Snow Shovelin’ Man

Snow Shovelin’ Man
by Bob King
Published by Miles of Smiles Publishing
Review by Toby A. Welch
$20.00 ISBN 9780981121727

If you are looking for an escape from the suffering in the world and itching for some lighthearted fun, pick up a copy of Snow Shovelin’ Man. This book contains a wealth of Canadian-based humour. 

Author Bob King has a fantastic sense of humour and it shines through from the first page to the back cover (where his author bio doubles as his future obituary – priceless!) His “Self-Evaluation Report” had me laughing so hard that I couldn’t catch my breath.  My favourite line: “Bob does still tend to worry too much sometimes. He pledges to correct this weakness now that he has become more familiar with reality.” And I love that King believes, “…maybe it is my purpose in life to cause women to shake their heads.” ROFL!

Of the 23 songs and snippets in this book, “Awesome Dude” is my favourite. Who doesn’t love a song about growing up in the 1990s, regardless of whether it was us or our children who did so. 

King is refreshing, finding pleasure in things that few of us ponder. Take breathing, for example. He spends over a dozen pages waxing on about the joys of breathing while meandering onto tangent topics. We also learn about King’s stretching routine, his amazement of beavers, and how he uses his Facebook page to warn people about the dangers of the world.

The pages of song lyrics in this book are interspaced with short stories about things that occurred in King’s life. We get the joy of reading about his nights entertaining in bars in lieu of a job with a steady paycheque. We learn about his fun family nights at home with his loved ones. We read about his ear-grating experience in the shower room at the Moose Jaw Temple Gardens spa where a man kept humming the first two lines of a verse over and over again, driving King batty. 

The author is a resident of Lumsden, SK, where he is apparently a regular at the local karaoke bar. No surprise there. The next time I am north of Regina, I plan to stop by in the hopes of running into King. I have a hunch he’d be as much fun in person as his book is. 

If you want more of the Snow Shovelin’ Man than this book provides, check King out on YouTube. Since posting his music video of the same name as this book, it has received close to 35,000 hits and almost all the comments are positive ones. One poster went as far as to claim, “This song almost makes me want to enjoy winter.” Score! It probably helps that King’s crooning voice is reminiscent of Kenny Rogers in his prime.

If you like song lyrics and humour, Snow Shovelin’ Man is a must read! 

THIS BOOK IS AVAILABLE AT YOUR LOCAL BOOKSTORE OR FROM WWW.SKBOOKS.COM