An alluring mix of humor, bravery, cynicism, and compassion." --London Daily Telegraph It's the stuff of Grey's Anatomy, House, and ER--only these events aren't unfolding on a Hollywood soundstage. Have you ever wondered what's going on inside the ambulance screaming past you during your rush-hour commute? Since 2003, Tom Reynolds (writing under an alias so as not to get sacked from his job), has kept a blog where he chronicles the day-in, day-out realities of his life on the job as an EMT with the London Ambulance Service. By turns both poignant and profound, Reynolds's writing captures the very essence of life and death. From the mundane to the surreal, from the heartwarming to the cynical, from the calm to the frenetic, more than 300 entries from his popular blog at randomreality.blogware.com are included in the book. Dear Mr. Alcoholic: Would you mind awfully not swearing at me, taking a swing at me, or exposing yourself to me? I have quite enough abuse from the nondrunks out there. . . . Still, at least your fists are easy to dodge, and if I stop holding you up, you fall over. The author's hugely popular blog, Random Acts of Reality, has been named Medgadget Best Medical Blog and Best Literary Medical Blog.
Tom Reynolds Books
This author explores the raw reality of emergency medical services, where their work as an EMT offers a unique vantage point into life's traumatic and often unexpected moments. Their writing is distinguished by its unflinching honesty and empathy, capturing the urgency and humanity of the situations faced by frontline healthcare professionals. Through their work, they aim to shed light on the unvarnished truth of patient care, often providing insight into the inherent difficulty and emotional toll of working in these critical roles. Their writings offer readers a compelling look into the lives of life-saving professions.





More Blood, More Sweat and Another Cup of Tea
- 270 pages
- 10 hours of reading
The sequel to the bestselling memoir Blood, Sweat & Tea.
I Hate Myself and Want to Die
The 52 Most Depressing Songs You've Ever Heard
- 309 pages
- 11 hours of reading
Does the opening "pling pling plinggg" of Bette Midler's The Rose fill you with existential dread? Do you cringe at the mere whiff of what Phil Collins is spewing In the Air Tonight? Have you ever bolted from a restaurant because Celine Dion's cover of All By Myself was threatening to drive you over the edge? Well, turn around, bright eyes because Tom Reynolds is here with I HATE MYSELF AND WANT TO DIE, a laugh-out-loud-til-youre sobbing compendium of the world's most hideously depressing pop songs and a guide to what makes them so heartwrenchingly, earsplittingly sad and bad. With chapters like I Was a Teenage Car Crash, Im Trying to be Profound and Touching but Really Suck At It, Perfect Storms, and I Mope, Therefore I Am, Reynolds details the history of melodic misery, from the days of Bobby Darin to the era of Evanescence. Complete with a ranked Countdown of Doom and wonderfully dreary drawings, I HATE MYSELF AND WANT TO DIE is the one book that fans and foes of woeful tunes wont want to live without.
Cyberlane Commuter
- 315 pages
- 12 hours of reading
Be a cybercommuter. Take the information superhighway to work.
Sirens
- 590 pages
- 21 hours of reading
For the first time in one volume, here are the true life stories that inspired the Channel 4 television series. Sirens started out as a blog written by Tom Reynolds, a London ambulance driver. That, in turn, was published as two volumes of memoir. These have now been turned into a major new television series and are collected here in one volume for the first time. Sirens tells the story of what it is really like to work on the frontline of our emergency services. It can be thrilling, it can be heartbreaking, it can be dangerous and it can sometimes be life-affirming. But most of the time it is just plain annoying.