- Hardcover: 224 pages
- Publisher: Michael Joseph Ltd (30 Jun 2006)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0718152026
- ISBN-13: 978-0718152024
- Product Dimensions: 21.2 x 13.6 x 2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 239,790 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Product Description
Finally, a book that guarantees your balls will be stomped; a book so manly that it will make even the burliest of men (and in some cases, the burliest of women) feel inadequate. So manly, it needs to be shaved: "The Alphabet of Manliness". This collection of sacred writings may very well be the greatest compilation of all things manly throughout history. This book is only for the saltiest, hairiest, most rugged son of a bitch out there. However, it would be selfish to keep it for myself, so feel free to buy a copy. This humble tome of wisdom is a tribute to all men who toil away at work every day, getting their balls busted, or busting balls. If you can't handle the punch to the colon I'm about to deliver to you, look on the bright side: you'll save a fortune on Halloween when kids come to your door to pick apart your candy ass. On the other hand, if you feel comfortable with the risk of having your ass neatly packaged and handed to you with all the trimmings, cut the foreplay and crack the book open already.
Inside This Book
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First Sentence
THE PHRASE "ASS KICKING" has changed over the years from its humble origin as the union of one's foot with another person's ass, to an expression today that has nothing to do with asses, or even kicking. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
THE PHRASE "ASS KICKING" has changed over the years from its humble origin as the union of one's foot with another person's ass, to an expression today that has nothing to do with asses, or even kicking. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
45 of 48 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Not as Biblical as you might expect,
By
This review is from: The Alphabet of Manliness (Hardcover)
If this were a proper review, I'd start by introducing Maddox to the readership. However, it isn't. If you don't know who Maddox is- visit his site. There's enough to keep you reading for hours on end, some of it truly hilarious. There's also no point in paying to read an unknown author when there's a vast supply of free sample material online. The first "buy or not" decision comes as soon as you read his site. If you don't find that funny, there's absolutely no point in reading this book.To everyone who is already instantly familiar with Maddox: when this book was announced it seemed like a huge event, especially as the man himself gave it plenty of tongue-in-cheek over-hype. If you're expecting the medium of a book to expand the scope and quality of his humour, you'll be dissapointed. The Alphabet of Manliness is not funnier than his site, and neither is it significantly different in overall style of humour. So what is it? It centres entirely on one of Maddox's avenues of humour: manliness. Disguised as a glossary come self-help are 26 comic articles on everything from Chuck Norris (the geek staple) to Urinal Etiquette, aided by loads of well-drawn pictures (by pro artists rather than the hand-drawn stuff Maddox uses on his own site) and some faux-mathematical charts. And that's it really - a couple of hundred pages of funny walk-throughs to machismo related subjects. Essentially you're paying for a concentrated and portable dose of Maddox rather than something new or innovative. The principle problem with this is that it narrows Maddox's humour down to a pretty limited set of topics. There's no room for his disgusted rants against most of popular culture, no hilarious film reviews, no dismissal of children's art/idiotic mail. Very little of his observational humour on a variety of iritating everyday things get a look in (although the Irate entry provides a condensed version). One thing that is important to note is that The Alphabet of Manliness is not part of this American resurgance of machismo in reaction to metrosexuality. If anything, this is a parody of those values: a grossly exaggerated charicature of macho fuelled by the fact that Maddox is someone who would like to smash up the mundanity of life. He recognises the stupidity of masculinity as much as the subjects he attacks with it. Don't be put off by the notion that this is for macho men and it's about macho men. All the humour is derived from male-orientated topics, but there's nothing here to turn away feminine readers. All you need to get a good laugh out of the knowledge that all the offensive content is not genuine or malicious. And the acceptance that you're just getting a monstrous entry of his website in book form rather than something revolutionary, of course.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Book its everything you expected,
By
This review is from: The Alphabet of Manliness (Hardcover)
This book is fantastic, but i must stress do not take anything in it seriously, if your pretty religious like i am you may be offended in some parts, but on the whole this book was hilarious and its "rocked my face off" as Maddox would put it. If you are used to reading his material online you will notice the book is different in the style of writting but this is only because your used to electronic, its still as witty and sarcastic as any article that came before. Ok some parts have been rehashed and you would have read it before, infact some jokes have been borrowed from films and is the only reason it gets a 4 and not a 5 on this occassion.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Come on people ...,
By Stan... (London, UK) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Alphabet of Manliness (Hardcover)
Ok - stop already. I'm just getting a little bored of the sad moaning reviews saying that this book is puerile, misogynist, homophobic.This completely misses the point of Maddox's humour - Maddox is one of the most prolific and intelligent satirists out there at the moment. This book, following in the tradition of his now legendary website, is a hilarious send up of gender politics, and social preconceptions. It's also just plain funny. To take it at face value is, frankly, very unastute - and you'll be missing the vast majority of the brilliantly composed and delivered gags. Everything from promising the ladies '3 inches of solid dynamite' to drawing a Venn diagram of 'beef jerky, all things nice and little girls'! Come on guys - get with the programme. From A to Z this is a hilarious and fantastically written book. It's perfect for dipping in and out - each time you revisit, you'll find a new joke here and there, a difference nuance on some ridiculous aspect of manliness. Like Maddox's website - this book is all about sticking two fingers up at people who take themselves too seriously, who are caught up in their dim-wittedly held beliefs, and who can't distinguish between fact and farce. At the same time, The Alphabet of Manliness is simply an entertaining and light-hearted read - brilliant drawings throughout - fantastically funny lists and timelines - and very silly diagrams for how to get a quickie. I can't recommend it enough - to anyone with half a brain and a healthy sense of the absurd.
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