Another Day in Cubicle Paradise: A Dilbert Book

Dilbert #19

by Scott Adams

White-collar hell has never seemed funnier than in this comic strip collection in the series that makes"the dronelike world of Kafka seem congenial" (The New York Times).

When Dilbert first appeared in newspapers across the country in 1989, office workers looked around suspiciously. Was its creator, Scott Adams, a pen name for someone who worked amongst them? After all, the humor was just too eerily funny and familiar. Since then, Dilbert has become more than a cartoon character. He's become an office icon. In Another Day in Cubicle Paradise, Dilbert and his cohorts, Dogbert, Catbert, Ratbert, and the pointy-haired boss, once again entertain with their cubicle humor. From bizarre personnel decisions to meetings gone bad, from schizoid secretaries to consultants from hell, Another Day in Cubicle Paradise provides a way to get all those darn comic strips off the breakroom bulletin board.

"Once every decade, America is gifted with an angst-ridden anti-hero, a Nietzschean nebbish, an us-against-the-universe everyperson around whom our insecurities collect like iron shavings to a magnet. Charlie Chaplin. Dagwood Bumstead. Charlie Brown. Cathy. Now, Dilbert." --The Miami Herald

"The business [Adams] has built out of mocking business has turned into the sort of success story that the average cartoon hero could only dream of." --The London Financial Times

Genres: Humor, Comics, Fiction, Comic Strips, Comedy, Graphic Novels, Cartoon

128 pages, ebook

First published March 1, 2002

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

[Mrs. Read · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another Day in Cubicle Paradise is another book of very funny Dilbert cartoons.* Even if you read them when they were first published (~15 years ago?) there are bound to be some you missed and a lot you forgot, so the book is definitely recommended for fans of the strip (even though it’s a little on the short side).

* It’s impossible to “cite” wonderful observations from a book of comic strips, and anyway people’s idea of what’s funny differs tremendously. Nevertheless, I recommend a panel 74% through (in which lights are turned out).

[Miss Clark · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Kogiopsis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Despite never having had to deal with a cubicle in my eighteen years of life, I have long enjoyed and often laughed at Dilbert cartoons. This volume appears to be mostly comics from 2001 or so, so there are some aspects of today's new comics missing. The one that bothered me most was the lack of longer arcs - maybe they just feel longer if you only read one a day, but I'd swear that there are six or seven strips focusing on "Catbert the evil HR Director" or something like it running now, and here all those unifying themes last two or three strips at most - not quite long enough for Adams to get all the potential humor out of them, and definitely not long enough for me to get tired of them.

Anyhow: funny, fun, and a quick read; not the best of his work, though.

[SKP · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have read a lot of volumes of Dilbert books, but this is probably the first one I’ve read that didn’t seem to repeat half a of previous book. Because of that, this one was a lot of fun to read. Having spent some time in a cubicle myself over the years, I always suspect that Scott Adams bugs a lot of companies to get ideas for his comic strip. So many of the characters remind me of specific people I’ve worked with, or a boss, or maybe a situation I’ve experienced myself. Recommended especially for business people.

[Ian Higgs · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another great Dilbert collection

Always an accurate reflection of office life and it’s absurdities and bizarre managers. Nice to know we are not alone and it is important to see the funny side.

[DOUGLAS J BERRY · Rating 5 out of 5]

More a dork than Charlie Brown.

Good black and white artwork . The strips are laid out in horizontal or vertical formats. They can be downloaded and attached to your cubicle, if you haven't got anything better to do with your life.

[T · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun ... as usual

More of the same, but often needed Dilbert sarcasm on corporate America. I enjoyed this book and would recommend to other Dilbert fans.

[David Reed · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's Scott Adams with some classically funny Dilbert strips. You need to read this.

[Cat Gray · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dilbert comics always funny

[Christa Maurice · Rating 5 out of 5]

I always turn to Dilbert when I'm unhappy with my job and it always makes me feel better.

[Jon Hewelt · Rating 1 out of 5]

Three stars!

[Judy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it!

[Catherine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Luckily have never personally experienced cubicle life, but always enjoy reading Dilbert - a fun read

[Francine · Rating 3 out of 5]

(Heerlijk hoe ze hiervoor een plaatje van Bol hebben geript.)

[Victoria & David Williams · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some comic strips should not be collected.
Individually, occasionally, they're funny.
But en masse, the shortcomings are all too readily apparent.

[Ryk Stanton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, it was Dilbert, so you already know what it's about. I don't know that there were any new twists or really laugh-out-loud moments, but there were some sincere chuckles. I enjoyed the book, as I have all of the others.

I was happy to see this book for just 25 cents on the Friends of the Library shelf (where people donate unwanted books to the library and the library gets a bit of money from their sale).

[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

[Tori · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amusing, as always. (Unsure of date read, could have been earlier.)

[Duane · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another great series in the Dilbert book series! If you need a laugh about your daily work routine, this series if for you.

[dejah_thoris]

A nice set of Dilbert cartoons. No commentary, so no major issues as an ePub, nice and easy to read without zooming.

[Denise · Rating 3 out of 5]

Painfully accurate look at the cubical life.

[Bennett · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lolololololool. That's all I can say about it

[Christian West · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dilbert comics from around 2000-2001. Funny, but easily read online in the archives on the Dilbert site. Doesn't really add anything.

[Nancy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Always entertaining

I find Dilbert both funny and a little frightening. The clueless pointy haired boss is sometimes frighteningly close too reality.