The Encyclopedia of Guilty Pleasures [Paperback]

Sam Stall (Author), Lou Harry (Author), Julia Spalding (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 2004

What do Neil Diamond, Touched by an Angel, Pamela Anderson, The Boy in the Plastic Bubble, White castle hamburgers, Benny Hill, Thomas Kinkade, and the song “You Light Up My Life” have in common? They’re all guilty pleasures—and they’re all celebrated in this massive A-to-Z encyclopedia.
 
Authors Sam Stall, Lou Harry, and Julia Spalding have unearthed fascinating trivia about literature (Valley of the Dolls, The Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue), television (The Real World, Land of the Lost), fashion (Members Only jackets, the WonderBra), and more. Every page features a sophisticated two-column design and handy guide words for quick at-a-glance reference. Best of all, we’ve illustrated 100 of the guiltiest pleasures with the same portrait style used by the Wall Street Journal.
 
Complete with 1,001 entries, it’s the ultimate guide to everything you hate to love!

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A trio of creative minds, obsessed with those secret indulgences we enjoy when no one else is watching, have produced a 50-year chronicle of guilty pleasures from A to Z. With over 1,000 capsulized, satirical descriptions, the book offers plenty to savor. Contemporary self-indulgences such as boy bands and the Olsen twins earn mentions, as do groan-worthy old timers like Old Spice cologne and water beds. Jackie and Joan Collins and Anna Nicole Smith score high on the schlock scale, along with devilish foods like the timeless green bean casserole and Cinnabon sticky buns. Television takes a lot of cheesy credit, with entries including The Love Boat, Baywatch, The Osbournes and that pioneer of reality shows, Candid Camera. Time-tested favorites Cool Whip, the Carpenters and the National Enquirer provide as many hoots as the snippet-length bios of Fabio, Adrienne Barbeau ("apparently this woman was an actress of some sort"), Amy Fisher and Monica Lewinsky. The encyclopedic arrangement is funny in and of itself (the Little House on the Prairie entry says, "See Landon, Michael"). As tempting as Jiffy Pop Popcorn, this flippant (albeit subjective) reference is compulsively seductive, with tongue-in-cheek remarks the authors' flair. Illus.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

About the Author

Sam Stall pleads guilty to enjoying Fantasy Island, Bloomin’ Onions, and the artwork of Boris Vallejo. Lou Harry has mastered the Electric Slide and collects Hummel figurines. Julia Spalding is a fan of Sweet Valley High novels, Clinique Pore Minimizer Makeup, and “Designer Imposters.”

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Quirk Books (September 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1931686548
• ISBN-13: 978-1931686549
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.9 x 7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,463,492 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #85 in Books > Education & Reference > Encyclopedias > Pop Culture

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I'm guilty...I loved it., November 30, 2004

By 

Kerry Reifel - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Encyclopedia of Guilty Pleasures (Paperback)

Bought on a lark, this book was absolutely, dead on and beyond funny. As I read it on a flight, I at first tried to keep my chuckles to myself. But, I soon abandoned the effort and was annoying fellow passengers with full belly laughs. It was easy to read, and I found all of my own guilty pleasures listed and summed up with amazing accuracy. I read it cover to cover, but also loaned it to a friend who is enjoying it as much as I did but is just randomly choosing entries.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars From ABBA and Abbott & Costello to Ziggy and Zima, January 29, 2006

By 

Michael K. Smith (South Louisiana) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The Encyclopedia of Guilty Pleasures (Paperback)

Please! _Doctor Who_, a "guilty pleasure"?! Or anime, which is a genuine art form? And I'm very good at "Trivial Pursuit" -- most reference librarians are. It's also obviously a generational thing; my mother was a Liberace fan in the `50s, and I loved Jiffy Pop in the pre-microwave days myself. (I was already too old when MTV debuted in 1981, or for paintball, which appeared that same year.) And is there anyone who *doesn't* have a few souvenir T-shirts in the closet? On the other hand, who's gonna admit to deliberately watching Hanna-Barbera cartoons? Or _Leave It to Beaver_ reruns, or _The Gong Show_? Or to drinking Big Red? This is the perfect book for a long road trip, for reading aloud to each other and starting arguments. There are some odd omissions, though: How can you talk about "End-of-the-World Movies" without mentioning _On the Beach_? Or "Elvis Impersonators" without noting Andy Kaufman's eerily accurate version early in his career? Or, for the ultimate in self-reference, why isn't there a listing under "Trivia Books"?

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars meandering through silly memories, June 14, 2005

By 

Nancy Olsen "dolmen_hunter" (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Encyclopedia of Guilty Pleasures (Paperback)

I loved this book, particularly the illustrations which I have found out were actually done by the creator of the wall street journal portait hedcut, Kevin Sprouls. I have admired his work for years and was delighted to find him working in a less serious venue. The book's descriptions were bright, sharp and quick. It was an ironic pairing with Sprouls' serious style and made for a more humorous mix.

buy it.