3 out of 4 stars
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I've rubbed shoulders with truck drivers, I've watched them skillfully operate their heavy machinery, but I've never had the opportunity to have an in-depth conversation with one. Gordon Richardson's I Drove a Crooked Mile brought me closer to the world of trucking, all the while answering any queries I might have had about the industry.
The author's path into trucking came as a consequence of him, knowing he could be a murder suspect, fleeing town to go hide out at his brother's place in Utah. Three months down the line, with little money left, he decided to turn his life around and abandon the life of drugs and violence. This decision led him to Alabama, where he decided to learn how to drive a truck. He swallowed his pride, started at the bottom and learned the tricks of the trade as he went along.
The writing is sophisticated enough to qualify this book as a great read, yet simple enough for novices on vehicles and machinery to comprehend. On occasions where the author uses technical terms about vehicles and vehicle parts, he provides elaborate explanations that left me feeling enriched. Besides that, I also learned trucker's lingo. Discovering this slang was an unexpected pleasure. One feature that stood out is that the author refers to most of the characters by their nicknames, as those are the names they preferred. He also admits that a lot of people he's interacted with in the past don't even know his real name, and only know to him as "Flash."
Sprinkled throughout the book are nuggets of wisdom, presented as lessons from experiences that the author went through. The most memorable was him working for a truck owner who never spent a dime on fuel, heavily relying on the five-finger discount. From this, he learned that no stolen good is worth a life. I also picked up some valuable business advice, as the author shares his experience of how he rose from being an apprentice to being an owner/operator. Discipline and hard work are a requirement in any field, and on these, the author never skimped. He also insists that nothing should keep anyone in a compromising situation, and true to his words, he walked away from occasions where his employers tried to take advantage of him.
With a dose of humor, the author sheds light on unscrupulous practices that truckers employ, like overloading and avoiding weight checks, which seem to be essential skills for truckers to possess. The one vice the author didn't admit to engaging in is overspeeding. For this, I give him a round of applause. He advocates for road safety and reiterates that these are habits he wouldn't encourage anyone to pick up.
The only quarrel I have with this book is that I encountered more than ten typos, mostly misspelled words. Although they didn't detract from the story, they drop the book's rating to 3 out of 4 stars. Overall, I Drove a Crooked Mile was eye-opening. It is a book I would recommend to travelers, trucking enthusiasts, fans of non-fiction, and lovers of inspirational stories.
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I Drove a Crooked Mile
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