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Never Hit a Jellyfish with a Spade: How to Survive Life's Smaller Challenges Audiobook
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(3.06) - 303 listener ratings
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Publisher Description
The big things in life look after themselves. Birth, love, death—they're all terrifically exciting, but they happen whether we like it or not. It's the little things in life that cause the most trouble. How do you deal with the million and one everyday challenges?
Help is at hand. For the first time you can get intelligent, practical tuition on the level you need it: the trivial level. After years of exploring the small pockets in life's backpack in his celebrated "How to" column in the Weekend Guardian, Guy Browning has the rules that can help you move safely and effortlessly through the micro-chicanes on life's byways, including:
—How to evaluate a bottle of wine (if the alcohol content is less than 15 percent, send it straight back)
—How to get what you want at the barber's (no multipart instructions, please)
—How to stay warm in bed (when your partner has cold feet and steals the covers)
—How to be a fashionista (when your twenty-year-old wardrobe is suddenly back in vogue)
—How to pretend to laugh at a friend's joke (the closest most men get to faking orgasm)
—How to fix a computer (If restarting it doesn't work, turn it off and go back to a preindustrial lifestyle.)
Covering cooking and eating, sleeping and waking, men and women, love and marriage, religion and politics, hedges and neighbors, Never Hit a Jellyfish with a Spade delivers the truth about the things that really matter. With a package as fun as its contents, it's the ideal gift for anyone who wants to live life with a sense of humor.
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"A very funny book with some practical and useful tips for the reader, Browning has managed to find a bit of humour in everything. This will alter your perception of pretty much everything and have your crying with laughter in the process "
— Sam (5 out of 5 stars)
Quotes
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“This laugh-out-loud little essay collection serves up offbeat assistance…Browning’s sophisticated humor makes this a winner.”
— Library Journal (starred review) -
This laugh-out-loud little essay collection serves up offbeat assistance.... Browning's sophisticated humor makes this a winner.
— Library Journal Starred Review
Never Hit a Jellyfish with a Spade Listener Reviews
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" Some of this stuff is just really fun. Good light reading, and a few of the pieces have some very wry and "spot on" observations. The author is British, and that brand of humor shows up in his writing. "
— Jeanette, 2/17/2014 -
" A series of very short whimsical pieces which fall flat some of the time but since they don't out-stay their welcome it hardly matters. Entertaining in short doses, not a book you'd sit and read for very long at a time though. Harmless fun. "
— Derek, 2/15/2014 -
" Liked it more and more as it went along. Some LOL moments. "
— Michelle, 2/6/2014 -
" Have breakfast with tea and Browning and you can handle the day! "
— Maki, 1/26/2014 -
" hysterical. good stocking stuffer/fun gift book. "
— Disa, 1/21/2014 -
" The humor is so dry here, I almost missed it. "
— Marissa, 1/17/2014 -
" I liked it, I really did - it's humorous and sneakily witty and filled with all sorts of "Oh god that's crazy but true" moments. Sadly, it never mentions why you shouldn't hit jellyfish with a spade. I also found it to contain grammatical errors (I'm very much a stickler for that) and some of the generalisations (especially gender-wise) really got me, although I know it's just meant to be taken lightly for the sake of comedy. But overall I enjoyed it, it was an excellent piss-take on self-help books and I'd recommend it to anyone who wants some funny, light entertainment. "
— Floriana, 1/4/2014 -
" I thought this would be a fun book to flip through (and it did make me chuckle a few times) but I'm bummed that it wasn't as funny as I'd hoped it would be. "
— Melissa, 1/4/2014 -
" Very British wry humour :) "
— peishan, 12/26/2013 -
" Okay, I tried.... I tried....I tried.... however I only made it to the second section. Each chapter is two pages long... the continuous switching of topics made my brain tired. I know this is British humor, but I didn't find it funny. Maybe I'm just a stupid American. :( "
— Kathleen, 11/25/2013 -
" A very funny book with some practical and useful tips for the reader, Browning has managed to find a bit of humour in everything. This will alter your perception of pretty much everything and have your crying with laughter in the process "
— Sam, 11/10/2013 -
" Best book I ever bought. Hands down. "
— Mary, 11/5/2013 -
" Good insight into the minds of British people and their humor and different terms, I enjoyed that and laughed quite a few times. A good break from mystery or adventure books. "
— Jimmy, 11/2/2013 -
" This was an amusing book - not the funniest book I've ever read, but definitely worth the read. It did make me laugh, and some days, that is all I ask. "
— Melissa, 10/30/2013 -
" A funny book - I liked it alot "
— Booksdingle, 10/25/2013 -
" It never says why not to hit a jellyfish with a spade... "
— bekah, 8/2/2013 -
" It was very amusing. I found myself laughing out loud as I randomly flipped through the pages each time I sat down to read it. "
— Dominique, 7/25/2013 -
" Laugh-out funny and entertaining. Highly recommend to everyone. "
— Kristine, 7/9/2013 -
" Couple of pages per article, very amusing and an excellent way to kill a couple of minutes/very long time "
— Rob, 2/10/2013 -
" For those of us who doesn't take life too seriously. Very funny! "
— Naomi, 1/29/2013 -
" Quite hilarious. Great English humour! "
— Stacie, 8/3/2012 -
" This was a fun diversion... a small dose of entertaining sarcasm in every chapter. "
— Hannah, 7/24/2012 -
" Droll British humour. It was entertaining to this American for a while, but I didn't feel pressed to finish it. "
— Dorothy, 3/22/2012 -
" Beautifully British and uproariously funny. "
— Jim, 11/24/2011 -
" So funny, laugh out loud, people giving you weird looks on the bus funny. Personal favourites include How to...ride a horse, ramble and stay warm in bed. "
— Sophie, 8/13/2011 -
" Droll British humour. It was entertaining to this American for a while, but I didn't feel pressed to finish it. "
— Dorothy, 8/20/2010 -
" This was a fun diversion... a small dose of entertaining sarcasm in every chapter. "
— Hannah, 6/4/2010 -
" Have breakfast with tea and Browning and you can handle the day! "
— Maki, 5/22/2009 -
" light-hearted read over how to survive daily events like making a cup of tea, how to bathe and most importantly, how to get most of the duvet cover in the middle of the night. "
— Rachel, 3/31/2009 -
" Okay, I tried.... I tried....I tried.... however I only made it to the second section. Each chapter is two pages long... the continuous switching of topics made my brain tired. I know this is British humor, but I didn't find it funny. Maybe I'm just a stupid American. :( "
— Kathleen, 1/9/2009 -
" For those of us who doesn't take life too seriously. Very funny! "
— Naomi, 12/17/2008 -
" hysterical. good stocking stuffer/fun gift book. "
— Disa, 7/13/2008 -
" So funny, laugh out loud, people giving you weird looks on the bus funny. Personal favourites include How to...ride a horse, ramble and stay warm in bed. "
— Sophie, 6/20/2008 -
" Some of this stuff is just really fun. Good light reading, and a few of the pieces have some very wry and "spot on" observations. The author is British, and that brand of humor shows up in his writing. "
— Jeanette, 1/27/2008
About Guy Browning
Guy Browning is a humorist and after-dinner speaker. He wrote the “How To” column in The Guardian from 1999 to 2009, and he is the author of the bestselling Never Push When It Says Pull and Maps of My Life. He lives in Kingston Bagpuize in Oxfordshire.
About Simon Vance
Simon Vance (a.k.a. Robert Whitfield) is an award-winning actor and narrator. He has earned more than fifty Earphones Awards and won the prestigious Audie Award for best narration thirteen times. He was named Booklist’s very first Voice of Choice in 2008 and has been named an AudioFile Golden Voice as well as an AudioFile Best Voice of 2009. He has narrated more than eight hundred audiobooks over almost thirty years, beginning when he was a radio newsreader for the BBC in London. He is also an actor who has appeared on both stage and television.