Customer Reviews

The Encyclopedia of Guilty Pleasures

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

 

 

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.

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"?

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.

What's not to like? Three hundred pages of your favorite trash, elevated to nostalgia, handily packaged, and punchily, pithily, wittily written. Makes a great gift! (see "Infomercials")

Well-written, well-selected, and often very funny. The entries do a good job pinpointing the appeal of their respective cultural oddities, and the array is pretty dazzling. Heavily weighted toward the generation that came of age in the eighties, but hey, where else can you go for so much guilt in one place? Our colleges should consider giving it to foreign graduate students on their way through customs--it's a guide to all that's 'essentially useless', the hidden flotsam and jetsam of our culture.

I got this as an 'extra' gift from a friend, and expected to find it moderately amusing, something to thumb through. Surprise: My partner and I were so impressed with the book that we both wound-up reading through the entire thing.

I bought this book simply to bring my purchase up to the free shipping total, but it ended up being a great purchase! It's a hilarious look at all those guilty pleasures we all harbor. Don't pass up this little gem of a book. You'll be laughing for hours! It's illustrated, too.

The Encyclopedia of Guilty Pleasures: 1,001 Things You Hate to Love (Stall, Harry, & Spalding), is my official new favorite for that old game of adding "in bed" to anything to make it hilarious. From the first entry, ABBA, to the last, Zima, this book chronicles a thousand (and one!) things that you'll want to try in bed with your spouse, significant other, or a random person you picked up on the street (and a couple of good-quality condoms, please!).

[...]

The Encyclopedia of Guilty Pleasures, 1,001 Things You Hate To Love is just plain fun! The amount of cross-referenced trivia is astounding. I find I am curious about many things other people stick their nose up at. How many of you have the same guilty pleasures?

The authors believe many of the items have two things in common: 1) Discussing them in public with either friends or strangers will automatically bring either 'condescending smiles or derisive giggles.' 2) All the things they talk about are or were extremely popular.

Arranged alphabetically, the book covers a rich and vast haul - everything from celebrities like Liberace and Bill Clinton; the scoop on Chef Boyardee (yes he was a real person), Hamburger Helper; and Rice-A-Roni; and an interesting fact about Old Spice Cologne and the sailor in the commercials. There are also tidbits about television programs like Sanford and Son, The Osbournes, Hee Haw and Gilligan's Island, to name a few. We also get interesting facts about The George Forman Grill, Kathie Lee Gifford, embarrassing Oscar acceptance speeches and television bloopers.

This is a fun, light read full of 'stuff' that people are interested in, even if they don't want to admit it.