Hey you! read this rather tongue in cheek review.
357137
You love literature.  I mean look at you, you've got the entire Interweb at your disposal and you're here, browsing Amazon's bookstore. It's easy to see, you love literature, you love books, periodicals, you've got a library card that's gotten a lot of abuse, i'm guessing.
so now you're looking at McSweeney's Mammoth Treasury of Thrilling Tales that Amazon attributes authorship to Michael Chabon.  Obviously it's a book of short stories so actually they are attibuting editorship to Michael Chabon.  They've got some serious authors in here too, Elmore Leonard, Neil Gaiman, Dave Eggers, Nick Hornby and a few others you might have heard of.  Honestly though, this is just alright.  Not necessarily mediocrity, but not their best work either.  But you're missing a pretty good size piece of the puzzle.
Here's that missing piece, this is not just a compendium of good authors and their short stories, but rather issue 10 of a brillant literary quarterly by a brillant fairly new publishing house, McSweeney's.  Which will soon be the Hannibal of the publishing industry, except without the whole Roman armies destroying them and their elephants in the end.  They've started with the McSweeney's quarterly, then published a number of new work by great authors, and now have started a new periodical called The Believer.  There is some great Postmodern literature coming from this new source.  This book is just one bleep on your radar, but get ready cuz it's gonna get buck wild.
So i digress, you love literature, you've probably knew all this already, i'm preaching to the choir.  ok, i'll sit down now, could you pass me my soapbox before you call me a dork?
3114780
Really fun idea, and very funny to read. Personally I wish it had been treated a bit more seriously, but that's probably a matter of taste.
1692162
As a Brit married to a Yank, I had to laugh at a few of the customer reviews below.  Some people seemed to be very seriously expecting a guide about how to avoid horrible breaches of business etiquette.  Just because it has 'Survival Guide' in the title..... lighten up!
Admittedly, it probably is a little dated. I was given my treasured, tattered copy a number of years ago by an Anglophile Yank, and laughed my head off at the very accurate observations.  I suddenly understood why my American friends thought I had a 'poor self-image' - they take all that self-depracating humor seriously!
3784559
So i have not read this book but neither have half of the one star ratings I read. I think its great that people tend to say the they read a column in a newspaper discrediting the author. To this I say I read reviews that said the opposite.  Either way I plan on reading it and updating my review if after my analysis I find the former to be true. Either way people are funny... People are always so willing to dismiss anything with out too much thought because they are to busy trying to defend rather than think about anyone else's....
662048
There is something seriously wrong with you if you think you need a review.  Meanwhile: heh heh: "educational value" --

I bought this so I could put a nametag on it and make fun of a co-worker.  For this purpose, it works perfectly.
PERFECTLY.
"Hello, my name is Joe"
My other co-workers don't get the joke.  But a Chupacabra is a GOAT SUCKER.
If you don't get the joke it's ok.  I don't expect much from you.
-r
PS: The posable limbs make it able to hold onto the side of my cube at work, more than I expected.  Now I need to buy a dozen more and put the names of other co-workers on them.
Suckers!
-=-
328858
I like it.  See my more detailed review here:  [...]
1225279
For those that are complaining of the taste... Did you think they were suppose to taste god? hahaha! gag gift!
4386770
do i really need to review every little dingle piece of crap I've ever purchased?  I clicked "My Reviews" you pahetic indian nigars.  I don't want to see a list of ever piece of nick nack I've ever purchased in my amazon history, you mud sucking, pathetic NYC dirt sorting, dick warshiping losers.
873846
Come on folks, you are giving reviews of one of the better sitcoms ever based on the fact you have to buy a complete series instead of just season 5.  Either it is worth it to you or it isn't.  Don't call for boycotts and complain.  It is worth it to me, and I am buying it.  Lighten up, people, this is a great show, and I would expect fans to want to see it.  I do.
3737629
Yes, I've really done that. All I needed was a discussion with a fellow community band musician over whether "in excelsis deo" should be pronounced in church Latin or classical Latin, which then led to whether Russian is a dialect of Ukranian or Ukranian is a dialect of Russian (can you tell we are working on music for the Christmas season?) and I realized that here was a person who thinks language is as much fun as I do. So I grabbed his lapels and told him he had to go get this book.

I've recommended it to any number of other people as well. Here's the sorts of people who would like this book: people who have ever tried to learn a foreign language and gotten distracted by cognates, people who not only know what cognates are but go looking for them for fun, people who deliberately try to read the liner notes in their CDs in one of the foreign languages and then check back with the English version to see how far off you were; people who debate whether Shakespeare is early modern English or modern English; people whose idea of a good time is playing word games; people who have ever participated in the User Friendly message boards translating the day's strip into ever-more outlandish languages...

Have you ever read any of the "Asterix" comic strips? Would you like to see how Asterix looks in three different dialects of German?

This book is not as downright serious as some, nor as deeply footnoted as a truly academic book would be. For that, you'd want to read "Empire of the Word" by Nicholas Ostler. It's much more thorough, and more academic, and dryer, and has far less humor. On the other hand, if you want to have FUN reading about language, "The Power of Babel" is the right book. Some other reviewers have referred to the book's "cheesy humor" or other lack of seriousness. I consider that a GOOD thing; this is a book that a person can sit and read, and enjoy, and share bits out loud with someone else in the room, rather than requiring the reader to squint and take notes and study. If it's wrong to appreciate books written for a popular audience rather than a scholarly one, then I don't wanna be right.

One warning: after you read this book, you will have trouble falling asleep for a while because thoughts about the vast connectedness of everything will keep you awake, jumping from topic to topic and word to word. Also, you will annoy many of your friends by repeatedly announcing that "there are no languages, only dialects." So far, none of my friends has hit me over the head for this, so the side effects are safe enough to be worth the read.
2388922
A fun purchase. Co-workers like to make comments about the cute donut design. Hum?? Maybe I should bring it home so people will stop talking to me.
3252744
Why don't you flush yourself too while you're at it, Fred? Aren't you witty and clever? Why you're as gonzo as Lester Bangs. Too bad you have no ears on your head. Why did you buy this in the first place if it is so far from your taste in music? Could it be you are just clueless about how to find what suits you? No, this isn't their best. YOUR FAVORITE MUSIC is probably a better pick. Not for you, though. You need something to ROCK to, right ? None of this MELLOW stuff. Poetry is for poofs. The sooner you leave these parts the better! Here's your hat - what's your hurry?
4721754
I liked it more than I disliked it, but I wish 3.5 stars were one of the choices. One reviewer wrote: "I see that most other reviewers liked the book, they appreciated both the humor and the story. So it probably comes down to taste." YES, it mos def comes down to taste.

Preface to the book points out that it is written from the narrator's point of view, which is reiterated at the end - I didn't really understand metamessage, as this is not such an unusual style for fiction. Additionally, this would be immediately obvious to a reader even without the preface, so I guess that struck me a off-putting and slightly hmmmmmm

Nonetheless I laughed out loud when I got to the line "I hate my job." The book has some funny moments and the main character grows to be likable. I agree with some of the other reviewers though, that the early part of the book is peppered with quite a few overwrought metaphors - this may strike you awesome (!) It's truly a matter of taste.  Personally I liked the latter half of the book better when then story took off and the language toned down.

Who would like this book? It read a little like a video game. If you like multi-media, if you like graphic novels, it's a modern romp through a wacky adventure. Read it like candy. Harmless and enjoyable come to mind as adjectives - if made into a movie, I hope it is animated.

Thanks Rory!
4751345
YOU'RE WRITING A REVIEW ON THE PRODUCT, NOT THE SCALPERS FFS...

Good looking amiibo, got mine for normal price... again, this is a product review, not a seller review... self entitled whiners everywhere...
1681668
I want to apologize.i did get my stuff.you did what you said.i will give you good ratings .please except my apologies.
3613833
Look fun...anyone actually bought these...?. Everything I'm reading about them SOUNDS good but it's for an honest unbiased , review that they receive the product to try....meaning $0.00.  What a deal, sign me up
3974685
Now this is a bit unfair isn't it? An author who has written speeches for leaders of some of the worlds top companies now has written his memoirs or at least a humorous interpretation of some key events in his life. It is hardly going to be a boring, uninspiring bad book, huh!

The author hasn't been born with a silver spoon in his mouth and by his own admission, he didn't study too much, he winged it and success came by sheer hard work and maybe a bit of good fortune whilst along the way blackmailing strippers, getting arrested and making drunken outbursts for good measure. It is a humourous, interesting read even if some of the references are a little to U.S.-centric and might need footnotes for confused foreigners. Written as you would expect in a flowing, personalised style, the author seemingly takes you from scene to scene, or should that be situation to situation.

Some of the detail is unnecessarily deep yet it perversely adds to the story  or the intrigue for this foreigner  such as it being illegal to ride a scooter in the District of Columbia with your helmets visor open in a bid to get desperately needed air.  It is probably against the law to overheat and die whilst controlling your steed too!

There is a lot of non-business material within the authors memories but it does play a part of business and his whole make-up. Just don't make the mistake of assuming this is a book crammed full of incisive advice that will make you a super, kick-ass speechwriter. The book will have you laughing, sighing with despair and at times crying  so that is perhaps the main thing and the books objective satisfied. You will find there is a fair bit of company watching as well, presented through a slightly different perspective than might be normal.

So sit down with a drink, kick off your shoes and prepare to relax. Theres a couple of hundred interesting, humorous pages waiting for you and youll probably whizz through them and not want to put the book down so often!