Book Review: Dara O'Briain - Tickling the English

When I first told my friends I was reading a book written by a comedian I was promptly informed that comedians can't write. I have not read any other books written by comedians, but if this is the case this man is an exception to the rule.

Dara has a really easy and engaging writing style. I found this a great book to read just before going to bed. This is when I usually tend the find the time for most of my reading. He has divided his book by his tour locations and bite size chunks.

He writes the book from the point of view as an Irish immigrant and includes many examples of comedic remarks about English behaviour. Dara has also included my funny anecdotes of audience members from his tour. It's worth reading just for these if I am completely honest. The Bournemouth anecdote did not do us justice.

I have to point out that the tour travel travel plan was completely illogical. However, this was my first autobiography. It has definitely given me the confidence to pick up another. Highly recommended.

Life Hacks - Lets Clear this up. You have been lied to.

About once or twice a week I have a link pop up on my facebook feed. ‘Life Hacks for your home’, ‘Life Hacks for your kids’ etc. I can only admit that there are some awesome ideas. But how many of them will actually help you? How many of them actually meet the definition of a ‘Life Hack’?

Taking to Google to define a ‘Life Hack’ seemed the most obvious choice of starting points…

Life Hack

Informal Noun

Definition: A strategy or technique adopted to manage one’s time and daily activities in a more efficient way.

If we go by this definition, I think there are a number of bloggers who have completely misinterpreted ‘Life Hacks’. Now do not get me wrong, I do not claim to be an inventor of life hacks, but I am a whizz with a search engine.

Our first visit is to the website that got my thinking – it appeared on my facebook feed earlier.

Viralnova.com

Now this website got off to a pretty good start. Using a post-it note is a pretty good fix to clean your keyboard. 

I am a bit of a post-it hoarder and both my home and work desks have a large number of these things hidden in corners of desk drawers. So using these to clean your desk saves you going out to buy something specific to clean and collects all the dust on the sticky end – so very efficient.

Again, idea number three – using paper clips to easily find the end of your tape – is also a pretty smart idea. It saves wasting tape through folding over the corner and we all have spare paperclips around the desk. There are also another few ideas (7/9/10/12/16/18/20/21/22) that do fit into ‘Life Hack category’.

However, some of the ideas create more work for the potential ‘Life Hackee’. Idea number 2 is great for someone who loves recycling. Fashioning your used toilet roll tubes into seed pots does not help you manage your time effectively. It will only make additional work for you. My granddad saves time planting seeds into individual pots by filling an old plastic box with compost and adding seeds. He is nearly 90 and apparently has a better grasp of ‘Life Hack’. Please save your cardboard tubes for idea number 7 (cables lose in a drawer is a nightmare!).

The status of ‘pretty clever idea’ can go to ideas 4, 5, 13 (although standard clothes pegs are cheaper to use than going out and buying trouser hangers), 15 (any sealed plastic container will work just as well… or perhaps recycle an old sweet jar…) and 23. Ideas 6 and 17 are awesome interior design ideas. However, it would be just as easy to stick a blob of blue-tack on your wall then the idea with a tennis ball. The makeup brush holder looks fab with the coffee beans, but it would be cheaper and easier to use sand or something (or just a jar?). Hack 8 – charging your phone in aeroplane mode. In this mode it can’t send or receive messages. It will charge quicker (as less battery is being used), but the only feasible benefit is if your phone takes AGES to turn off and on again. Number 19: using a lazy susan in the fridge is pretty clever, but not very space efficient. What will you do with the corners? 

Note: How to tie a tie (14) is a not a life hack. That is something I had to learn when I was 4. It is just something you need to know how to do. Like ironing (although my husband brought me a trouser press as I end up adding creases with an iron….). Life Skill, not Life Hack.

So a quick Google search lead me to a facebook page (1000 Life Hacks) that is dedicated to supposedly posting ingenious ideas to make your life easier. Having had a look through, there are some pretty good ideas- such as putting lemon or lime juice in shampoo to stop your hair going frizzy. Sounds pretty cool – if anyone can vouch for this please get in touch.

However, at the heart of it, it basically a mixture of ideas that people have recycled from other people. The posts alternate between advice, scare mongering and some really good design ideas

.#1219 – If you listen to music frequently it will reduce the risk of a brain tumour over the course of your life – (http://1000lifehacks.com/post/79589990691)

This really annoyed me. Using ‘science’ to scaremonger is complete pet hate of mine. If they want to post this, they need to post the research. This post had over 100 likes. People, if you see things on the internet it does not mean that it is true.

When I look for ‘Life Hacks’, I want ideas that will actually make my life easier. I want them to fit the definition. Internet users, bloggers are using this term because they know it will lead to you searching their page and seeing their content. Do not be fooled.

Book Review: The Cuckoo's Calling - Robert Galbraith AKA J.K Rowling

The shadowy figure on the front cover should have always been a hint that Robert Galbraith was actually a pseudonym for J.K. Rowling. This was all found out by studying the linguistics of the book in comparison to her previous work. Respect to whoever did the detective work, although someone did also manage to spill the beans as well. 

I found this book a little bit slow at the beginning. However, it was really worth sticking with this book through until the end. J.K Rowling is particularly good at tieing all the strings together at the end. This book is no exception. The ending completely took me by surprise. 

The main character is a war veteran turned private detective - Mr Cameron Strike. The shadowy figure represents him really well. Thankfully this book is going to become a series as you do not fully understand him by the end of the book. When you first meet him, he has just out of a volcanic relationship. He is completely bankrupt as he has been fully dependant on his wife. 

Robin is the lady that joins his office as a temp. She is newly engaged and really excited. However, she suddenly finds that her new boss is not in the best of moods to share her happy news. Having had to follow her partner to London, she's been forced to look for temp work while looking for a "proper job". 

This is another mysterious death plot line. The dead woman was a glamorous supermodel who plunged to her death from a balcony. However, her adoptive brother does not believe it and comes to Strike looking for answers. 

The ending of this book takes you completely by surprise. Highly recommend this book. It is worth pursuing this through to the end. Have added the Silkworm (the Sequel) onto my to-read list. However, it could be a while before I get round to it. My selves are rather full...