dllh's review against another edition
3.0
This one was ok, but a bit disappointing. I'm all for futzing with form and convention and writing in modes that suit the matter, but some of Geary's playing with genre here was just poorly executed, and I think I would have preferred a straight history of wit. There was a lot more flash here than substance. I did enjoy bits of it, but some sections were tiresome and the flash pretty dim.
alissabar's review against another edition
3.0
An interesting look at wit and humor. I really liked how each chapter was written in a different style (one was a dialogue between two people, another was written like a medical report, etc.) I also appreciated the jokes and humor sprinkled throughout.
2021 Popsugar Reading Challenge: #36 A book that has fewer than 1,000 reviews on Amazon or Goodreads (57)
2021 Popsugar Reading Challenge: #36 A book that has fewer than 1,000 reviews on Amazon or Goodreads (57)
choirqueer's review against another edition
2.0
I was really looking forward to this, but I can't remember why. The layout, for one thing, felt like the author was having a protracted inside joke with himself and forgot to let the reader in on it. There were a few interesting and/or clever bits, but even for a book this thin, there weren't really enough of them. The sections on AAVE (which is never referred to as AAVE) were...awkward and horrendous, and I probably wouldn't have read this (or at least been as excited to read it as I was when I picked it up) if I had known to expect that.
sherif's review against another edition
For a book on wit it wasn't very witty. Slow, dry, academic. The play with different forms felt more technical than delightful.
gnomely's review against another edition
2.0
It was pretty interesting but the chapter in jive was a bit much and I also didn't particularly care for the chapter in rap (rapter? Raptor?) Author obviously had fun writing it, but i feel like this book centred form over content.
vlthrasher's review against another edition
2.0
Slow and dry. I was expecting this to be a little more self-helpy but it is not that at all. That ended up being fine, I just couldn't jive with the writing style. I'm also not one for short stories or essay collections so someone who prefers those might enjoy this more than me.
cancermoononhigh's review against another edition
2.0
A quick easy read. Just a few observations I enjoyed from the book.
Puns are present in the Christian faith, God fashioned Adam from Earth and Eve's ancient hebrew name means "longing" or "love" but is also related to "craving" or "mischief."
William Shakespeare was a huge fan of puns, the average number being 78 in a normal Shakespeare play.
A popular children's poem in North Korea:
Men may say the mountain's high, but all of its beneath the sky. There is no reason we may not climb, but usually we never try. We only say "the mountain's high."
Puns are present in the Christian faith, God fashioned Adam from Earth and Eve's ancient hebrew name means "longing" or "love" but is also related to "craving" or "mischief."
William Shakespeare was a huge fan of puns, the average number being 78 in a normal Shakespeare play.
A popular children's poem in North Korea:
Men may say the mountain's high, but all of its beneath the sky. There is no reason we may not climb, but usually we never try. We only say "the mountain's high."