by The Secret Teacher. The Secret Teacher is just starting out in an English secondary school. He is optimistic, and idealistic, characteristics that would be damped by most jobs in time; but he is quickly put in his place by … Continue reading
Category Archives: Humour
The Diary of a Bookseller
by Shaun Bythell. Shaun Bythell recounts – in the form of diary entries – his life as owner of The [secondhand] Bookshop in Wigtown, and I say “life” because and it’s so much more than a mere job). His observations of customers, … Continue reading
This is Going to Hurt
by Adam Kay. Adam Kay is a junior doctor in the UK’s National Health Service. (“Junior” in this context means highly qualified, but overworked and underpaid.) Anyone who has followed the news in recent years will know that junior doctors … Continue reading
Me Talk Pretty One Day
by David Sedaris. While parts of this book had me crying (in public) with laughter, other sections left me cold. Me Talk Pretty One Day is not, as the blurb would have you believe, an account of the author’s struggle to … Continue reading
When in French: Love in a Second Language
by Lauren Collins. When in French is part memoir and part study of language, as Lauren Collins journeys from being a non-french speaker to fluent. Along the way, she dips into history, philosophy, the psychology of relationships and culture, and more. … Continue reading
4th November 2016
by Leigh Forbes
Comments Off on Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar: Understanding Philosophy Through Jokes
Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar: Understanding Philosophy Through Jokes
by Daniel Klein and Thomas Cathcart. With a heavy leaning towards Jewish and sexual jokes (many of which felt misogynistic and/or objectifying), this book wasn’t for me. Philosophy and humour is a great premise, and I love clever philosophical jokes, … Continue reading
28th October 2016
by Leigh Forbes
Comments Off on The Road to Little Dribbling: More Notes from a Small Island
The Road to Little Dribbling: More Notes from a Small Island
by Bill Bryson. Twenty years after Notes from a Small Island, Bill Bryson tours Britain again. With the “Bryson Line” as his guide, the he (roughly) follows his own footsteps, from Bognor Regis on England’s south coast to the very North … Continue reading
English Humour for Beginners
by George Mikes. I truly wanted to like this book (which is why I paid £8.99 for a mere 146 pages), but by p.17 I was cringing: my discomfort started with the line, “I found myself with a group of … Continue reading