I laughed so hard I cried at this one: a blog devoted to Awful Library Books. Basically, the authors find library books which are seriously out of date and need to be chucked out of the library, then write a post on said book, accompanied with excerpts and pictures of the book.
Gems include:
- Out to Launch – Model Rockets (obviously safety standards have changed a lot since I was born)
- How to deal with parents and other problems (Is it the parents who are the problem, or is it the dealing with the parents which is the problem?)
- The Underachiever: Challenges and Guidelines (as a commenter pointed out, is an underachiever going to bother to read this book anyway?)
- What’s wrong with my snake? (Really, I kid you not.)
- Do-it-yourself coffins – for pets and people (Such a useful book to have around if you’re a vampire).
- A Herpetological Cookbook – How To Cook Amphibians and Reptiles (just in case you don’t work out what was wrong with your snake from the book above, you should be aware: thems good eatin’).
- Talking to Kids about Nuclear War (Anyone else remember when this was a constant anxiety?)
- Jane Asher’s Fancy Dress (You’ve just got to look at this one to see the guy dressed like a giant carrot.)
- Latawnya, the Naughty Horse, learns to say “No” to drugs (I’m laughing so hard I can’t type. The illustrations in this book are hilarious.)
You know you have to go look now.
(Hat-tip – Stocky)
4 Comments
The horse drinking a bottle of beer. Seriously.
Fantastic.
By the way I’ve been one of those kids with the rockets, and I am sure it is quite safe and indeed you can do it now after a short visit to a hobby shop.
I loved the dog training one with the picture of the dog looking at turtles jumping hurdles.
http://awfullibrarybooks.wordpress.com/2010/03/16/its-raining-dogs-and-turtles/
Really – how on earth could anyone who can write a book and get it published know anything useful to say to underachievers?
Reminds me of the adult book section of the old Northcote Library in Melbourne, Australia. The so called City Librarian wouldn’t allow children under the age of fourteen to use the adult library. Nothing to do with sex. All sex books were behind the counter and if you wanted to see Van De Velde’s Ideal Marriage you had to ask for it. This was the 1950s. The children’s library was for children. The adult library was defined as suitable for persons over fourteen. The moronic ALP Clowncillors who ran the place said so. They didn’t like people who read books. They mighr turn in to “dagoes, commos or poofters.” There was once a Northcote Library Apology Committee that wanted (in vain) for the Labor councillors to apologise. They also wanted an apology from the Northcote Lions Club, as one of that club’s members made the said remark. They never got that either. Believe it or not these antics have actually appeared in peer reviewed academic journals. Don’t talk about adult books (meaning any books not in the children’s library, not books about sex) to anyone in certain parts of Melbourne who were deprived the right to read in the 1950s.
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