Life's Little Annoyances: True Tales of People Who Just Can't Take It Anymore

by Ian Urbina

Book Overview

Chris Myers is thankful that he grew up next to a parking lot. His favorite childhood prank is serving him well in dealing with annoying people. Whenever someone parks in a space reserved for the disabled, he leaves a note on the windshield that says, "I'm so sorry I hit your car. It doesn't look like the damage was severe." Then he signs a name but he makes it just messy enough to be illegible. "It works best if the person owns a fancy car," says...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0805080309
• ISBN13: 9780805080308
• Release Date: November 2005
• Publisher: Times Books
• Length: 191 Pages
• Weight: 0.68 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.7" x 7.6"

Customer Reviews

Cute book, nice for light reading

This book simply put is about people who just plainly get fed up with the non-sense most of us ignore. It is full of short stories in just about every catagory of annoyance you can imagine. Read the short story of the woman who was appauled at dog owners who wouldn't pick up after their dogs in the neighorhood park; she decided to put little flags in every pile of poo, and the local park ended up looking like a monument to the fourth of July. Meet the man who got so tired of pushy salesman that he kept his old expired credit card, told the pushy salesman to go away three times, and finally pretended to be interested in buying thousands of dollars worth of mechandise only to give him an expired credit card. In the end he walked out of the store hours later without purchasing a single item. These are only two of the stories, and probably the two least entertaining stories in the entire book. My wife has an affinity for picking up little books such as these. I consider such an item mandatory bathroom reading.

Can't Take It Anymore? Read This Book!

From the automated voice at the other end of the line to those ubiquitous subscription cards that fall out of magazines, there are aspects of everyday life that aggravate us all. In Life's Little Annoyances, New York Times reporter Ian Urbina describes these irritants and chronicles the lengths to which some people will go when they have endured their pet peeves long enough. Some of the best ones I came across were how to get back at the annoying commissioned sales rep, the creation of Despair, Inc., and The Cashier's Spelling Bee. This book can easily be read in an afternoon and it's a good way to relax and unwind...while thinking of ways to use some of these ideas! Highly Recommended!

Massive, Passive Fun

There's a scene in the movie Animal House when John Belushi announces, "What we need here is a really futile gesture!" Life's Little Annoyances is an inventory of really futile gestures that are nevertheless very satisfying. The author is a reporter for the NY Times and he brings a reporter's eye for detail, skepticism, and irony to the book. When faced with life's little annoyances, some people really confront the problem, unafraid of confrontation, taking fearless direct action to resolve the problem. Those are not the people described in this book. Life's Little Annoyances presents a hilarious inventory of mostly futile gestures, and the response is laughter at the myriad ways we humans avoid confrontation and pretend we are accomplishing something by subversive futility.

"Life Little Annoyances" is no doubt a clever piece of work

Really fun read. Cathartic. Dry. All around a smart handling of the little things that make people such strange beasts.

Extremely Funny

The book is a great read in part for its dry sense of humor. The people profiled in it speak for themselves. But even better than the characters and tactics chronicled is the books introduction which gives a really thoughtful analysis of why passive aggressive behavior shouldnt always be written off as a purely negative and counter productive phenomenon.