If Alan McArthur and Steve Lowe left anything really rather annoying out of this book then I'll be a monkey's uncle. It really does include everything that IS shit and takes the mickey out of it until you're blue in the face laughing. I absolutely love this book and the second edition - Is It Just Me or Is Everything Shit, Vol II. for which I waited in anticipation until the day of its release.
I received this book for Christmas, from my mum who thought it was right up my street. It was and within days I'd read it cover to cover, laughing so hard that it became annoying to everyone else. I then bought the second and loved that as well. After a while of sitting on my shelf, and after having moved I found the book at showed it to my fiancé. I told him he'd just have to read it because it's excellent. He did and I slightly anxiously waited for a response (as I really wanted him to like it). With the first paragraph on the first subject he read was roaring with laughter. Then I couldn't get him to put it down for weeks. This now sits on our bookshelf and the second volume sits on a shelf in the loo....it does make excellent loo reading material.
The humour is sophisticated, with obvious signs that these guys are pros...this isn't just a book written by two blokes who've just come back from the pub. This is satire, wit, a little sarcasm and a lot of intelligence, even the arrangement and formation of sentences and language used becomes funny. It's just funny through and through. It's not that easy to make me laugh out loud with books, especially the kind of books released in the last few years. In fact I never find books that are meant to be funny, funny. I just don't like humour that's too obvious. These guys had me laughing so hard because what they say throughout the book is hilarious. It really sums up and points out the stupidity, ludicricy and lack of sense with certain things. I absolutely agreed with almost everything that they said as well, which was nice because there's nothing like a good old rant about something you find ridiculous....but this is one better - it's funny too. It's not so much a rant in the sense that it's trying to berate you with reasons as to why the subject is wrong or rubbish, it doesn't tell you should think any in particular way. It just presents something and shows you how funny the reality is.
It's quite hard to describe really, without reading you most of the book. But the subjects range from trendy pie and mash shops to Che Guevara merchandise, FCUK, Live8, cafes that charge too much for hot drinks and the Daily Mail. What's great about this book is that there's so much more substance to it than to anything of a similar nature. It goes a little deeper than making fun of a subject and really shows the logical argument behind why it's annoying or wrong. Then it takes the piss.
There really is such a range of topics - from the serious to the silly, which makes it quite an enlightening and informative read. I've learnt quite a lot about the dealings of certain members of the Government, for instance.
It seems to be somewhat of a love it or hate it book, but I honestly think that if you like a bit of satire, love intelligent comedy and don't mind the swearing (which personally I love) then you'll think this is a great book. I highly recommend it as it's had me in stitches and there are so many topics that you can easily reread the book having forgotten some. So you get more than one read! Absolutely hilarious, do give it a read.
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It is just shit
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If you hate: loft living; bar-clubs; Tony Blair; chick lit; global warming sceptics; ... more
Keane; loyalty cards; IKEA; Kabbalah; bling and Richard Curtis...then you need "Is it just me Or Is everything shit?" - an encylopedic attack on modern culture and the...
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Advantages: The humour factor, and the realisation that most of these views are shared by many people. Disadvantages: As it's quite an easy read it won't take up much of your time, although that's not always bad.
Advantages: The humour factor, and the realisation that most of these views are shared by many people. Disadvantages: As it's quite an easy read it won't take up much of your time, although that's not always bad.
Sep 8th, 2008
(Sep 5th, 2008)
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