Book: Never Hit A Jellyfish With A Spade - Guy Browning

The tagline to Never Hit A Jellyfish With A Spade is “How to Survive Life’s Smaller Challenges”, and that’s the essence of this book. A series of short articles lifted from Browning’s Guardian column, each focuses on a micro-topic from everyday life: How to…. eat biscuits, mow the lawn, read a Sunday paper.

I remember reading Browning’s column from time to time and marvelling at how he managed to take everyday situations and spin them into something thought-provoking and funny at the same time:

On dating: What makes a date so dreadful is the weight of expectation attached to it. There is every chance that you may meet your soulmate, get married, have children and be buried side by side. There is an equal chance that the person you meet will look as if they’ve already been buried for some time.

However sharp Guy Browning may seem in a once-a-week column, condensed into a full volume his humour loses a lot of its uniqueness. Little gags that that at first seem witty, quickly become boring and formulaic. The weakness of the book is that it’s a one-trick pony.

All the same, if you can spread it out, the book can be very funny at times. Recommend you keep it in the toilet for a bit of light humour on the throne.

A copy of this post is at PopOpinions.com.