The Hell of it All (Charlie Brooker, 2009)

It took me a while to get through The Hell of it All, the third compilation of Charlie Brooker's Guardian columns, and not because I didn't enjoy it, it's just that a little Charlie goes a long way. 'A genius of spleen' reads the Independent's front cover quote, and they're right, but page after page after page of spleen can be fairly hard going. Brooker's style is hilarious and he's great at pulling apart awful TV shows in his Screen Burn columns or offering sarcastic comment on world events in his other articles. It's not often he showers praise on anything. So a couple of year's worth of splentic articles can become a little wearying if not portioned out over a few weeks, months, years. Brooker has a mastery with the English language that I can only dream of, and his way around a simile or metaphor is to be greatly admired. When you read Screen Burn you really do wonder at the amount of crap that is broadcast on TV these days, and Charlie Brooker is a great guide through the worst of it, talking honestly and with real vitriol, but he saves it for where it's needed.