Alright. It’s the holiday season, and unless you’re my sister, you don’t have your gifts planned, purchased and wrapped already. Since like, May. Seriously, how does she do it? Anyway. We here at Eyes on the Prize want to help you Christmas-or-Chanukah-shop for the hockey fans in your life, and we’ll be doing it by posting some holiday gift Do’s and Don’ts. First up is a huge Do. Here’s my review of The Best of Down Goes Brown:
You know how sometimes you get a book and you take your time, I mean really take your time, reading it because about two thirds of the way through, you realize that at some point the book is going to end and you want to postpone that moment for as long as you can?
That’s what you end up doing with The Best of Down Goes Brown:Greatest Hits and Brand New Classics-to-Be from Hockey’s Most Hilarious Blog.
If you’ve never read Down Goes Brown‘s pieces, then you’ve never read a hockey blog, and you’re here, so I’m just going to go ahead and assume you all know who he is. On the off-chance you do not (Mom), here’s who he is: You know when something hockey-related happens, and you think of an amazingly brilliant joke about it, and you rush to tell all your friends only to find out some dude has come up with a joke a bazillion times better than yours? He’s that dude, 100 per cent of the time. Literally every single conversation I’ve had about this book has included all parties saying some variation of, “I wish I were that funny.”
In sum: this book is hilarious. You’ll probably laugh out loud more than once, so be prepared to get stared at on the subway, on airplanes, or just on your couch. My favourite line from the whole book ended with “… in a moment that I wish I was making up.” I’m not telling you the rest of it, you’ll just have to get your own copy of the book and find the line, but I just couldn’t stop laughing.
(I’m not the first to say this but…) This is a good holiday gift idea for anyone you love that likes hockey. For that person you always buy mad NHL merch for and used to be the easiest person on your list to shop for, but now they’re unhappy because of the lockout.
Also, another really important point: Down Goes Brown is not an asshole. Now, I don’t know what other authors you have on your holiday shopping list, but I know I have never had any encounters with them. So while I don’t have any proof that they are assholes, I also don’t have any proof that they are not assholes. I mean, they could be assholes. I can tell you for sure, however, that Down Goes Brown is definitely, definitely not an asshole. Don’t spend your dollars on authors who could be assholes when you can spend them on a book by an author who is definitely, definitely, not an asshole.
The Best of Down Goes Brown. It won’t change your life. It will just put some laughter into it. And you know you need that.
Make sure you check back tomorrow, we’ll be posting a list of things that aren’t exactly great Christmas gift ideas.
