Official Review: But That's Ridiculous! by Philip Holt

[Lorraine De Vos]

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "But That's Ridiculous!" by Philip Holt.]

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3 out of 4 stars

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But That’s Ridiculous by Philip J Holt is exactly what the cover suggests: A provocative look at human error.

Holt tackles various subjects ranging from the annoyance of music played in stores, religion, education, war, sports, the transport system and of course, how hostility arises from group mentality. His philosophical take on morality and materialism is indeed controversial, but not unrealistic.

While I read this book I imagined having the author over for a dinner party and discussing matters of importance well into the night. He is clearly well read and has spent numerous hours studying, pondering and possibly debating the subject matter of this book.

By Holt’s own admission, this book is provocative. He is not afraid to talk about general conversational taboo topics like religion, politics, the controversy around euthanasia, the stigma around suicide, and the ongoing debate of evolution versus creation

The writing style reminds me of a teacher standing in front of a classroom. He gives examples, asks questions, explains his reasoning and it feels like he is having a conversation with the reader.

Each chapter challenges you to think about your own views on what is discussed. For such a compact book, there are many subjects brought to light. I found myself turning to Google on a few occasions to enlighten my own limited knowledge on certain parts of history. For instance: I did not know that there was speculation that the grand William Shakespeare was possibly not the true author of the world renowned work. I have also never heard of bear-baiting, and was devastated when I learned that people considered this to be an acceptable form of entertainment some time ago.

This book is not a light read and forces some suppressed issues to light. If you find any of the subjects mentioned in my second and fourth chapters as a trigger, I would not recommend this book at all. This is also not a book for children and I doubt teenagers would enjoy it. I would however recommend this book anyone looking for a challenge to think about these important issues, and to see a philosophical viewpoint that you have perhaps not thought about yourself.

With zero profanity and no sexual reference, I found this book utterly stimulating. Unfortunately, there are quite a few spelling and spacing errors that prevents me from giving this book a perfect score, but nothing so severe that another round of editing can’t fix it. I am excitedly awarding this book 3 out of 4 stars, and look forward to reading more work from this author.

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But That's Ridiculous!
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[Jaime Lync]

Awesome review! Sad that the cover work that you mentioned did not show up on this page.
On the Shakespear thing - I have heard it from various sources that Shakespeare had a sister that did most of the writing but because women in those days did not have many rights, he took the credit for the work. At the end of the day, the literary pieces are classics with intriguing plots...
Also, that thing about bear-baiting does not surprise me at all. The Europeans committed genocide of the natives of the Caribbean using various means and one such means was killing them for "sport".
Thanks for sharing.

[kandscreeley]

I love being challenged. I have a few unpopular ideas of my own. I'm not afraid of having my opinion questioned as long as it's a thoughtful objection, and we can disagree civilly. So all in all this sounds interesting. Thanks.

[Kanda_theGreat]

After reading your review, I'm so interested in reading this book.
Thank you for your honest review.

[Nisha Ward]

Okay, see, I like books like this. I may not be in school anymore, but facts combined with philosophy is something I love to read, so I'm going to check this out. I feel very sorry for the bears though. Bear baiting really was a horrible practice.