The Little Handbook for Navigationally Challenged Cidiots
This light, fun book shows the best way to deal with “Cidiots” on the road and, of course, how not to become one.
Ever been suddenly cut off by an inconsiderate driver? Or perhaps come across someone who acted as if driving was interrupting their phone call? The Little Handbook for Navigationally Challenged Cidiots sympathizes, and offers to deal with these everyday issues through humor. Written in manual style, this book covers all those little things that people do to make the road a miserable place, from tailgating to failing to signal.
According to the manual, a “Cidiot” is “a navigationally deficient person having common driving knowledge in the lowest degree, appearing to be incapable of guarding against and usually the culprit of common road, street, highway, freeway and expressway dangers, and nearly aloof as to how to properly navigate on the roadways.” The majority of the book is devoted to how to deal with these “Cidiots” and, of course, how not to become one yourself. The book even offers a handy quiz at the end to make sure the reader isn’t one already.
The handbook acts as a guide on what not to do while driving, as well as what to watch out for. It’s written as a comedy piece, yet with important information thrown in. It contains just the right amount of levity and seriousness to balance itself out; categorizing the different kinds of tailgaters (“Double Dutch (Toggled Posterior Magnetism),” for example), incorrect shoulder passes, and many more. It’s a light, slice-of-life style that states what every driver often feels about others’ incompetency on the road.
What does not work in the manual’s favor is the formatting. It’s very skewed to the right of the page, with a large font that causes the book to look longer than it is. Often, there are only three paragraphs per page. This might be to give it a more “manual” type of feel, but the result is distracting and hard to read. It doesn’t have to be formatted like a regular novel, but perhaps centering the text a bit more would make it more readable.
While The Little Handbook for Navigationally Challenged Cidiots manages to be clever, smart, and surprisingly educational, it could use some editing for the sake of readability. But the book gives a bit of catharsis for those who are sick of encountering “Cidiots” on the road. People who enjoy comedy and despise bad drivers will get the most out of this quick read.
Reviewed by
Sonya Lovy
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book and paid a small fee to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. Foreword Reviews and Clarion Reviews make no guarantee that the publisher will receive a positive review. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
