Ben Aitken won me over with his unabashed nature and affinity for cultural immersion. Let’s dive in to see what Ben got up to in Poznań and Poland. So why Poland? And why Poznań? Reading takes you places. Where in the world will your next book take you? If you love world literature, translated works, travel writing, or explorin Reading takes you places. Where in the world will your next book take you? If you love world literature, translated works, travel writing, or exploring the world through books, you have come to the right place! ATW80 began in 2009 as a challenge on TNBBC. The separate group was established in 2011.

The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go.” - Dr. Suess

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Unfortunately, the content of the book is what I had the biggest problem with. To preface this section, I would like to make it clear that the blurb claims many things about the book which I find to be slightly deceptive. I believe in this case that it is the publisher who is more at fault, so my opinion should be taken with a grain of salt, in case it was tainted by false promises. One such promise is the quote on the front cover that claims this is 'One of the funniest books of the year'. It's perfectly fine for a memoir to not be funny and, for what it's worth, there were even a few funny moments. However, and I say this knowing humour is subjective, the contents of this book do not seem like they were designed to be funny. Traces of insight were also promised, but making vague statements and then alluding to some deeper meaning is not insightful, at least not to me. In fact, several of the promised elements of the book come in the last quarter, with little of the earlier content featuring on the advertisement. This may have to do with how the author comes across in the first half of the book...

Overall, Aitken won’t amaze you with his polyglottal abilities. Nevertheless, there is a certain amount of charm to his self-deprecation and rudimentary approach to learning the basics of Polish. In 2016, Ben Aitken moved to Poland while he still could. It wasn’t love that took him but curiosity: he wanted to know what the Poles in the UK had left behind. He flew to a place he’d never heard of and then accepted a job in a chip shop on the minimum wage. Aitken’s unabashed nature meant that he could partake in cultural immersion in Poland on a grand scale.I learnt that, on average, Poles would sooner fall to their knees and take a blow to the head than hear a bad word said about pierogi. On the other hand, I also have to recognise that the author has done something that I could not even dream of achieving. He has successfully published his experiences, which is an incredible feat in itself. Writing any book is a challenge, but in my opinion, writing a non-fiction book is even more difficult; especially a memoir, where you are effectively the main character and therefore directly the subject for any criticism. I also admire that the author is so comfortable going up to people and just asking them questions, which is something I would certainly struggle with. This is something I think everyone should take into account when forming their critique of this book, and I would like to start by thanking the author for giving us a view into his time and experiences in Poland. In 2016 Ben Aitken moved to Poland while he still could. It wasn’t love that took him but curiosity: he wanted to know what the Poles in the UK had left behind. He flew to a place he’d never heard of and then accepted a job in a chip shop on the minimum wage.