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The Alphabet of Manliness
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6 new or used available from £9.00
Average customer review:
Product Description
Finally, a book that guarantees your balls will be stomped; a book so manly that it will make even the burliest of men (and in some cases, the burliest of women) feel inadequate. So manly, it needs to be shaved: "The Alphabet of Manliness". This collection of sacred writings may very well be the greatest compilation of all things manly throughout history. This book is only for the saltiest, hairiest, most rugged son of a bitch out there. However, it would be selfish to keep it for myself, so feel free to buy a copy. This humble tome of wisdom is a tribute to all men who toil away at work every day, getting their balls busted, or busting balls. If you can't handle the punch to the colon I'm about to deliver to you, look on the bright side: you'll save a fortune on Halloween when kids come to your door to pick apart your candy ass. On the other hand, if you feel comfortable with the risk of having your ass neatly packaged and handed to you with all the trimmings, cut the foreplay and crack the book open already.
Product Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #132460 in Books
- Published on: 2006-06-30
- Original language: English
- Binding: Paperback
- 224 pages
Customer Reviews
Not as Biblical as you might expect
If this were a proper review, I'd start by introducing Maddox to the readership. However, it isn't. If you don't know who Maddox is- visit his site. There's enough to keep you reading for hours on end, some of it truly hilarious. There's also no point in paying to read an unknown author when there's a vast supply of free sample material online. The first "buy or not" decision comes as soon as you read his site. If you don't find that funny, there's absolutely no point in reading this book.
To everyone who is already instantly familiar with Maddox: when this book was announced it seemed like a huge event, especially as the man himself gave it plenty of tongue-in-cheek over-hype. If you're expecting the medium of a book to expand the scope and quality of his humour, you'll be dissapointed. The Alphabet of Manliness is not funnier than his site, and neither is it significantly different in overall style of humour.
So what is it? It centres entirely on one of Maddox's avenues of humour: manliness. Disguised as a glossary come self-help are 26 comic articles on everything from Chuck Norris (the geek staple) to Urinal Etiquette, aided by loads of well-drawn pictures (by pro artists rather than the hand-drawn stuff Maddox uses on his own site) and some faux-mathematical charts. And that's it really - a couple of hundred pages of funny walk-throughs to machismo related subjects. Essentially you're paying for a concentrated and portable dose of Maddox rather than something new or innovative.
The principle problem with this is that it narrows Maddox's humour down to a pretty limited set of topics. There's no room for his disgusted rants against most of popular culture, no hilarious film reviews, no dismissal of children's art/idiotic mail. Very little of his observational humour on a variety of iritating everyday things get a look in (although the Irate entry provides a condensed version).
One thing that is important to note is that The Alphabet of Manliness is not part of this American resurgance of machismo in reaction to metrosexuality. If anything, this is a parody of those values: a grossly exaggerated charicature of macho fuelled by the fact that Maddox is someone who would like to smash up the mundanity of life. He recognises the stupidity of masculinity as much as the subjects he attacks with it. Don't be put off by the notion that this is for macho men and it's about macho men. All the humour is derived from male-orientated topics, but there's nothing here to turn away feminine readers. All you need to get a good laugh out of the knowledge that all the offensive content is not genuine or malicious. And the acceptance that you're just getting a monstrous entry of his website in book form rather than something revolutionary, of course.
The Book its everything you expected
This book is fantastic, but i must stress do not take anything in it seriously, if your pretty religious like i am you may be offended in some parts, but on the whole this book was hilarious and its "rocked my face off" as Maddox would put it. If you are used to reading his material online you will notice the book is different in the style of writting but this is only because your used to electronic, its still as witty and sarcastic as any article that came before. Ok some parts have been rehashed and you would have read it before, infact some jokes have been borrowed from films and is the only reason it gets a 4 and not a 5 on this occassion.
Incredible and fascinating
I bet you will be speechless right after you read the first few pages. They are that astonishing, original and provocative. I laughed out loud so many times because this is one of the very best humoristic book I have ever laid eyes on and I am an avid reader. My impressions about the author and his great entertainment are entirely based on this truly very, very manly book. It is organized into 26 small sections, one for each letter of the alphabet.
I am sure that you won't be able to put it down after you read just the first one dedicated to A** kicking. I don't know whether you will grow extra hair and your testosterone will skyrocket after you read the book but I am sure that you will be thrilled to have a copy of it and reread it again and again. Additional bestseller worth praising as well is "Scientificlly guaranteed male multiple orgasms and ultimate sex". I dare say that these books are a great pair and will open your eyes for so many "must know" manly secrets. Keep it up.
