The Book For People Who Do Too Much

Rating:
Summary: Still a winning formula
Review: At some point in reading Bradley Trevor Grieve's mini-sermons one can't help but get hit by a wave of "Why didn't I think of this?" The idea of taking a simple lecture on enjoying life for what it is and complimenting it with animal photographs that perfectly and often very humorously illustrate his point is so simple that it's genius. In "The Book For People Who Do Too Much" Grieve continues with this formula, and for the most part the results are successful.

Saying "for the most part" however separates this book from some of his classics. Grieve does stumble a bit here, and I think that might have to do with the subject matter. The concept of trying to do too much in a quickly complexifying society is something that is mostly unique to humans. Trying to find animal equivalents to this is difficult, and at times some of the attempts to link pictures and text seem a bit forced.

However the earnestness and thoughtfulness that Grieve always puts into his subject matter is no less on display here, and that easily overcomes such objections. In the introduction Grieve states that this book was born out of his own propensity for doing too much, and the book's story make it clear that he is speaking from experience. And despite the aforementioned misses Grieve includes a few howlers, though like most of his best pairings they are better seen than described.

So overall good, but not quite Grieve's best work, and so not the best starting point for those who are new to him. For those people I recommend "The Meaning Of Life". But for those who have other of his books and looking to get more this makes for a quality addition.

Rating:
Summary: Another Pick-Me-Up
Review: This is also another book of the same flavour from the same author. In that sense, there is really nothing new here, and the advices in the book can be found better expressed elsewhere. But Grieve sticks to his winning formula of attaching whimsical animal photos to his one-liners and the combination can only be charming.

I think the photos this time round are not up to the high standard in the Blue Day Book, but maybe I am just nitpicking.