utter randomonium

Threadbared by Kimberly Wrenn and Mary Watkins: As a longtime fan of James Lileks’s Institute of Official Cheer, this sort of snarky commentary on vintage items looked right up my alley. And yes, it’s decently funny, but I only chuckled aloud a handful of times. The pictures range from amusing to creepy, but it just seems to be lacking something intangible. Maybe color – several of the pages made references to the (generally godawful) colors in the photos, which of course were printed in black and white, and on a few occasions made the jokes fall a little flat. It doesn’t help that the back cover copy includes quotes that don’t actually appear anywhere in the book. I suppose there may be folks who would find this uproariously funny, but to me it was just kind of meh.

Also posted on BookCrossing.