HomeGroupsTalkMoreZeitgeist
Search Site
This site uses cookies to deliver our services, improve performance, for analytics, and (if not signed in) for advertising. By using LibraryThing you acknowledge that you have read and understand our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Your use of the site and services is subject to these policies and terms.

Results from Google Books

Click on a thumbnail to go to Google Books.

Loading...

No title (2005)

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingMentions
2,431556,184 (3.33)55
An evaluation of the way discourteous behavior has become commonplace and even applauded in today's society is a humorous call to arms that challenges ill manners and the practices that support them.
Member:
Title:
Authors:
Info:
Collections:
Rating:
Tags:None

Work Information

Talk to the Hand by Lynne Truss (2005)

None
Loading...

Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book.

No current Talk conversations about this book.

» See also 55 mentions

Showing 1-5 of 55 (next | show all)
This is both more thoughtful and more humorous than the title implies. It was interesting to compare cultural and generational differences in our approaches to social interaction. I agree with her on many points, but I also live in a small town in Wisconsin, where most of the people I meet on the street or in stores are nice to strangers because that's still how we're raised to be. Many of her experiences in "shops" or when using public transportation don't really apply to my daily experience. I can see more of what she's talking about when I look at my Yahoo home page "news" items or when I'm navigating a menu of options on the phone, trying to get to a real person.

I'd be interested to see if her ideas of the decline in customer service have changed at all in this current climate of unemployment and people needing to hold on to their jobs or businesses for dear life. I imagine her attitude toward do-it-yourself service would be the same, and I'd agree with her, but I think the face-to-face interactions may be shifting back to the more traditional approach of appeasing customers to keep from losing their business.

I liked the emphasis in her conclusion on each of us doing our part if we want things to change, rather than this being simply a book of funny ranting. It made me laugh and it made me reflect. Good ol' Lynne Truss. ( )
  Harks | Dec 17, 2022 |
Early in the book, Lynne Truss says that it didn't need to be written and gives several reasons. She is right. She probably felt better afterwards, though Perhaps it needed to be written, but not published. ( )
  muumi | Aug 31, 2022 |
Having loved her previous best seller, Eats, Shoots & Leaves, I was looking forward to more great humor (based on reality) and clever observations on the sorry state of today's society. Unfortunately, it's not as funny, although it is clever. Perhaps first-time success is impossible to duplicate. This one didn't satisfy as much as the first book. Am I glad I read it? Yes. Would I read it again? No. Is it worth reading? Yes. Just go in with no expectations. ( )
  IrinaR | Aug 28, 2022 |
The world is a ruder place. Humorous commentary on manners and the state of the world today. ( )
  Karen74Leigh | Sep 4, 2019 |
A joyous rant against the everyday institutionalised rudeness of modern life. ( )
  lestermay | Aug 18, 2017 |
Showing 1-5 of 55 (next | show all)
Talk to the Hand does occasionally read like a thank-you letter extended ambitiously to the second side of the notepaper. Yet it addresses an important subject with intelligence and humour, and for that we should certainly be grateful.
added by mikeg2 | editThe Independent, Susie Boyt (Nov 4, 2005)
 
You must log in to edit Common Knowledge data.
For more help see the Common Knowledge help page.
Canonical title
Original title
Alternative titles
Original publication date
People/Characters
Important places
Important events
Related movies
Epigraph
Other people are quite dreadful. The only possible society is oneself.

Oscar Wilde
An apology is a gesture through which an individual splits himself into to parts: the part that is guilty of the offense, and the part that dissociates itself from the delict and affirms a belief in the offended rule.

Erving Goffman
Fuck off, Norway.

Paul Gasciogne, on being asked if he had a message for the people of Norway.
Dedication
First words
Introduction
If you want a short-cut to an alien culture these days, there is no quicker route than to look at a French phrase book.
The trouble with traditional good manners, as any fool knows, is judging where to draw the line.
Quotations
Last words
(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
Disambiguation notice
Publisher's editors
Blurbers
Original language
Canonical DDC/MDS
Canonical LCC

References to this work on external resources.

Wikipedia in English

None

An evaluation of the way discourteous behavior has become commonplace and even applauded in today's society is a humorous call to arms that challenges ill manners and the practices that support them.

No library descriptions found.

Book description
Haiku summary

Current Discussions

None

Popular covers

Quick Links

Rating

Average: (3.33)
0.5
1 20
1.5 2
2 54
2.5 18
3 157
3.5 27
4 114
4.5 7
5 59

Is this you?

Become a LibraryThing Author.

 

About | Contact | Privacy/Terms | Help/FAQs | Blog | Store | APIs | TinyCat | Legacy Libraries | Early Reviewers | Common Knowledge | 203,290,491 books! | Top bar: Always visible