Unexpected Item in the Bagging Area: Driven Crazy by the Modern World?

by Chris Martin

A hilarious call-to-arms for everyone infuriated by 21st century technology, from iPhones to e-readers to self-service checkout If you point my smart phone at the sky, its star-gazing app can supposedly identify and name planets outside of our galaxy. Extraordinary—but even more extraordinary is that it can't actually make telephone calls. Trying to get a signal on it is like searching for the Yeti—some people believe it exists but you would probably have to trek to the Himalayas to find it. For those who yearn for the good old days before one needed a degree in computer programming just to make a phone call, this is the perfect book, rebelling against the crazes and popularity of the unfathomable trappings of the contemporary world. Technophobes who have found themselves shouting at a recorded voice on the phone, been driven crazy by the illogical pricing of train tickets, or found themselves drowning in a sea of half-remembered passwords, have found their manifesto.

192 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 2013

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.

Book editor who comes from a family of golfers and virtually has golf balls in his blood. Chris lives in Notting Hill, London.

Reviews

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is not a literature I usually love to read, but as a sidepiece while sitting in a room full of students and just watching an exam happen, it was pretty amazing. Funny, simple, short and totally relatable.

[Michele Brooker · Rating 4 out of 5]

Chapter on office kitchens that I think we can all equate with!

[John Humber · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hilarious it's not, mildly amusing (in parts) it might be. It's not a book to read at length - most of the entries are written to a particular pattern; one that becomes a touch tedious after a while. It's a book to dip into as you sit with a cup of tea for ten minutes before getting on with something more interesting.

Exaggeration is expected in a book like this, of course it is, but do you check the weather forecast ". . . online every few hours."? And unless you've never been outside London you might find some of the entries slightly puzzling - some of the entries are just not as ubiquitous as is claimed or suggested.

If you find, as the cover-blurb suggests, that . . . you are not alone. . . with more than a couple of these entries, you should probably seek help.

[John Lee · Rating 2 out of 5]

Could have been really funny but it didnt quite make it. More like Grumpy Old Men but without the humour.

[Margaret · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some funny, some ho-hum cameos of everyday life. Nice light read over breakfast.

[Dan Morley]

I really enjoyed this book and it really made me think about real life scenarios