Lewis Hamilton, My Story

Category: Books

Genre: Biographies & Memoirs

Author: Lewis Hamilton

Shelf Score: 2 / 5 (Better to borrow)

The Plot: This is the biography of Lewis Hamilton's career in Formula 1 as told by Lewis himself. Like most biographies, it starts off with his relationship with his parents and his beginnings as a Kart driver. For those not into the sport, Karts are baby Formula 1 cars. The bio highlights events in Lewis' life that he believed was important to understanding who he is. His family, his motivation, his struggles and his bid for the Formula 1 driver's championship. The book tells of the career steps Lewis took to become Formula 1 driver for McLaren Mercedes, from Kart to Formula Renault to GP2 and eventually Formula 1. Then there are race highlights for the 2007 season including the Ferrari controversy as seen through Lewis's eyes and not the media. All this ending in his excitement and disappointment as the season ended with Lewis one point short of becoming a Formula 1 Driver's champion in his rookie season.

The Review: I am not a McLaren Mercedes fan. I have always rooted for Ferrari because of the other Michael. With that out of the way, let me then start by saying that Biographies are a good start to learning about what goes on behind the checkered flag. The book in itself is not written as elegantly nor as polished as one would have hoped. There are some sketchy parts in the way it was told and some parts were bordering on being repetitive. In that respect, Lewis Hamilton may be a great Formula driver, but a great writer, he is not. Still, the book is not without it's good points. Like the saying goes, there are sides to every story. And this book plays the part very well of letting you in Lewis' life. Watching the races and interviews from the telly tells a different view of what was really happening in Hamilton's life and career. And while there are arrogant bits in the story, you can tell that he is sincere and honest in what he is saying. And you do have to think about it, that this is his story as told by himself.

The Verdict: I do understand the shortcomings of telling ones own story through ones point of view. There is a tendency to cram so much information and leaving some out. Some of these can be thought of as irrelevant by the reader but is actually the link tying the whole story together for the writer. As it is, the book is not written to grab your attention. It was written by a person like yourself who wanted to tell you everything good in his life while touching on the bad points just to show a little humility. But only just. If you are not a Lewis Hamilton fan, then you can forget about this book entirely. However, if you do follow Formula 1 as a whole, whether you are a Ferrari fan or not, this book is worth a look. Just keep in mind that this is only one side of the story.