MTFCA Forum

I have a copy of Tim Moore's book "Another Fine Mess" that I will give away to anyone that has the stomach to read it. I will also pay the postage to anywhere in the lower 48.

I purchased the book about 30 day's ago and find my blood pressure goes through the roof every time I start reading it. Warning....this book has nothing to do with driving a Model T across the country it's more about how stupid the British think the American people are.

I'll take it

John, it's all yours.....Please send me a PM with your address and I'll get it sent out ASAP.

I’ve heard it's not very good. “Coming Soon to a Little Free Library near you”!

Thanks for the critique, Randy. While the guy was on his trip I had decided that I would not read his book based on the title alone.

Not all Brits are this way, just their liberals like ours. Every country has them. But for a guest in our country to judge us is very, very un-cool. I lived in their country and NEVER showed any judgement in their ways! Respect always.

All the Best to All,

Hank in Tin-A-See

If this book is really that bad, lets try and not buy anymore of them, instead lets pass this book around for others to see. John if you want to pass it on, Im interested in reading it, or at least try to read it. and then Ill pass it on ... That way folks can make their own decisions as to how bad the book may be.

I enjoyed reading the book. Too each his own.

Wow ... how about an actual review of the book. Interested to hear what people thought and why. Those who didn't read it don’t get to play. I assumed it was titled that because any cross country trip in a car that old will have some glitches along the way. Based on the updates posted during his trip it sounded about right. As far as cultural differences you can bring up Marmite on toast.

If nobody wants it, you could always leave it in the Water Closet in case the TP runs out. From what I have heard from the guys I know who have read it, that is what it is worth.

I stored Tim’s car for quite a while , then took it on my trailer to the shipper. He told me he would send me a book for my trouble. Book never came , I guess I lucked out! I was a bit Leary after I heard the title.

Henry K. Lee wrote: ↑

Tue May 21, 2019 10:30 am

...for a guest in our country to judge us is very, very un-cool. I lived in their country and NEVER showed any judgement in their ways! Respect always.

exactly

I read it. While it wasn't just a chronicle of his trip in the T, (meaning nothing like Three Peddles Down Main Street), it did include quite a bit of historical information that was related to the T and Henry Ford. I enjoyed reading about the troubles he had and the people that helped repair them, probably because I followed his trip on the forum. The British have a different way of writing, and sometimes it seems a little long winded; not bad, just different. Personally if I hadn't followed his trip on the forum I don't think I'd have made it all the way through the book because my interest was the trip in the T itself, not the historical information included.

Concerning the politics.... A large part of the world doesn't care for Trump, and I found the book more of someone's interest in why a large part of the country, following fairly specific geographical and sociological lines, voted the way they did. I don't see anything wrong with that. Whether I agree with it or not really doesn't matter, I certainly wouldn't lose any sleep over it.

Kim

I am sure you would recieve a book if you asked him.

As far as book reviews go, I've heard War and Peace is overly long, and thus, do not recommend it. I haven't read it, mind you, but I am certain I would not like it, and no one else would either.

Kimdobbins wrote: ↑

Tue May 21, 2019 10:51 pm

I stored Tim’s car for quite a while , then took it on my trailer to the shipper. He told me he would send me a book for my trouble. Book never came , I guess I lucked out! I was a bit Leary after I heard the title.

I will comment because KD contributed.

Early on - when Tim floated the idea on the forum of coming to this country unprepared for the journey that was laid out - I expressed my doubts.

As I followed the trip on the forum - I found the route that was chosen to be a bit .... odd.

Because of my experience with the Model T Family I figured somehow Tim would survive the trip.

When he was with Brass Car Guy in Seattle at the end - I called KD to ask if he knew of someone who would store Tim’s T if I brought it to the Long Beach, CA area.

KD volunteered his backyard.

I met Tim & Howard - loaded up Tim’s T - went to dinner with them - spent some time talking with him on the way to a motel by the airport.


He was enthusiastic - charismatic - engaging.

He told me his audience for his books was not Americans.

On this trip he had shot less than an hour total of video.

At times I am motivated to offer free transport of vehicles
to those who appear deserving - rewarding good deeds I suppose.

What Tim did - unintentionally on his part - was promote the Model T Family he encountered on his Journey.

The interactions he wrote about on the forum documented example after example of folks offering a hand to help out - which is good for the Hobby.

That is what I recognized and chose to help.

“ Missed Opportunity “ sounds like the title of a good book about an author with an Agenda who travels to another country - only to find a better - kinder story in his journey.

That Book was written on the forum by Tim.

And it is a good read ....


FJ

I read the book and enjoyed it very much, having done a long trip (6000 miles) in a T I found that his observations brought back a lot of memories and I enjoyed the history and back stories. If all you want to read are views that you agree with, write your own book. I appreciate hearing others views of the world. I was lucky to spend some time with Tim when he was broke down in my area and really enjoyed it. Read the book with an open mind and I think you will enjoy it.

I just read the copy being passed around. As you can see from this inscription it is moving to forum members, Kim will be next.
I always enjoy books about T's and long trips, this one included. It is not at all like "Three Pedals Down Main Street" by Don Jennings (a dear friend of mine who passed about ten years ago. If you can stomach the politics and just read about the trip it is amusing. For sure the mentions of the MTFCA and it's folk are frequent and all very positive.

We have here a writer who has other credits and wants to do something to write about and sell books. This exactly like Steinbeck's "Travels With Charley" in that a long cross country trip was undertaken by an author who had little preparation and no mechanical sense. Steinbeck reported on the nature of the places and folks he visited, Moore did the same whilst (a little Brit flavour there) being very clear about his liberal take on everything. Essentially he is writing for his countrymen to give them a feeling for how strongly deplorable the majority of the "fly-over" Americans are. Steinbeck at least ordered a heavy duty pickup which made the trip just fine (aside you can see his truck in the National Steinbeck Center (Salinas, CA), Moore picked a '24 touring car and learned to drive it on the trip. I felt several of the problems encountered were of his own making due to deficiency in driving experience. You know you are dealing with a T expert when you read that he pries off his motormeter with a pipe wrench and then later finds out from someone else that you just have to unscrew it... maybe this had something to do with the radiator neck falling off later in the trip!

Most folks he meets are presented as very nice and helpful. Occasionally he points out that he abhors their racism and achievements. You will find folks who do valve jobs, replace crankshafts, show him how to keep his car running, even show him how to drive his car. Some Forum members (FJ and Kim) are mentioned and escape any mention of a negative. The route was chosen to pass mostly through areas which Trump carried in his election. Most places of national interest were avoided. He did a lot of research to fill in history and then added his take on national problems and his take on their causes.
The book claims to be by a funny author. He came across as a bit pompous not funny.
He mentions a couple of books on T travels all of which I (and probably you) have read. His review of the literature and history is even handed. Although he highly praises Henry Ford he does give Ford's anti-semitism fair coverage.

All in all I found it an interesting book in which the author tries to give history and the conditions found fair coverage while failing to mask his preconceptions which are passed on as fact in spite of whatever he sees.

Respectfully TH

Terry, Don't forget to put your name inside the cover!
I enjoyed the book. It mostly showed the model T community in a very nice light, certainly a liberal lean on politics in general. However I did not find that any worse than most of modern journalism I see every day and mutter to myself "Yeah, yeah, like you know what you are writing about."
Personally, I would like to meet the man. I suspect I would like him, even though I would disagree with him about many things. But, I disagree with most people I know about something.

Wayne Sheldon. Opinionated SOB and quite outspoken.

Any "book review" results from the opinions of the reviewer, so it's difficult to be objective. Here's my thoughts, if anyone's interested:
First off, as noted, Mr. Moore was writing for a specific audience - definitely not Americans who cherish Model Ts. Weighing the glimpses of himself when he appears "simpatico" in print, as well as the testimony of Scott Conger, who likely spent the most time in his company while laboring extensively to put him back on the road, he's an intelligent, likeable guy, but that says nothing about the book.

I'd guess Mr. Moore would be the first to agree his book is not an attempt at "timeless literature". His entire concept from first to last was to produce a "salable item" intended to appeal to an established audience, i.e. Brits and Europeans who like "travelogues" based on zany premises. A look at Mr. Moore's works reveals other travels to "far-off" places his readership will never visit, each based on some "gimmick". In this case, the gimmick was to drive a Model T coast to coast. The motive: affirmation of misconceptions and prejudices his readership hold dear regarding America and Americans, contrasting our incredibly wrong-headed political and cultural views with the superiority of European socialist liberalism.

No mystery regarding Mr. Moore's convoluted odessey through America. His pre-conceived plan was to travel through the "reddest" counties and states that provided President Trump with an electoral victory, purportedly to learn just how benighted Americans really are, and how this could have possibly happened. By his own admission, prior to his journey, Mr. Moore's acquaintance with America and Americans was limited to the "blue-est" cities on either coast, where he felt at ease around people who for the most part share his "enlightened" perceptions and opinions.

Some comments on the book stated the digressions into historical background are worthwhile; I agree, insofar as they did add interesting background to the places he visited, but I would offer the caveat that the historical vignettes he presents are invariably tainted by his prejudices, and chosen to support them. The pitfall of reading "history" is, as ever, dependent upon who's lying to you.

A self-confessed "smart-ass Limey" (and proud of it) I'd think most readers from this forum would shrink in embarrassment from his ignorance of the faithful steed he chose to carry him thousands of miles, and cringe at the abuses heaped upon it. Further, coming from an island where one is never much over a hundred miles from the sea, I really don't believe he fully apprehended the immensity of the distances he chose to cover. Moreover, whether by design or by accident, the "back-roads" he was obliged to travel presented a view of America in abject decline, something which will make many Europeans gleeful, I expect. You can find the closed businesses and seedy motels on the outskirts of most communities where the Interstate system bypassed them fifty years ago. Mr. Moore attempts to win over the reader by posing himself as a "loveable incompetent". On many levels, this is an insincere ploy meant to demonstrate once again, in spite of his urbanity and overall superiority, he really is a "regular guy".

In fairness, he is likey enough a decent person, proof of which, his book contains many sympathetic accounts and in spite of his preconceived "mission" it is nowhere as scathing and mean-spirited as it might have been.

The book's greatest failing is that Mr. Moore set out to prove his preconceptions, rather than approach his journey unbiased, letting the experience inform him, and then reporting the result. Had he done so, he might have provided a genuine service not only to the people and the land he visited, but for his expected readership as well. Is it worth the read ? It's well enough written, and entertaining in its way, but I'm pretty sure most Americans would need to like being regularly irked in order to really enjoy reading it.

Some of you guys are taking way too much offence over this.

It's true that, while I am reading it, I have not completed it, but if it's anything like You Are Awful (But I Like You): Travels Through Unloved Britain (and so far it pretty much is) then I know what I'm going to get. That book, by the way, travelled to what are reputed to be the crappiest towns in the UK, in the crappiest car (Morris Ital IIRC), listening to the crappiest music (all UK, of course), and started in my home County of Kent. It's never going to with the Booker Prize, but it was amusing, interesting and kept me going to the end - not every book does that. But above all it was irreverent, and irreverence it something that we limeys enjoy, it's all part of the glorious right we call Free Speech.

And as for the politics, I really don't know what Tim's politics are, nor do I care. Just because he seems to care little for Mr Trump doesn't really mean anything. There are likely a great deal of republicans that can't stand the current POTUS either, but DT has a thick hide and I'm sure he doesn't care who likes or doesn't like him.

As for politics in general, I have some friends that are raving lefties, and others that are raving righties, but that's OK. If one of either took time out to right a book ridiculing my favourite MP (assuming I had one) I would care not a jot - it's just more good ol' Free Speech.

As I said, I'm reading it, not read it, so my PoV may change by the end, but I doubt it.

Ah, thanks Deke. So sorry that you had to buy a copy... I posted every single one of my author copies to the US, to all the guys who helped me out on the road.

Kim - no idea what happened to the copy I posted out to you before Christmas. Maybe the wrong address? If you send me your postal address I'll send another.

I thought I'd sent a copy to Freighter Jim after a Jim got in touch via the forum asking for one... transpired later it was a different Jim! (Jim Golden). I had the impression after some of his comments on here that FJ might not appreciate me sending him a book, but if you're reading this FJ and would like one, send me an address and I will very gladly pop one in the post.

Well, there we go. Sorry again for causing offence. In case anyone's interested, the new paperback edition of the book has just come out with a slightly redesigned cover and a new subtitle: tweaked by my publishers to reflect the fact that the book focuses very largely on my trip and the Model T - not the current state of US politics.

I thought this forum was suppose to be void of politics. Throw that damn book in the trash where it belongs and lets get back to Model Ts.

Darryl

you and I must have read different books (you DID read it, right?)