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| Author: Charlie Brooker
Publisher: Faber and Faber
Category: Book
List Price: £9.99
Buy New: £5.00
You Save: £4.99 (50%)
New (26) Used (11) from £1.44
Avg. Customer Rating:  16 reviews
Sales Rank: 287
Media: Paperback
Pages: 368
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 7.6 x 5 x 1
ISBN: 0571238416
EAN: 9780571238415
ASIN: 0571238416
Publication Date: November 1, 2007
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours
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| Customer Reviews:
 The Best Stand-Up Comic You Never Saw February 21, 2008
5 out of 7 found this review helpful
Many books claim to be laugh-out-loud funny. This is the Real Deal. I'm just glad I've never read it in public as there were moments when I genuinely couldn't get my breath. I've not been a Brooker fan long (I only discovered Screen Wipe during the last series, which wasn't that long ago) but, on the strength of this material, I'm now a fully-fledged convert to his brand of excoriating, sardonic, not to mention laugh-your-lungs-up-funny bile. He's like the best stand-up comic you never saw - imagine Bill Hicks doing 'Harry Hill's TV Burp'. The weaker chapters are merely inspired but there are definitely pieces that are touching genius, if only for the completely original thought processes that Brooker goes through. These are most evident in the non-TV related chapters, which I generally enjoyed more than the TV stuff. Which is not to say that the TV stuff isn't also joyously mirthsome because it is. Imagine every other TV critic in the world (particularly the NOTW's Ian Hyland) as a scurrying cockroach...then picture a huge, black, hobnailed boot slowly descending to crush them. That's Brooker. To sum up then: Charlie Brooker takes absolutely no prisoners in perhaps the most nihilistically comedic collection of prose money can buy. And I make no apology for fawning all over this because it's utterly bloody brilliant. Buy it.
 Scabrous and Hilarious February 8, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Dawn of the Dumb, the latest collection of Charlie Brooker's writing from the Guardian and the Observer confirms his position of the master of the celebrity insult. Only a man who can describe racing pundit John McCririck as lookign like a partially shaved womble deserves to be awarded that status, and that man is Brooker.
His talents don't end pouring scorn on Z-list 'celebs' (and A-Y List ones too if they deserve it). If you like your humour blacker than pitch, cynical and served with a side order of general loathing he is also your man. With some of his columns causing uncontrolled public chuckling, Brooker is a genuinely funny writer about a wide variety of subjects (although if you have no interest in contemporary popular culture and specifically TV you might want to give this a miss). He's also an equal opportunity insulter, with anyone and anything considered by him a legitimate target for his laser sharp and withering scorn.
Of course his eternal cynicism or his sense of humour will not appeal to everyone. These things are subjective after all. Equally some of the collected columns and articles are stronger than others. Finally it should be said that Dawn of the Dumb is not really a book to be read from cover to cover in one sitting; it is more the sort of book you dip into whilst on a break from reading something else to have a giggle and find yourself secretly agreeing with Brooker's views on life.
Brilliant both in bed and out. January 30, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
I started off reading it in sequence. I put it down. I read it backwards for a bit. I put it down. I jumped in and read things anew. Not the way to read a book.
Most 'articles' have at least two guffaws, most will leave you thinking about stuff like 'you'. There are many histerical laughs that you need to find another person, to tell them, about it. You will become irritating. Brilliant book for those hard 'stools'. Charlie himself (you might not have noticed by reading his Guardian stuff in little bits) seems obsessed with his bowel reaction. So, enjoy it on the toilet. He's also very, very alone... And, very, very.... human. Yet, when you think he is so hard faced and cynacle, and you are enjoying a movement, he has a moment of joy and faith.
Still very funny January 28, 2008
2 out of 4 found this review helpful
The best thing about Charlie Brooker is his random decriptions of TV personalities.
Whether he is "genius" or not is debatable, but this book still rocks and the way he views television/the world is both funny and likely to cause debate.
He truly is a product of the age and his views/writing represents this. He hates the same stuff as me, but unlike me he dedicates his life to watching it. But at the end of the day my job totally sucks and he gets people reviewing his book for pleasure. I don't, so I guess his job is better than mine.
Oh, and the cover and title is an awesome reference too.
The ultimate dissection of life in modern Britain January 24, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
I was given this book for Christmas and have loved dipping into it over the last two week. Charlie Brooker analyses British life and TV like no other critic. By turns hilarious and thought provoking I would highly recommend it.
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