Rating: 
Summary: The most entertaining business book EVER
Review: "Brothers and sisters, let me ask you a question. Are you long on Jesus?"So begins "Sermon on the Money," one of the hilarious stories in Economy of Errors. No, it's not ripping religion. Instead, like most of the stories in this incredibly funny book, it's taking on business, and the hype and glory that got us all into the WorldCom-Enron-Andersen state of affairs we have now. I'm going to focus on it because it's actually quite indicative of what you'll find in the book. Apparently, a couple years back, Jesse Jackson convinced the NYSE to conduct seminars for clergy, who would then go preach the power of investing to their congregations. So Marlatt wrote up the transcript of a sermon delivered by one of the seminar "graduates," a Reverend in Georgia. The Rev. starts by asking the congregation if they are long on Jesus and explaining that Jesus wants them to think about their financial futures. My favorite part is when the Rev. says prayer is like a special transmission to God, no wires necessary, and begins a classic call and response session. "Brothers and sisters, when we pray to God, we are sending a wireless signal into the heavens."
(that's right)
"Jesus is wireless!"
(amen!)
"Prayer is wireless!"
(amen!)
"Phone.com is wireless! And with projected 160 percent annual revenue growth, it's a screaming buy at [price]!"
(hallelujah!)
"And we would short [website] here."
(okay) There are only a handful of humorists who can write like this: witty, bizarre, intelligent, poignant, maximally sardonic, and just incredibly (sometimes despite yourself) funny. Thank God Andrew Marlatt decided to focus his talents on making fun of business, especially now. Can I hear an amen? (amen!)
Rating:
Summary: The long, dark tea-time of the economy
Review: "Hilarious intellectual humor" is supposed to be an oxymoron, isn't it? But Marlatt somehow pulls it off. I'm sure there will be many books written about the economy of the last 10 years or so, but this will by far be the best remembered because the incredibly dark humor makes it timeless. This is one crazy, whacked-out writer.
Rating:
Summary: Totally hilarious...
Review: ...if you know your stuff. What I mean is, for me, this book was the greatest, but I'm a technology maven, or maver, if that's the masculine. So I imagine some of the jokes will go over a few heads. For example, there's a full page ad for Absolut vodka, and it's ingenious. The page is covered with gray "Windows Error" boxes, stacked on top of each other, and in each box, the exclamation symbol is actually an Absolut bottle. The error message says "Unable to install Netscape Navigator." And at bottom, in big letters, it says "Absolut Coincidence." If you are familiar with the history of the Microsoft-Netscape browser wars, you'll get this right away, but if you are not familiar with that, you won't. There's quite a few parts of the book like that, I think. They're not exactly "inside" jokes, but if you know the tech biz it would certainly help. Another example is a piece about "Brandesia. It's what you get when you can't remember the name of the company you work for because it sounds so much like another company. In this story, employees from Agilent, Teligent, Sapient, Celerant and Aviant get confused about where they're supposed to report to work. Great if you know those are real companies. Most of the book probably doesn't require more than moderate knowledge of business, but I think to really appreciate it, you had to "be there," so to speak.
Rating:
Summary: SatireWire.com outside the monitor.
Review: As a regular follower of Satirewire..., when I heard Economy of Errors was coming out I had to have one. This book is as much fun as the web site, but its harder to hide in your computer monitor. You can take it on the airplane, but its the kind of book that is hard to read in public or people will wonder why you keep laughing. The lists are especially good as are a number of the sidebars and cartoons (some of which are way out there: "Shouldn't someone tell Bob poll). Even though the I'm not in the dot com business, or in business at all, its still really fun. Great book, I can't wait for the next one!
Rating:
Summary: Couldn't put it down
Review: As the title says, I couldn't put this book down... P>Economy of Errors takes everything you've ever thought about business and twists it so absurdly that you actually recognize it, but from angles you never noticed were there. The one about Toys "R" Us deciding to spin backwards, not just it's famous R, but the T and the U to get "three times the brand awareness," or something like that, floored me. It was brilliant. The book just keeps going like that, and nobody is spared. Executives, working stiffs, high tech and low tech companies, young and old. And the way it deals with the whole demise of the dot com era is hilarious. Haven't read a funnier, and more surprising book in years.
Rating:
Summary: A great gift (no, seriously)
Review: Economy of Errors has broken a losing streak for me, and for that reason alone, I highly recommend it. You know how when you give a book to a friend as a present, then you talk to that friend half a year later ask if they liked it, and they have no idea what you're talking about? I had that happen with the last several books I'd given out, but not Economy of Errors. Three times now I've given Marlatt's book as a gift, and three times the recipient has not only read it, but thanked me for it. The most surprisingly funny feature is/are the images. The book has these great (i.e. funny) charts, but I also loved the captions for the pictures that went with the stories. Speaking of stories, the one where Enron tries to convince everyone it is the nation of Argentina and therefore immune from U.S. laws is classically funny, as is pretty much the whole book.
Rating:
Summary: Top Ten Funniest Books
Review: First of all, the book's great and funny all the way through, as you'd expect from Satirewire anyway. But you have to like the timing of the book, too, what with all the scandals. If only some companies would have read Economy of Errors earlier, (of course, it wasn't out yet, but still), they could have learned so much about, say, employee relations (slap them) or how to save money (cut back on employees 120 percent) or if they qualified for Chapter 51 Intellectual Bankruptcy (one of my favorite concepts from the book.) I agree with one earlier reviewer about the book's layout -- it isn't ideal. But really, that's just so ancillary to the whole thing, which is funny as hell and I promise you will be a hit at the office, if you can keep it on your desk long enough.
Rating:
Summary: You'll be fighting over this one
Review: From what I've seen and read lately, there are two big guns in news satire or humorous news: The Onion and SatireWire. I own all three Onion books, (one and three were great, the second one was funny, but kind of slapped together), and bought Economy of Errors the other day, hoping it was just as good as their rival's. That's a tall order for anyone's first book, but especially after I learned SatireWire was not a "they," but just one guy. So, I got the book, flipped to a random page, "Girlfriend Announces Disappointing Q2 Results," and after about 30 seconds I was doubled over. My roommate came over, and all I could say was "Read this! Read this!" before spluttering off for some water. Since then we've been fighting over it. What I love about it is not just that it's hilarious, but it skewers something that never really gets hit hard enough: business. Okay, lately people have been making fun of Enron and Andersen and a few others, but this book digs at everybody from Microsoft to Adam Smith to the hidden desires of CEOs (the story about CEO dream dates is classic, maybe even beyond classic). More amazing to me is that it's both hysterical and historical, it kind of walks you through the new economy right thru to today's post-new economy. Today, because I just read it, my favorite is one that takes on high-tech hype. Called "IBM Has Smaller Chips; AMD Has Smaller Employees," it begins: "In response to IBM's statement that it will produce transistors only .20 microns across, rival chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices announced today that most of its employees are no more than 14 inches tall. AMD, however, refused to allow reporters into its facilities to verify the claim. "We would, but we can't reach the doorknobs," spokesman Ravi Chalani said in a phone interview." The Onion guys are great, but as I'm reading this, I'd have to say Andrew Marlatt is the funniest writer in America.
Rating:
Summary: Terrific
Review: How great is this book? I brought Economy of Errors into the office and literally stopped production for almost an hour. People were doubled over. The employee slapping policy story is wickedly funny, and the "10 warning signs that you may be technologically impaired" were hysterical, especially sign #3: "Look at your email address. Does it end in aol.com?" Not only does this book give you reason to laugh, and laugh hard, at business, but as absurd as much of the humor is, "Shooting in Virtual Office Leaves 3 As Good As Dead, 6 Tantamount to Wounded," we could all relate to it.
Rating:
Summary: Buy, don't steal, this book
Review: I did not steal this book, as my friend Richard has claimed, but bought it after leafing through his copy of Economy of Errors at his apartment. I DID NOT take it out of his apartment. I bought my own. I have a receipt and everything. And it was worth buying it instead of stealing it. Economy of Errors is just brilliant. I haven't laughed harder at anything in at least a millennium. Just one innocent man's opinion
|
