I picked up 'Earth (The Book)' with some trepidation, because I absolutely loved 'America (The Book)' and assumed from reading several critical reviews on Amazon that I would find 'Earth' to be inferior to 'America'. For full disclosure, I should mention that I am a huge fan of both 'The Daily Show' and 'The Colbert Report', and have read all of Jon's books as well as Stephen's, with various degrees of enjoyment.Within ten pages, and with a certain amount of relief, I knew that I was quite mistaken, and 'Earth (The Book)' was just as brilliant and thought-provoking as 'America', and perhaps even more so. It is different, certainly - with 'America' I wanted to sit down and consume the whole thing as quickly as possible. With 'Earth', I felt like I wanted to take the time to savor and enjoy it over several sittings. The book definitely rewards you for taking your time and poring over each page, as there are plenty of jokes to be found hidden in the images and asides. (Judging from other reviews, some may find this off-putting, but personally I enjoyed the change of pace.)'Earth (The Book)' is essentially about well, earth, but more specifically, our relationship with the planet and ourselves. If I had to summarize the book, I'd say 'Earth' is what happens when several very intelligent and funny people get together to take a long, hard look at how we live our lives and all of the ludicrous, ridiculous and occasionally self-defeating things that humans do - and distill it into bitingly funny chunks of truth. It confronts everything from materialism to religion, environmental destruction to politics, as well as corporate ethics and celebrity culture. It's thought-provoking and at times even uncomfortable to read, but only because it holds up a mirror to so many of your long-held traditions, habits and assumptions, and asks, with a heavy dose of humor: "Why?"I think 'Earth (The Book)' is similar to 'The Daily Show' in some respects; there's something there for everyone, but the more you know about a subject, the funnier you will find it. I certainly didn't get all of the jokes the first time around, and that is probably a good thing, because I'm sure I'll get more out of it when I re-read it. Still, I got enough of them that I was laughing out loud at least a couple of times a page throughout most of the book. And as I mentioned earlier, some of the humor is quite dark and had me smiling grimly about a nerve being hit, rather than being laugh-out-loud funny.I've noticed that another common complaint reviewers seem to have about the book is that its humor won't age as well as 'America's', because a lot of the jokes may not be easily understood in a few years time. Again, I would say this is a mischaracterization - yes, some of the humor is very current, but mostly it consists of timeless observations about human behaviour. I don't think the book will be a significantly poorer read in 20 or 50 years due to a few references to current events (like the Gulf Oil Spill or various politicians and celebrities), and I'm not sure I agree that the authors of this book should be writing with that in mind anyway.To sum up, in my opinion Earth is a fantastic, five-star book, and I would absolutely recommend it to anyone, especially if you enjoy 'The Daily Show's' brand of satire. Perhaps some elements of it may not be to everyone's taste, but I still think it is a rare and worthwhile read that forces you to think at the same time as it makes you laugh, and that can only be a good thing.As a final aside, I will add that I really think that 'Earth' is the kind of book that works best as a physical thing in your hands, rather than as an audio book or on a device. The images and page layout frequently make up a significant part of the gags, so I would strongly recommend that people buying the book consider getting it in book form so that they can easily appreciate the whole package.