Quick Pint After Work by Luke Lewis

Quick Pint After Work by Luke Lewis
Buy Quick Pint After Work by Luke Lewis at Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com
Category: Humour
Reviewer: Zoe Page
Summary: You should say what you mean, and mean what you say, but since no one really does, you can have fun identifying with this book.
Buy? Yes	Borrow? Yes
Pages: 288	Date: October 2014
Publisher: Sphere
ISBN: 978-0751557732
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BuzzFeed is one of the world’s best time sucks, and I’m regularly directed to the site by links from Facebook and Twitter, in between browsing the app on my phone. According to the author bio on this book, BuzzFeed is a social news and entertainment company, which is a fancy way of describing lots of fun lists that speak to the readership (20 words that have a completely different meaning in Manchester, 30 Things all ex-gymnasts know to be true, 40 Very British problems, yadda yadda yadda). These list work well on line when you want a quick distraction, and they’re easy to flip through, looking at the attached photos or video clips. The question then, is whether or not BuzzFeed the book will have the same appeal.

Titled Quick pint after work? And other everyday lies, this book highlights the gulf between what people say and what they actually mean in a range of settings from work to relationships. It’s definitely a British production, picking up a number of words and clichés that we’ll all have heard many a time. So let’s dive in with some examples:

It’s not you, it’s me = It’s definitely you
I’m not racist but = I am about to say something eye-wateringly racist
The next big thing = Quite similar to the old thing

In addition, the author picks up on some phrases that are just really dumb if you start to think about them:

Pan-fried = as opposed to fried in a washing machine, or Jacuzzi
Brutal murder = as opposed to one of those nice, friendly murders
Tragic deaths = as opposed to dying for the LOLs (interesting use of ‘the’ here – a bit like saying ‘ask the Google’)

This is the book, essentially. There’s no commentary beyond the introduction, it’s just phrases and explanations or interpretations. I talked earlier about how BuzzFeed is big on lists. The thing is, you wouldn’t normally read a dozen of them one after the other, they’re a quick snack rather than a full meal. To get the most out of this book, I think you need to take the same approach. It’s one to dip in and out of rather than read cover to cover in one sitting, as it’s funny but in a way that wears off after a while. It would be fun to have by the bed to read a chapter of before sleepy time, and it would also work as an, ahem, toilet book to flick through when you (or, more likely, he) wants to sit a while.

This book is a bit of fun, largely inoffensive and certainly unlikely to wind up anyone who regularly reads the site itself. Some parts are true and some parts are less true (case in point: when he bought me a car for my birthday this year, I’m pretty sure it’s not because my Boy of 18 months had been cheating on me for 20 years) but it will make you smile. The section on Radio 4 was a mysterious inclusion – I am regularly dissed by my BuzzFeed reading friends for listening – and yet brilliantly accurate to the extent that you could play Jeopardy with it:

He says: The sound of crunching gravel, interspersed with a lot of sighing Question: What is…The Archers?

A fun stocking filler, I know a few people who will like this one. Thanks go to the publishers for supplying this book.

The Average Life of the Average Person by Tadg Farrington is also perfect stocking filler material, and a great read.

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You can read more book reviews or buy Quick Pint After Work by Luke Lewis at Amazon.co.uk Amazon currently charges £2.99 for standard delivery for orders under £20, over which delivery is free.

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