The Christmas Letters: The Ultimate Collection of Round Robins |
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Simon Hoggart
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Pages: 336 (Paperback)
ISBN: 1843546671
Pub: Atlantic Books
Pub date: 2007-10-08
Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 168442
Reader Reviews:
Christmas round robin that laid a curate's egg (0/0 people found this helpful)
Two books combined into one book but each taking a half means that you feel that it repeats itself.For me a far better idea would be to have mixed the two books together for a more entertaining whole.Having said that it is very funny in places,annoying and just plain boring in others.Avoid the sections on travel difficulties as they are just DULL.Best bits for me were the Religious sections(hilarious) and the gifted children parts.The most illuminating sections were those where the letter recipients have put their own notes in about the writers which are always revealing and funny..I think more of those would make a better read particularly as you have no point of reference to the people featured in the letters so these asides give you a bigger picture.All in all not bad.But to all those round robin writers keep em coming because the world would be a poorer place without them!
JUST WEEP OUT LOUD FUNNY (0/0 people found this helpful)
All these cases for and against the prosecution of the round robin genre seem rather to miss the point. This book makes you snort with laughter in the way that makes stangers edge away from you on the bus. Simon Hoggart is uniformly brilliant in the Guardian and his linking passages and introductions to these ludicrous letters is as funny as the letters themselves.
Putting the Case for the Defence (1/1 people found this helpful)
Round-robin letters are no substitute for real letters. Real letters care about who they are written to. Round-robins care only about the writer. I rest my case. More evidence can be found in my review of "The Cat that Could Open the Fridge", M'lud. I also call upon "Noel & Ellen's Weird and Wonderful History of the Dreaded Christmas Newsletter" as a character witness. Calling...
Putting the case for the prosecution (4/9 people found this helpful)
It needs to said that almost all the criticisms of round-robin letters come from those who don't write round-robin letters. Hoggart's campaign highlights the fact that the Christmas card world divides into those who do write round-robins, those don't write anything, and that small group that send personal letters to each recipient.
I am squarely in the pro-round-robin camp. I may get annoyed by some of the round-robins I receive each year, but I would far rather receive them than just get a card signed 'Love Jean'. I get cards from people I haven't seen for years, and I'm just amazed that they use Christmas cards to continue to keep me totally in the dark about how their families are growing.
This book may improve the self-editing skills of some round-robin writers, but I suspect the most likely outcome is the reduction in the number of round-robins sent out, for which we are all the poorer.
That said, there are some very funny passages in this book.
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