Been There, Done That: Travels from your Armchair

Review by Courtney S. Ries

Ewan Carpenter has taken the early 90s catch phrase "Been There, Done That" to another level with his book subtitled, "Travels from your Armchair."

Now you, too, can be the life of the party, bragging about your worldwide adventures, spinning tall tales of your bull running escapades in Pamplona, your close encounter at Monaco's Grand Prix and your superhuman strength demonstrated at the Finnish wife-carrying championship. All is takes is a little imagination and the help of Carpenter's book.

Been There, Done That is divided into five categories of unique, unusual and ultimately, impressive, events. Great World Traditions covers everything from The Highland Games to the Bog Snorkeling World Championships while Animal Attractions includes information on the National Finals of Rodeo and Siena Palio, among other things. Ball Skills covers sports events that include balls (duh) such as Wimbledon and Sea Power incorporates (can you guess???) water events like America's Cup and Cliff Diving. The largest category, Speed and Endurance, touches on the greatness of the New York Marathon, the Indianapolis 500 and Hawaii's Ironman World Championship.

The purpose of the book is to highlight "some of the world's greatest sporting and cultural events" and Carpenter certainly has picked a few doozies. While the listings run from hallowed, such as the Tour de France, to the hilarious, as in the case of the World Ice Golf Championship, most are events the average tourist will not be able to witness in his or her lifetime, but fascinating nonetheless.

The book is a quick read, with shiny, glossy pages and big print. It's great for a glance through and easy to jump around. The 'cutouts for your scrapbook' section goes a bit over the top and into cheese-land, but besides that, the book is a nice summation of cool things all over the world.

• Been There, Done That: Travels from your Armcha by Ewan Carpenter