Scintillating, witty, clever, hilarious... Are words that I'd use to accurately describe myself more than this book, and I'm noted for my modesty.
This tome purports to be an encyclopaedia of what you or I, in the modern world, consider to be, as the title suggests...sh*t.
I would more likely purport that the content of this book is as such.
More often than not the authors take a decidedly leftist view when choosing an entry for this "encyclopaedia" and a decidedly leftist view when describing it, i.e. the entry for The Daily Mail newspaper is a minor rant which would make the innocent non-exposed (to The Daily Mail) reader think that this newspaper was in some way related to Mein Kampf.
Am not really sure anyone in the real world cares that much about The Daily Mail.
To replace the words "The Encyclopaedia of Modern Life" with "Leftist Diatribe" would more accurately sum up the contents for this particular reader, who was quite naturally expecting to be humoured but left deeply disappointed.
However a quick peek at what works the authors have produced previously and it all makes sense - articles for The Big Issue and a university magazine called Solidarity, or something.
Aah, now I see where all this is coming from.
On those oh so rare occasions when I felt that a particular entry in the book was sharing common ground with general public opinion, the description of why the entry was considered sh*t was so descriptively over laden with irrelevance that all common ground was lost and a deep sense of not-hitting-the-nail-on-the-head prevailed.
To research a book like this I would suggest perhaps drowning in copies of tabloid newspapers for a year or so, as that’s what the general public reads therefore that’s what reflects/formulates many of our opinions. Regurgitating views worthy of The New Socialist doesn’t really grasp the identifiable opinions of the man on the street in this fair land.
In short, this book really deserves an entry within itself.