A FINE HUMOUR BOOK FOR A TECH

Car Side fans rejoice: Rick Cogbill, the wondrous wordsmith responsible for Canadian Technician’s extremely popular back page humour column, has penned his first full-length book, A Fine Day for a Drive.

Although Cogbill – a freelance writer based in Summerland, B.C. – specializes in fiction, he previously spent more than two decades in the automotive repair industry as a licensed technician and shop owner. Indeed, early in his career, Cogbill spent two years fixing Land Rovers and other vehicles in the remote northern frontier district of Kenya, East Africa. Drawing from his experience in the field, many of Cogbill’s witty tales are based on real-life incidents.

In 2000, Cogbill sold his shop in order to pursue writing on a full-time basis. In addition to being published in several local newspapers and magazines, Cogbill has chronicled the adventures of Slim Shambles, Tooner, Beanie, and the rest in Canadian Technician since 1998.

The beauty of Cogbill’s columns is that in addition to being entertaining, they also contain real-life instructions on how to solve difficult or tricky repair problems. ‘The Car Side’ is now in its twelfth year.

As for Rick’s first book A Fine Day for a Drive ($14.95), released in November 2009, the tone provides the long-awaited humourous account of how Slim Shambles Auto Repair came into existence and why he puts up with customers like Buck Pincher. There are hilarious stories to be found about Slim’s family and his hometown of Slumberland, as well as such characters as Mayor Dewgood, Baldy the Barber and Hooch Rambler.

More information regarding where you can find A Fine Day for a Drive – as well as sample chapters – can be found online at www.thecarside.com.

As always, Cogbill welcomes interesting repair stories from his fellow techs so that he can use these anecdotes as the basis for his monthly column. Feel free to send along your interesting repair fex stories to Cogbill directly at rick.cogbill@shawcable.com.