Adam Renton
     
      Quite why a denizen of Bangkok would want to read a book about traffic might be something of a conundrum for some. As if sitting couped up in a luminous pink metal box, quite often subjected to look tung or some droning protest for 16 hours a day weren't enough, why would you then want to read about the experience too? To pass the time waiting at the lights? And pass up the chance for a bit of light banter with some runny-nosed seven-year-old glue-sniffers? Unlikely.
     
      This book "will appeal to fans of Top Gear," according to The Guardian. I am not a fan of Top Gear. I have a driving license but haven't worked up the balls to take the wheel for about five years since an incident involving the ex-wife of a former international footballer, who thought it would be a good idea to let me drive her BMW one morning after a very heavy night. It wasn't. But I digress.
     
      Traffic: Why We Drive The Way We Do (And What It Says About Us) sounds about as exciting as a night out in Nakhon Nayok. Instead it's original, engaging and packed full of more genuinely interesting information than Gray's Sports Almanac: Complete Sports Statistics 1950-2000.
     
      An anthropological gem, it covers issues like why some people's personalities transform when they drive, why New Yorkers jaywalk (and nobody does in Copenhagen) and even the link between corruption and road fatalities. There are hundreds of nuggets of information here that you can quote to impress your friends or pull awestruck girls with. Did you know that countries such as Finland, Norway, New Zealand, Sweden and Singapore, which are ranked as least corrupt are also the safest places in the world to drive? You do now. Fascinating, isn't it?
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      Available at Asia Books priced B495.