Customer Reviews

Hack: How I Stopped Worrying About What to Do with My Life and Started Driving a Yellow Cab

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This memoir about a female cab driver is good. I enjoyed the down to earth writing by the author but I often felt as though I was searching for the thread of continuity. Melissa would start telling an entertaining story then abruptly end it to go on to another story months later.

I also could never quite get a handle on whether she was actually bragging or complaining about the job she was holding down.

This is actually an entertaining read and I would say buy it. You will learn a few things you did not know - as well as get paranoid about tipping from now on.

For the public the cab driver is just someone who is never there when you want them and blocking the traffic when you don't.
You sit in you cab and you are an observer on life. No one would ever believe what people tell to or say to a cabby.
The book is an admission of defeat but I feel she had a personal victory in her sights. Through it all the high points and the lows she was learning about mankind and humanity. a valuable lesson which she shared with you.I started my own blog after reading hers [...]

I wish her well in her new career, the lessons learned while driving a taxi help her and you dear readers in the future.
Well done! success in your next career.

I was reading Melissa's blog for a while before her book came out. The book alone is a good, fast read, chockful of great stories and insight. To further expand your experience from Melissa's viewpoint, read her blog as well. It adds an edge to the stories as a bonus not available with regular books not accompanied by blogs. I'm a native NYer and know the city well, and Melissa tells it like it is. I've also been wanting to drive a taxi for a few years but never had the guts to do it, until now thanks to Melissa (final test is today). What fun! Melissa's experiences are honest and real. Way to go!

Melissa Plaut's disjointed but riveting style of writing takes you by her side, in the moment, through her life on this job. I feel like I've learned so much about Melissa and about taxi driving in NYC. It's alternately adventuresome, sad, frustrating, anger-inducing and definitely eye-opening. I wish the book were longer and I hope she'll write a follow up. [...].

this is a great read for anyone who loves the real NYC, its people and its unique way of life

Melissa Plaut's Hack is an interesting and entertaining read. There's not a big conflict and resolution in the book, but rather a general overview of what it's like driving a taxi in New York City for a couple years. Add in that she's one of the few female drivers, and gay to boot, and it's an interesting perspective worthy of reading. Plaut also examines the ideas of how to figure out what to do with one's life, but that stream of thought is never resolved, somewhat appropriately.
I thought the photography introducing each chapter was a really nice surprise and could be collected into a book of its own.

This is a pretty interesting look at the often mundane world of driving a New York cab. At times the language is pretty rudimentary, but that's fair considering I believe it's a first time author. A must read if you live in NYC, and a much better prep book for visitors excited to go there than any Frommers guide.

Good book. This chic has had an interesting life as a cab driver (hack)and her experiences make for some good stories. I used to read her blog, "New York Hack" way back when; before she wrote the book.

This book is a great read if you enjoy an honest and frank insight into a unique personality as well as lots of inside revelations about the job of driving a cab in the big apple.

Hack is a brave and candid read that gave me a lot of insight into the taxi industry and taught me a lot that I didn't know even though I'm a native New Yorker.

Here's what I learned:
1. Taxi drivers hate delays as much as you do even though the meter is running.
2. Tipping is expected in a manner similar to how we do in restaurants.
3. 12 hour days of NYC taxi driving makes this likely one of the toughest and most-stressful jobs on Earth. They should make a Dirty Jobs episode for this.