Flaky though I may be when it comes to keeping my blog up to date, I didn’t renege on my promise to read one whole book in October. This month, I took my second foray into the world of non-fiction with what’s now up there as one of my new favourite books…
Humans: A Brief History of How We Fucked It All Up – Tom Phillips
To someone with my dry and self-deprecating sense of humour, this title has instant appeal. It’s about how terrible we are as a species and it also says the word “fuck”. What’s not to love?
Although it takes a pretty weird, convoluted path through aeons of human history going alllll the way back to our ape ancestors, there is something that seems very natural about the flow of the book. Which I guess is kind of the point considering it’s all about how we make the same mistakes over and over again.
Whilst that might sound like a depressing concept for some (which it is), this book is written in a way that literally makes you laugh out loud at just how incredibly stupid we are as nature’s most intelligent species – although you might question that title after reading… Or even before reading, depending on how misanthropic you’re feeling today.
The real art of Phillips’ writing is that it is at once humorous, intelligent, critical and informative, which, I know from blogging experience, is not something that’s easy to capture (unless your name’s Chandler Bing – shout out to my Friends fans).
If you’re at all interested in history, science or general human idiocy, this book is kind of a must.
Just Emma Things 