Cartoonist Scott Adams gives us still more corporate belly laughs with a point in Dogbert's Management Secrets Revealed, the 10th book based on his wildly popular Dilbert comic strip. Taken this time directly from the word processor of world-class consultant Dogbert, it focuses on critical management responsibilities like keeping up with fads, implementing pointless reorganizations and demanding status reports. "Leadership isn't something you're born with," it declares. "It's something you learn by reading Dogbert books."

This book is freedom for those who feel imprisoned in a cubicle. Called "the cartoon hero of the workplace" by the San Francisco Examiner, Dilbert is revered by technology and computer workers, engineers, white-collar types, scientists and everyone who works these days (in cubicles or not). This collection captures it all, from clueless management decrees to near revolts among the cubicly confined.

Scott Adams' latest work is not a collection of Dilbert cartoons (though recycled strips are liberally sprinkled throughout); it's a dialogue between the man and his fans disguised as a tongue-in-cheek guide to surviving the corporate life. There are chapters on "Office Pranks," "Surviving Meetings," and "Managing Your Co-Workers," with enough weird stories and practical jokes to make any middle manager nervous, especially as many of the tricks and tips come from e- mails sent to Adams by his fans (one tip: never let anyone else use your computer). If these messages are any indication, the creative tide has turned, and now the corporate world is following Dilbert's lead. In the office blocks of America, life is imitating art imitating life, creating a pleasantly postmodern working environment. The final chapter of The Joy of Work, "Handling Criticism," includes a response to Norman Solomon's The Trouble with Dilbert, which accuses Adams of selling out and supporting the corporate hierarchy that he claims to satirise. Adams' response is thorough and convincing, with just enough nastiness (jokes about Solomon's hair, for example) to demonstrate that though Dilbert may not have a mouth, he certainly has teeth. —Simon Leake, Amazon.com

12 short stories by Cogswell, Fyfe, Clarke, Porges, Miller Jr., Knight, kornbluth, Chandler, Tenn, Brunner, Blish and van Vogt.