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maplessence's review against another edition
2.0
2.5*
I laughed uproariously at the start of this book (my favourite was the bus that wouldn't stop for passengers, otherwise it wouldn't be able to keep to it's timetable!)
but after 50 pages I started to slow down to a reading crawl. It's hard to read a bunch of anecdotes strung together & I don't think it's my imagination - the later chapters weren't as funny. One story about a juror at a rape trial was in such poor taste (& in the chapter of unverified incidents!) that it shouldn't have been included. It cost the book half a star.
So would 21st century readers be up for All New Improved Book of Heroic Failures? Think a computer disaster like the Avon County Council pay system couldn't happen in modern times? You might want to Google how well Australian company Talent2 Novopay system has done paying New Zealand School staff.
Novopay is worthy of an entire chapter.
Or how about the wildly successful social media reading site that decided to change it's design without fully testing it, causing eyestrain to thousands of users, including volunteers that help run it?
Nah, far too improbable.
I laughed uproariously at the start of this book (my favourite was the bus that wouldn't stop for passengers, otherwise it wouldn't be able to keep to it's timetable!)
but after 50 pages I started to slow down to a reading crawl. It's hard to read a bunch of anecdotes strung together & I don't think it's my imagination - the later chapters weren't as funny. One story about a juror at a rape trial was in such poor taste (& in the chapter of unverified incidents!) that it shouldn't have been included. It cost the book half a star.
So would 21st century readers be up for All New Improved Book of Heroic Failures? Think a computer disaster like the Avon County Council pay system couldn't happen in modern times? You might want to Google how well Australian company Talent2 Novopay system has done paying New Zealand School staff.
Novopay is worthy of an entire chapter.
Or how about the wildly successful social media reading site that decided to change it's design without fully testing it, causing eyestrain to thousands of users, including volunteers that help run it?
Nah, far too improbable.
bhaines's review against another edition
Classic. The right idea. 'That van was parked in a place that logic told me it wouldn't be'.
julia___'s review against another edition
5.0
There comes a point in everyone’s life where you think: “Why am I such a fuck up?” For those time, I like to keep this book on hand.
Sometimes I think I am bad at things, but never as cosmically bad as these people 🤣. My my, everyone from the worst golfer, to the worst prison guard is described in this book.
So when moments of absolute defeat strike you, pick up this book, open it on a random page and enjoy the absolutely overpowering feeling of: “I may have fucked this up, but not as bad as them.”
Sometimes I think I am bad at things, but never as cosmically bad as these people 🤣. My my, everyone from the worst golfer, to the worst prison guard is described in this book.
So when moments of absolute defeat strike you, pick up this book, open it on a random page and enjoy the absolutely overpowering feeling of: “I may have fucked this up, but not as bad as them.”
bucketheadmary's review against another edition
3.0
This book is the reading equivalent of watching "fail" videos on the internet.
2000ace's review
5.0
Need a laugh? Read this book! British writer Stephen Pile has compiled a collection of stories about people doing really stupid things. He manages to hit the right note, so that the tone goes for hilarity, and its subjects are not demeaned. Here is a sample:
"Warren Gamaliel Harding wrote his own speeches while president of the USA in the 1920s and people queued up to pay tribute.
H.L. Mencken said: 'He writes the worst English that I have ever encountered. It is so bad that a sort of grandeur creeps into it."
When Harding died, E.E. Cummings said: 'The only man, woman or child who wrote a simple declarative sentence with seven grammatical errors is dead.'
Here is a rewarding sample of the man's style: ' I would like the government to do all it can to mitigate, then, in understanding, in mutuality of interest, in concern for the common good, our tasks will be solved.'"
"Warren Gamaliel Harding wrote his own speeches while president of the USA in the 1920s and people queued up to pay tribute.
H.L. Mencken said: 'He writes the worst English that I have ever encountered. It is so bad that a sort of grandeur creeps into it."
When Harding died, E.E. Cummings said: 'The only man, woman or child who wrote a simple declarative sentence with seven grammatical errors is dead.'
Here is a rewarding sample of the man's style: ' I would like the government to do all it can to mitigate, then, in understanding, in mutuality of interest, in concern for the common good, our tasks will be solved.'"
clarel's review
5.0
I read this book over and over again. It is the book that inspired me to track down a Florence Foster Jenkins CD, and was the source of much hilarity in my home as a child. If you can get hold of a copy, read it.
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