him a fortune to ride for another year for them and he now test rides for them. He was shown chatting and joking with in the Honda garage with the Honda boss at one of the last MotoGP races. I'll say one thing for him, he certainly causes some lively comments whenever his name is mentioned.
Read his book and thought it was good. As mentioned above he has to be careful about burning bridges and litigation. I'm sure it was well and truely watered down. But hey, on his day he was the fastest man on earth and the way he rode the Ducati was nothing short of phenominal. I know he used to run his mouth off a bit but it was difficult to argue with what he was saying. His only crime in my view was making the GOAT look a c##t from time to time. The masses did not like that one bit...
