Dilbert Gives You the Business

Dilbert #14

by Scott Adams

Everyone who reads Dilbert and works in an office will appreciate this newest collection, Dilbert Gives You the Business. Creator Scott Adams tells it like it is through the insane business world inhabited by Dilbert. If frustration and lunacy are an inevitable part of your workday, appropriate measures must be taken immediately.

After 10 years of syndication, Dilbert is universally recognized as the definitive source of office humor. What makes this 14th Dilbert book so unique is that it is a collection of the most popular strips requested by fans for reprints and downloads from Dilbert.com gathered together for the first time. Arranged by topics for quick reference, this hilarious book is the comprehensive Dilbert source book, sure to alleviate work burnout. Fans will find all their favorite characters packed within these colorful pages, including Dilbert, as he encounters daily issues from delegating to decision-making, trade shows to telecommuting, and downsizing to annoying coworkers.

It's business as usual for the Dilbert clan...Dilbert is continually updating his resume, Dogbert continues his pursuit of world domination, Wally strives to do the least amount of work possible, and Alice is eternally frustrated by the Boss. Welcome to the all-too-familiar world of Dilbert--the lowly engineer who has become an icon for oppressed and burnt-out workers everywhere! The most popular business-oriented cartoon in the worked, Dilbert Speaks to millions of fans who toil in the corporate trenches. No matter how outrageous a tale he spins, Dilbert creator Scott Adams inserts sufficient nuggets of truth in every strip to keep his believers laughing. In part, that's because Dilbert is based on his own former corporate experiences--and is kept current by culling inspiration from the 350-plus e-mails he receives each day.

Genres: Humor, Comics, Fiction, Comic Strips, Comedy, Business, Cartoon

224 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 1999

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

Adams was born in Windham, New York in 1957 and received his Bachelor's degree in Economics from Hartwick College in 1979.

He also studied economics and management for his 1986 MBA from the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley.

In recent years, Adams has been hurt with a series of debilitating health problems. Since late 2004, he has suffered from a reemergence of his focal dystonia which has affected his drawing. He can fool his brain by drawing using a graphics tablet. On December 12, 2005, Adams announced on his blog that he also suffers from spasmodic dysphonia, a condition that causes the vocal cords to behave in an abnormal manner. However, on October 24, 2006, he again blogged stating that he had recovered from this condition, although he is unsure if the recovery is permanent. He claims to have developed a method to work around the disorder and has been able to speak normally since. Also, on January 21, 2007, he posted a blog entry detailing his experiences with treatment by Dr. Morton Cooper.

Adams is also a trained hypnotist, as well as a vegetarian. (Mentioned in, "Dilbert: A Treasury of Sunday Strips 00).

He married Shelly Miles on July 22, 2006.

Reviews

[Joe · Rating 3 out of 5]

The same popular Dilbert cartoons we all know... organized differently! These strips are arranged by profession (jokes about middle-managers are all put together, same with salespeople, engineers, etc.) So narrative flow is sacrificed for, I suppose, ease of finding something appropriate for your cubicle wall.

This is not the most head-scratching Dilbert collection to hit the market. There's one that added Sudoku puzzles with no more explanation than that Sudoku was the craze of the day. I don't begrudge Adams his entrepreneurial spirit, but a few of these projects could've been thought up by Dilbert's pointy-haired boss.

[Lost Planet Airman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Always good to read Dilbert. This is a large-format recompiling of past comics dealing with business, co-workers, and other hazards of the workplace.

As funny as ever!

[Tina B. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've always loved Dilbert, and I couldn't wait to get my hands on a collection in book format. "Dilbert Gives You the Business" didn't disappoint. The comics are arranged by job description instead of date. Some comics appear more than once for this reason. One thing I couldn't help but notice is the book is a bit dated (beepers are still used). But if you're old enough to remember using beepers like me, you won't mind and will laugh anyway.

[Nia Nymue · Rating 4 out of 5]

(Might be skewing the consistency of my ratings by giving this four instead of three stars.) Enjoyed it a lot more than I expected to. Noticed this strip in the newspaper when I was younger but didn't find it funny. I think it gets funnier when you've worked with people in some kind of organisation. It also helped that it was organised by topic, so you don't need much prior knowledge of the comic content to enjoy each strip.

[Brian · Rating 1 out of 5]

So bad. Written by a rich guy who thinks he is smart and funny but is very, very wrong. This book made me embarrassed for Scott Adams.

[Sarah B · Rating 2 out of 5]

So while I have seen Dilbert before (meaning he looks familiar) I don't think I have ever actually read it before. And before reading this I wasn't too sure what it was about. I am also probably not the target audience for this book - I think its meant for office workers. And I am far from that! So do take that into consideration with my review. Oh and I do have autism so I do see things a bit differently.

I did find a few of the panels in here very funny. They actually made me laugh out loud (which is rare indeed). One of the things I found so funny in here is how incredibly stupid his boss is! And in a few strips at the very beginning of the book - like the one about the Etch-A-Sketch or the Fax-You-Extra-Electric - really made me laugh! But then later in the book the stuff wasn't really funny anymore...

It got kind of dull? And a lot of it was just...I don't know...weird? Like they were at work but weren't doing anything? Or they didn't seem to know what their own product was? I admit I don't understand that. So to me it doesn't make sense. I also don't understand why the boss was hiring dogs and rats. And does the dog live with Dilbert? I don't know. I mean can't the boss see the rat is a rat?

But I had decided today I was going to finish reading this and I have. I stuck it out and got through the rest of the strips. And I found another one that made me chuckle out loud. It was where the boss was doing some inspection of the cubicles and the one woman dumped all of her papers into the cubicle next to hers. Yes, I like slapstick type humor. The man next to her was buried in her papers, only his feet poking out! That was funny!

But out of a book with 224 pages and 4 strips per page, only three strips made me laugh! That is pretty bad if you ask me. Most of them were boring, rather confusing and "blah".

Then there is another issue I had with this book: it's size. It's very large and awkward to hold. It's too big. And because it's a softcover its all floppy too. Very hard to read if it's not on a table. Like if you want to read snuggled in your favorite stuffed chair or in bed, well, this book will give you lots of problems!

Truthfully I am glad I am done with this book!

[Mrs. Read · Rating 4 out of 5]

The minuses on Scott Adams’ Dilbert Gives You the Business are that the cartoons are all very old - about 25 years - so many have been seen, some more than once, in other Dilbert books. In addition, a lot are more crudely drawn; in fact it’s kind of interesting to watch the familiar characters gradually develop into their familiar shapes.
The plus of course is that it’s Dilbert. Some of the cartoons were and remain very funny, and net, the the Business Dilbert is Giv[ing] You is in the black. If your resources (money, time, or your public library’s loan maximum) are limited I suggest spending them on one of the more recent collections, but if not, Dilbert Gives You the Business is recommended.

[Erik · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you wanted to give the gift of Dilbert, this book would be a great choice - covers a wide variety of topics, conveniently indexed at the side of the page for quick reference. Half of the pages are also full color strips, which is a bit different than the mostly monochrome of prior Dilbert books i've read.

Not enough catbert.

[Lgordo · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are some great Dilberts out there. But ahdunno if these are really the highlights. I felt like it was more a reminder of how lame most of them are, rather than a reminder how awesome some of them are.

[SKP · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love Dilbert and own just about all of his books on Kindle. This is one of my favorites because of how it is organized, and because it includes some of my favorite of the strips. Definitely one of the better volumes of Dilbert.

[Robert Andres · Rating 1 out of 5]

I bought this before SA made his stupid comments so I felt obligated to read it. Didn't want to waste my $2.99 at Goodwill. It's the same joke over and over and over again. I got about half way through before

[David Erkale · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Dilbert Book "Dilbert Gives You the Business" has all of the best work-related comics so you can use them for any situation in the office. There are strips for telecommuting, accounting, sales-the lot. With years of Adams' work, this collection appeals to any Dilbert fan!

[Benj · Rating 4 out of 5]

Found this whilst clearing out an old bedroom - an utter delight. Full of cynicism and truth - a great combination. Oh, and very funny too.

[David Meyer · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's impressive how funny and incredibly accurate most of these are.

[DOUGLAS J BERRY · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dilbert.

A mixture of black and white strips with some color. Some repeats which should have been edited out. Some parents who hate their children have been naming them Dilbert.

[David M. Carroll · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cubicle avoidance

Although my past employment never included being confined to a cubicle I have worked for, and with idiots, so I can relate to this book.

[Brian W. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good Book,

Enjoyed the sense of humour - not that far-off from actual business reality. Not hard to identify with some of the situations contained in the book.

[Nathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun! Sort of organized.

[Benjamin Murray · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not a fan of how it is formatted by topic. I would prefer a chronological one. Still very funny.

[Sam Goyer · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very funny collection of Dilbert strips in categories such as “Sales” and “Telecommuting.”

[rabbitprincess · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am always going to give five stars to a Dilbert collection, because I love the comic. However, I probably should not have read this book right on the heels of It's Not Funny If I Have to Explain It, because both of these are best-of collections and as such include a lot of the same material. But anyway, most people won't be reading those two one right after the other, so Dilbert Gives You the Business is still a good read. The format of this book is unique: it sorts strips by subject matter, so you'll have a section with comics devoted to bosses, one for secretaries, another for marketing, and so on. It's a good mix of comics and contains lots of the favourites, including the quintessential tech support strip where Dogbert tells the guy to stand on his chair and yell over his cubicle wall, "Does anybody know how to read a manual?" Priceless.

[Martin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Most Dilbert strips are funny to begin with, so reading a "Best Of" collection such as this one is a garanteed good time. The strips in this book are organised by topic (Marketing, Human Resources, Interns, Management, and so on...), so if you feel like reading strips about a certain topic you don't have to keep looking through the book to find them.

One thing that sometimes dates Dilbert cartoons are the technological references (for example: pagers/beepers), but other than that, the office humour is timeless and the situations depicted are just as true today as they were then.

[Narariel · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book is a fun collection of Dilbert strips, collected by theme rather than date. Focused on the business world, it's a good read to brighten a discouraging work day, though some strips might hit home more than others. Topic range from Annoying Coworkers to Security to Performance Reviews. Due to the way it's organized, there's an occasional storyline that has strips in multiple sections, which can be annoying if you want to just read stories. Overall, it's an enjoyable read & "reference book."

[Erik · Rating 5 out of 5]

This collection of the classic comic strip is a favorite of mind mainly due to how I can relate to the situations and personalities Scott Adams humorously conveys to readers. I am a CPA and have done corporate work for awhile now and there are many laugh out loud moments. However, the humor is somewhat cynical so if you don't like that and your aren't an office worker I would say you should pass on it. I usually don't like cynical humor but I'll make an exception for the inanities that abound in this book (some of which I personally experienced. Brilliant collection.

[Aditya Mallya · Rating 3 out of 5]

The better strips are concentrated in the beginning of the collection, so it starts to wear a little thin towards the end. Also, the editing is a little sloppy - several strips are repeated or in the wrong section.

[Donnell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun--giving you a sense of various business aspects since the cartoons are grouped by theme.

Strange that it has been over 20 years since I was in a business (law firm) environment, yet still cringing at the thought that I spent time with some of the stuff raised in this book.

[Little Timmy · Rating 5 out of 5]

We all might have started out like Calvin with a great view of life. But after hitting the workforce we all somewhat become Dilbert. Everyone knows someone like one of the characters in the strips. Highly recommended

[Luis Perez · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fiction. A sweet collection of the best Dilbert business cartoons, indexed by categories such as programmers, gender relations, consulting and of course, management. First read this in 2000.

[Charlie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Funny comics. I like how it was organized by topic. Made it easy to find the perfect comic to show my point.

[Betty Anne · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love Dilbert.