I recently read How to be a better person, a book by Seb Hunter. It was another freebie through Amazon’s ‘Vine’ programme which I chose because I enjoyed his first book and therefor though I would enjoy this one as well. Here is what I said about it.
Having read Seb Hunter’s earlier book, Hell Bent For Leather, I was in two minds about this. I very much enjoyed the first book, but it didn’t lend itself to a sequel. It turns out that he went in a totally different direction and wrote about that instead, and very good it is too. Having written about his attempts to get into heavy metal he obviously decided that there was more to gain from pursuing the writing than the music.
This book falls into the same general category as those Danny Wallace/Dave Gorman books where the author has set himself a task and then documents his progress in that task. In Seb Hunter’s case he decided to work for free for a year, doing whatever voluntary work he could.
Fortunately, his attempts at volunteering lead him to meet some wonderful British eccentrics. Is it just luck, or do we all meet such people but lack the inclination to get to know them or the skills to describe them so well?
He starts by working in an Oxfam shop, where we learn that those League of Gentlemen sketches are more true to life than we imagined, and goes on to do litter picking, working in a homeless shelter, being an independent custody visitor and an immigration support worker.
It sounds like he found at least some of the work personally rewarding, and in the process of gathering enough experience for a book he actually did some good – and all the while managed to make the book immensely readable and entertaining.
Not only that, but it is quite informative. I have some knowledge of custody visiting as my wife does that and the book does seem to echo her experiences. It looks like one way to be a better person could be to read this book – it may just tempt you into doing some voluntary work yourself!
If there is anybody who does not know what I am talking about when I refer to the League of Gentlemen sketches then here is a little taster:
You could also try Mark Watson’s ‘Crap at the Environment’ – it is really refeshing to read something in this genre that admits that their green report card says ‘could do better’! It is also very funny, or that could be because I had a Welsh accent in my head while reading it.