e-Book Review: Bricks & Bones by Tony Borroz
Positives
Negatives
This year with Fernando Alonso having taken his high profile foray at Indycar racing by participating in the 2017 Indianapolis 500 race, he introduced Indycar to a legion of F1 fans that previously had no knowledge of the US open wheel series. Recently, the team at Automoblog.net invited me to take a read of Tony […]
This year with Fernando Alonso having taken his high profile foray at Indycar racing by participating in the 2017 Indianapolis 500 race, he introduced Indycar to a legion of F1 fans that previously had no knowledge of the US open wheel series. Recently, the team at Automoblog.net invited me to take a read of Tony Borroz’s new book “Bricks & Bones – The Endearing Legacy & Nitty Gritty Phenomenon of the Indy 500”. This is also the first motorsports ebook that I’ve actually read, so it was interesting to get some hands on experience of digital books.
Tony Borroz is a journalist and part of the Dale Coyne Racing Team in the Indycar series. This book is written in a raw conversational style and traces his personal 2017 Indy 500 experience from watching qualifying on TV, hanging out at St Elmo’s Bar, offering some personal insights on Dale Coyne to being trackside at the race in the press box, Sebastien Bourdais’ shunt, watching the race, Taku’s maiden win and some post-race reflections. In between actual track action, Tony Borroz also provides some background to the Speedway area and a little of the history.
Each of the book’s 12 chapters are short and concise with large font display. It can easily be read over a few sessions – on an iPad mini, the book is 59 pages in full screen but if you’re reading it via a PC reader, the pages count can be longer depending on your window size. This is one aspect that I find a little irritating with ebooks.
The author clearly doesn’t mince his opinions in this book and you can expect to see the occasional expletive. There’s a kind of assumed knowledge about the Indycar personalties and some bits of technical explanation. For F1 fans, there’s a short chapter on Fernando Alonso but the book doesn’t specifically chart his race weekend.
A few colour photos are sprinkled through the beginning of some of the chapters, although not all are race related.
Not being an Indycar fan, after reading this book I do have a bit more appreciation of the insider’s view of the Indy 500. In some ways it’s almost like tagging along with a local.
If you’re interested, the ebook version is available online via Amazon.
Editor’s note: Review copy courtesy of Automoblog.net
Wow Factor/Money Shot: Chapter 7 Speedway Legends
Suitable for: US fans
