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Side Glances by Peter Egan (2002-2006 Road & Track Volume 4): The Best from America's Most Popular Automotive Writer
For the millions of loyal readers of Road & Track who look forward to Peter Egan's column every month, Side Glances gives you more than 300 pages of Peter at his best. His conversational, self-effacing style and adroit use of the language make his writing appealing to every automotive enthusiast. This is a collection of 48 of Peter Egan's latest Side Glances columns from Road & Track - they cover the period June 2002 to June 2006. This time he comments on TVR, Driver's Ed., Driving the Jaguar, Mercury Blues, The Ferrari Sharknose plus many more. Also included are 6 features from the same period including Zamboni 500 & A Jaguar in Moose Country.
304 pages, Hardcover
First published November 1, 2006
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
November 4, 2013
I chose to read a book that is a collection of forty-eight articles written by an established automotive journalist. This choice was guided mostly by customer reviews posted on Amazon.com. To say I did not know much about the author Peter Egan is an understatement. I had literally never so much as heard his name much less read a single word he has written. Now though, after reading Side Glances Volume 4 which contains each of the columns he authored for Road and Track magazine between 2002 and 2006 as well as some of the feature work he did for the magazine, it’s safe to say that the man has become a source of inspiration and an example of my career intentions personified.
I don’t think envy is too strong a word to describe my feelings toward the lifestyle of Peter Egan. The more I read of his work the more I realized we share a good deal of common interests. He, for example, is an avid car enthusiast, probably to a fault. He, like me is a sailor and a motorcyclist (BIKEEXIF (n.d.). He is a combat veteran who served in Vietnam (Egan, 2006, p), a pilot, a musician (Egan 2013), and a gifted writer whose talent, whether God given or hewn out as a result of great effort, has earned him a massive readership.
Egan grew up in Elroy, Wisconsin (Egan, 2006, p. 9) where as a child found that he was especially attracted to the smooth, elegant line of the 50’s era Jaguars (Egan, 2006, p. 99). Later he was drafted into the Army after leaving college where he was pursuing journalism before switching his major and eventually dropping out altogether .He went to basic training at Fort Campbell, Kentucky in 1969 (Egan, 2006, p. 182). After serving in Vietnam he returned home in 1970 (Egan, Aug2013) to marry and work through most of the seventies as an automotive mechanic (Egan, 2006, p43). the Egan began writing as a freelancer and was offered a staff position by Cycle World magazine in 1977 after submitting the story of how he and his wife rode across America traveling on a motorcycle. (Egan, 2013). Three years later in 1980 Egan moved to California with his wife, who makes regular appearances as a character in his columns, and began writing for Road and Track Magazine as well (Egan, 2006, p199). He has spent the last 30 plus years writing for both magazines and now lives in rural Wisconsin and as of August 2013 he has retired to pursue other interests (Egan 2013).
Egan’s lifelong infatuation with cars and motorcycles along with his background in hands on work with his personal projects qualify him to write with authority regarding these topics. I gathered from reading his columns that Egan is an avid reader and even reviews books for Road and Track magazine(Egan, 2006, p. 82 ). He also gets out in the shop and gains practical knowledge about the machines he works on through hands on labor. Most of Egan’s stories are anecdotal. They come from his personal interactions with the characters he deals with day to day.
I would describe Egan’s style of writing a casual and unassuming while remaining literary. His writing has an air of poignancy and control that I was not expecting from a motor journalist. Egan is certainly not your average car guy dabbling in writing. His command of vocabulary is nothing if not impressive, that or my lexicon is lacking making me easy to impress. Egan has the ability to uncover and describe ironies and he manages at least one really solid simile per article which is something I began looking forward to as I started reading each piece. For example when describing the E-Type Jaguar he spent three years restoring he had this to say “The cockpit is a wonderful place to be, and is smells like leather and old wool. It’s like driving your grandfather’s library.”(Egan, 2006, p.115). This resonates with me as an automotive enthusiast. It puts me inside that rare car with its rich woven wool carpet and leather wrapped upholstery. Using only two well-crafted sentences Egan is able to elicit the sensations he feels within his audience.
Egan can also bend words to shape a metaphor that is certainly pointed at an audience of car lovers but is very literate and insightful. One case that comes to mind is when he likened the Self-Help section of books a Borders bookstore to “ever-encroaching glaciers” on the automotive section (p66). I can just see the swelling Self-Help section grinding slowly forth into the automotive territory.
I wasn’t able to find a review written over this book aside from those written by customers who had purchased the book and cared enough to leave their positive feedback on Amazon.com. I found Egan’s self-deprecating and insightful writing utterly relatable. There were so many times as I read the book that I found myself laughing aloud at the text or scribbling “Yes!” or “HA!” in the margins. The book reads well and is more than entertaining it’s downright insightful. I found that I shared a lot in common with the author/protagonist and really found myself invested in the stories he was telling. I can certainly pencil Egan in on my shortlist of favorite writers now.
To get this book on time to read it and write a report I had to pay an extra shipping cost which cost more than the book itself. Essentially I paid for this book more than twice and I would still consider it a good value for the money. Egan’s story is an inspirational one for an aspiring motor journalist like me. But you don’t have to dream of one day becoming a writer like Egan to appreciate his work. His articles reached almost six million Road and Track readers in 2013 this doesn’t count the work he was doing for Cycle World. (Road & Track, 2013)
I would personally recommend this book to anyone with an interest in cars or motor journalism. As an enthusiast I enjoyed this book a great deal but there is more depth here than that. Egan writes about himself as much as he does about automobiles. I found the book to be surprisingly literary and Egan’s story of elevating himself from a blue collar background and hopeful freelancer to a position as a staff writer a two premier motor publications with a massive committed readership nothing short of inspirational. As I read along I found myself doing quick internet searches for images of the cars and places in his stories that I was unfamiliar with. I also kept my dictionary at hand to look up words I didn’t know. This is not something I generally do while sitting down with a motoring magazine. The book was a surprise, a very pleasant one, Egan’s story is one of triumph and success and though I’m a little sad he is not going to be producing his Side Glances column any longer I have to wonder if he is just making a little room for the next great motor journalist, maybe one from UNT.
References
Road & Track (2013). Demographics - Audience - Road and Track Media Kit. Retrieved September 2013, from http://www.roadandtrackmediakit.com/r...
BIKEEXIF (n.d.). Peter Egan of Cycle World | Bike EXIF. Retrieved September 2013, from http://www.bikeexif.com/peter-egan-cy...
Egan, Peter (2013, July). Peter Egan Repairs his BSA - Side Glances Remembers Bondo - Road & Track. Retrieved September 2013, from http://www.roadandtrack.com/voices/si...
Egan, Peter (2013, August). Peter Egan's Side Glances - R&T Columns - Road & Track. Retrieved September 2013, from http://www.roadandtrack.com/voices/co...
Egan, P. (2006). Side glances: Vol. 4. Cobham, Surrey: Brooklands Books.
I don’t think envy is too strong a word to describe my feelings toward the lifestyle of Peter Egan. The more I read of his work the more I realized we share a good deal of common interests. He, for example, is an avid car enthusiast, probably to a fault. He, like me is a sailor and a motorcyclist (BIKEEXIF (n.d.). He is a combat veteran who served in Vietnam (Egan, 2006, p), a pilot, a musician (Egan 2013), and a gifted writer whose talent, whether God given or hewn out as a result of great effort, has earned him a massive readership.
Egan grew up in Elroy, Wisconsin (Egan, 2006, p. 9) where as a child found that he was especially attracted to the smooth, elegant line of the 50’s era Jaguars (Egan, 2006, p. 99). Later he was drafted into the Army after leaving college where he was pursuing journalism before switching his major and eventually dropping out altogether .He went to basic training at Fort Campbell, Kentucky in 1969 (Egan, 2006, p. 182). After serving in Vietnam he returned home in 1970 (Egan, Aug2013) to marry and work through most of the seventies as an automotive mechanic (Egan, 2006, p43). the Egan began writing as a freelancer and was offered a staff position by Cycle World magazine in 1977 after submitting the story of how he and his wife rode across America traveling on a motorcycle. (Egan, 2013). Three years later in 1980 Egan moved to California with his wife, who makes regular appearances as a character in his columns, and began writing for Road and Track Magazine as well (Egan, 2006, p199). He has spent the last 30 plus years writing for both magazines and now lives in rural Wisconsin and as of August 2013 he has retired to pursue other interests (Egan 2013).
Egan’s lifelong infatuation with cars and motorcycles along with his background in hands on work with his personal projects qualify him to write with authority regarding these topics. I gathered from reading his columns that Egan is an avid reader and even reviews books for Road and Track magazine(Egan, 2006, p. 82 ). He also gets out in the shop and gains practical knowledge about the machines he works on through hands on labor. Most of Egan’s stories are anecdotal. They come from his personal interactions with the characters he deals with day to day.
I would describe Egan’s style of writing a casual and unassuming while remaining literary. His writing has an air of poignancy and control that I was not expecting from a motor journalist. Egan is certainly not your average car guy dabbling in writing. His command of vocabulary is nothing if not impressive, that or my lexicon is lacking making me easy to impress. Egan has the ability to uncover and describe ironies and he manages at least one really solid simile per article which is something I began looking forward to as I started reading each piece. For example when describing the E-Type Jaguar he spent three years restoring he had this to say “The cockpit is a wonderful place to be, and is smells like leather and old wool. It’s like driving your grandfather’s library.”(Egan, 2006, p.115). This resonates with me as an automotive enthusiast. It puts me inside that rare car with its rich woven wool carpet and leather wrapped upholstery. Using only two well-crafted sentences Egan is able to elicit the sensations he feels within his audience.
Egan can also bend words to shape a metaphor that is certainly pointed at an audience of car lovers but is very literate and insightful. One case that comes to mind is when he likened the Self-Help section of books a Borders bookstore to “ever-encroaching glaciers” on the automotive section (p66). I can just see the swelling Self-Help section grinding slowly forth into the automotive territory.
I wasn’t able to find a review written over this book aside from those written by customers who had purchased the book and cared enough to leave their positive feedback on Amazon.com. I found Egan’s self-deprecating and insightful writing utterly relatable. There were so many times as I read the book that I found myself laughing aloud at the text or scribbling “Yes!” or “HA!” in the margins. The book reads well and is more than entertaining it’s downright insightful. I found that I shared a lot in common with the author/protagonist and really found myself invested in the stories he was telling. I can certainly pencil Egan in on my shortlist of favorite writers now.
To get this book on time to read it and write a report I had to pay an extra shipping cost which cost more than the book itself. Essentially I paid for this book more than twice and I would still consider it a good value for the money. Egan’s story is an inspirational one for an aspiring motor journalist like me. But you don’t have to dream of one day becoming a writer like Egan to appreciate his work. His articles reached almost six million Road and Track readers in 2013 this doesn’t count the work he was doing for Cycle World. (Road & Track, 2013)
I would personally recommend this book to anyone with an interest in cars or motor journalism. As an enthusiast I enjoyed this book a great deal but there is more depth here than that. Egan writes about himself as much as he does about automobiles. I found the book to be surprisingly literary and Egan’s story of elevating himself from a blue collar background and hopeful freelancer to a position as a staff writer a two premier motor publications with a massive committed readership nothing short of inspirational. As I read along I found myself doing quick internet searches for images of the cars and places in his stories that I was unfamiliar with. I also kept my dictionary at hand to look up words I didn’t know. This is not something I generally do while sitting down with a motoring magazine. The book was a surprise, a very pleasant one, Egan’s story is one of triumph and success and though I’m a little sad he is not going to be producing his Side Glances column any longer I have to wonder if he is just making a little room for the next great motor journalist, maybe one from UNT.
References
Road & Track (2013). Demographics - Audience - Road and Track Media Kit. Retrieved September 2013, from http://www.roadandtrackmediakit.com/r...
BIKEEXIF (n.d.). Peter Egan of Cycle World | Bike EXIF. Retrieved September 2013, from http://www.bikeexif.com/peter-egan-cy...
Egan, Peter (2013, July). Peter Egan Repairs his BSA - Side Glances Remembers Bondo - Road & Track. Retrieved September 2013, from http://www.roadandtrack.com/voices/si...
Egan, Peter (2013, August). Peter Egan's Side Glances - R&T Columns - Road & Track. Retrieved September 2013, from http://www.roadandtrack.com/voices/co...
Egan, P. (2006). Side glances: Vol. 4. Cobham, Surrey: Brooklands Books.
May 30, 2011
In my mind Peter Egan is the absolute best automotive writer there is, and one of the best short writers of any genre. His stories are hilarious but also hit very close to home. He is the sole reason I have ever had a Road And Track subscription, and the books of his collected Side Glances columns are the best. So much easier that having to have all the old magazines hanging around, and much easier to read!
April 26, 2009
Great travelogue, written with wit and common sense. Love to hear about his motorcycle, musical, travel adventures.
April 27, 2016
A really good book. If you like cars, car culture, or something funny involving cars, than you will love this book.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews