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  • Thinking About It Only Makes It Worse

  • By: David Mitchell
  • Narrated by: David Mitchell
  • Length: 9 hrs and 10 mins
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars (213 ratings)

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Thinking About It Only Makes It Worse

By: David Mitchell
Narrated by: David Mitchell
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Publisher's Summary

Why is every film or tv programme a sequel or a remake?

Why are people so f***ing hung up about swearing?

Why do the asterisks in that sentence make it okay?

Why do so many people want to stop other people doing things, and how can they be stopped from stopping them?

These and many other questions trouble David Mitchell. Join him on a tour of the absurdities of modern life - from Ryanair to Richard III, Downton Abbey to phone etiquette, UKIP to hot dogs made of cats. Funny, provocative and shot through with refreshing amounts of common sense, Thinking About It Only Makes It Worse celebrates and commiserates on the state of things in our not entirely glorious modern world.

Photo Credit: Chris Floyd, Camera Press London

©2015 David Mitchell (P)2019 Audible, Ltd

What listeners say about Thinking About It Only Makes It Worse

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Quite Nice

What a totally feckless writer. On the other hand the reading guy was quite nice. I did initially use the word narrator however apparently 14 words doesn't constitute a review so it was changed to reading guy to appease our Amazonian overlords.

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13 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Ode to a simpler time

Always enjoyed David Mitchell's work, and just came across this audiobook. David's view and outlook is always enjoyable.
Perhaps the only drawback is the juxtaposition of where we were to where we are now - in hindsight these topics that ruled the front page, or were iterated over and over at the time, seem quaint by today's standards - but I could hardly blame the book for that. If anything it makes me excited for the 2025 release of his takes/musings on today's calamities.

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3 people found this helpful

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  • Ben
  • 20-08-2020

Goes on and on and on and on....

Did you ever meet someone at a party who just wouldn’t shut up. When it didn’t even seem like sentences, more just like random words coming out of their mouth... This is that person. And I really like david in Peep Show.

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2 people found this helpful

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EXCELLENT SELECTION OF GUARDIAN COLUMNS

As you probably know, David Mitchell writes a weekly column for the Guardian newspaper in the UK. This is a selection of the best of them, read by David Mitchell himself. There are quite a few extras, some of which help to give context to each column. Logically some of them are a bit dated, but in general you can understand the context. As ever, David reads the columns extremely effectively. I think Stephen Fry described David Mitchell as Ruthlessly Logical, and this is him at his ultra-logical best. Always well argued, and generally very funny. But you just can't avoid thinking that the world he describes is somehow going in the wrong direction and you want to get off.................

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David's delivery of the narrative.

A little overloaded with sarcasm and metaphors but otherwise an interesting "read." Definitely enjoyable though as he lets his personal feelings loose particularly regarding politicians. Listening however to these moments retrospectively, his commentary certainly has credibility.

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Mitchell is great in small doses

I'm a huge fan of Peep Show and David Mitchell is great, but after listening to this I realised he's best in short doses - otherwise it feels like rambling.

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A breath of fresh air.. or maybe it’s common sense.

I adore David Mitchell. This novel is a great example of the humour that can be derived by a critical thinker. Anytime a politician speaks on television, it should be followed by a humorous breakdown by David to cut through the rubbish. Well worth the purchase!

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    3 out of 5 stars
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old man yells at cloud

I do enjoy a good rant, and this was full of grumpy rants. admittedly not David's fault I did zone out at big patches as it was very very British and many things I did not understand as we're completely irrelevant to some all the way across the world. all in all quite good for a few years are old man yells at cloud musings.

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    4 out of 5 stars

Good laugh, easy to listen to snippets

Laughed lots. I think I would have found it funnier if I was British, and therefore would have understood some of the references better. But enjoyed it either way.
I liked that it was based on lots of newspaper articles that David wrote - so you could leave it and then pick up wherever - and not miss out on an overarching story line.
My only criticism is that I wish there had been some sort of demarcation (a sound?) of where one article and/or chapter ended and another started - I got a little bit muddled. So really my only con is that the format of the book doesn’t work as well as an audiobook.

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Written and read by Mitchell? Sign me up.

A balanced and comedic take on the way we consume information these days. Found myself nodding along in agreement, disagreeing and laughing out loud.
Plus it’s for free in the plus catalog, awesome.

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