#26 Screen Burn, by Charlie Brooker (Faber and Faber Limited)

This is my third Charlie Brooker book of this year – guess what the Wench got me for Christmas? – and it’s been interesting reading them out of sequence.

Screen Burn is actually his first published compilation, dating back to 2000 and the days when he was solely penning articles on television for the Guardian, before his role was expanded to a further weekly column with a wider remit.

These articles, then, are all focused on the silver screen, and if I had one minor criticism (one that has probably only occurred to me after already reading The Hell of it All and Dawn of the Dumb), it’s that I could have done with a bit more variety.

That’s not to say that Screen Burn isn’t as brilliantly funny as you’d expect, because it is. It’s also interesting to see how his writing style is more or less fully formed from the outset. That’s not to say that Brooker hasn’t developed at all over the past decade, but more that he has produced sustained excellence over a long period.

Part of the fun of Screen Burn lies in his topical descriptions of what are now historical television events, such as the start of behemoths such as Big Brother, 24, Pop Idol and Trisha to the likes of the best-forgotten LA Pool Party, Touch the Truck and much more.

The arrival of Simon Cowell as a TV celebrity prompts a particularly memorable and prescient rant: “…leaving the role of chief abuser to A&R man Simon Cowell, who’s instantly made a name for himself by acting like an unpardonable bastard, unafraid to star a contestant in the eye and overstate their uselessness with the sub-zero precision of a misanthropic character from a Neil LaBute movie. As a result, he looks less like an expert and more like a man clawing at fame with even more sad desperation than the hopefuls anxiously awaiting his judgment.”

While Brooker’s lengthy diatribes are what he does best (that’s only about a third of his analysis of Cowell), he also knows how produce a concisely worded quip (My favourite line: on 24 character Kim Bauer: “Jack’s daughter Kim (hobbies: peril and cleavage)").

Indeed, it wouldn’t surprise me if Sky+ had been invented solely due to the number of laugh-out-load moments produced by Brooker’s columns and books. In my house, I have jurisdiction over the remote control (damn right), and many’s the time I’ve paused whatever has been on to read the Wench the latest section to have tickled my fancy. I imagine it’s quite annoying.

So, rating time:

#26 Screen Burn, by Charlie Brooker (Faber and Faber Limited) - 7/10

Coincidentally, my counterpart (nay rival) in this 100-books-in-a-year challenge, the Friend of the Wench, has just read Dawn of the Dumb on my recommendation. Read his review here.

Next up: Juliet, Naked, by Nick Hornby (Penguin Group)

Click here for the full list of books so far, and their rating