Customer Reviews

Catalog: The Illustrated History of Mail Order Shopping

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
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The author obviously loves catalogs, and the trivia and photos are entertaining, but this book is in need of a good editor. Ideas are all over the place (odd, since most catalogs have a "flow" to them), and the misspellings and grammatical errors are annoying.

This is a trip, in all the right ways. It a hoot. It's also a trip down memory lane, a voyage through history and a graphic journey into the heartland of Americana. Ms. Cherry writes with style and wit and the illustrations she has chosen tickle my memory banks. I'm buying extra copies to give as gifts. This book is meant to be shared.

When I was young, we kept the catalogs under a wrought iron table in the tv room. When the alternative was to try to pay attention to Masterpiece Theater, the catalog pile was mighty tempting. Many of the pieces that author Robin Cherry cites are memorable - such as the original, illustrated Banana R catalogs, and the hilarious Peterman catalog. But the truly amazing part is that Cherry puts these ephemeral pieces into a meaningful historical context - the 20th century through mail order. I love this book, it's fun to read and the trivia included is surprisingly un-trivial.