#83 The Wire Re-up, edited by Steve Busfield and Paul Owen (Guardian Books)

I received The Wire Re-up from the Wench for Christmas, but there is a reason why I've only just got around to finishing it.

The book is a mixture of articles, interviews, and viewers' responses, views and interpretations to the groundbreaking American TV drama, the "best thing that has ever been on television" etc. Stop me if you've heard this all before.

Because the books follows each episode of the programme, in sequence, it was my plan at the start of the year to watch each hour-long show before reading the appropriate section. Unfortunately, that's an extra 60 hours of television to add to this challenge, and when I realised I was only four episodes in about a month ago, I swiftly abandoned those plans.

So how's the book? Pretty good, as it goes, and while it's clearly a 'present product' (the Wench bought it me for Christmas, I bought it for my dad) and has its share of filler, such as a quiz set by the actors, it also contains a large amount of serious study and discussion about the show, with many of the best bits coming from viewers themselves who responded to a Guardian blog.

I should confess that I followed the blog avidly, albeit as a lurker without having the confidence to offer my own opinions. Perhaps this posting redresses the balance.

It's interesting that the main thing I took away from The Wire Re-up was a reminder of how funny the programme was/is. It's a show of such realism, containing so many horrors and appalling violence, that you forget the many laugh-out-loud moments.

You wouldn't read this book without having watched The Wire, and I can imagine that many people would consider all the philosophising about a television programme incredibly pompous. But it's their loss.

So, rating time:

#83 The Wire Re-up, edited by Steve Busfield and Paul Owen (Guardian Books) - 7/10

Next up: What the Dog Saw, by Malcolm Gladwell (Penguin Books)

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