Holly, Author at Awful Library Books

Food Stretcher

April 14, 2022 Holly You Ate What? 17 comments

The Family Cookbook
The American Woman’s Food Stretcher Cookbook
Make your Ration Points Go Twice As Far
Culinary Arts Institute
1943

Submitter: This cookbook has been on our shelf since 1943, which is both amazing that it survived public library use and yet dodged the weeding process. I think the only thing that can make a cookbook worse than having no images is one with black and white images like these. Someone will enjoy this one on the for-sale cart.

Holly: “Meat Roly Poly” with pickled peach/olive faces and “Noodle Cottage Cheese Casserole” are on my no thank you list…and I’ll eat just about anything.

Gunshot Wounds

April 12, 2022 Holly Health and Safety 9 comments

Gunshot Wounds: Practical Aspects of Firearms, Ballistics, and Forensic Techniques
Di Maio
1999

Submitter: This book may not be an awful library book for a college or specialty library, in fact it’s a very informative book, but this was found in our little rural public library. I can see internally it was purchased to fulfill a request by a patron many years ago and unsurprisingly it has never circulated. With that said, this book did not meet our collection development policies then, and does not now. (Whispers to self “Is it a policy if no one follows it?”) We should have been able to Inter Library Loan this instead of purchasing a copy. The book is filled with over 400 pages of graphic images of entrance and exit wounds of suicide and homicide victims . I limited what I scanned to leave most of the graphic content out for many reasons.
Lastly there is a 2015 updated edition of this book.

Holly: Thanks for sparing us the gruesome parts. The patron who requested it didn’t even check it out? Oooooh, that irks me when that happens.

Choose Your Own Sex Adventure

April 1, 2022 Holly Friday Fiction 18 comments

He Gave Her Roses
Grove
1990

Submitter: This book is a “choose-your-own-ending” type of book about dating, but with a heavy religious theme, full of fear, shame, and judgement; and putting all the responsibility on the girl. In my opinion, it has no place in a public library to begin with, but it’s been sitting on my library’s YA shelves since 1990, even though it had not been checked out in over six years, and only a few times total. The cover art is horrendous, the girl looks like either a mannequin or corpse, and the story is even worse.

Stacey has her first serious boyfriend and is faced with deciding to have sex. In some of the paths, she ends up pregnant, and may have an abortion, give up the baby, or keep it. She may or may not marry the father, may or may not finish school. The ending that caught my eye was the one where she went to college and started dating a nice Christian boy, but then he dumps her when he finds out she’s not a virgin. But she doesn’t blame him, she just wonders if she will ever find anyone to love her. You know, now that she’s damaged goods and all. Just gross!

Holly: That’s a new one: Choose your own sex adventure.

Sissy Squats

March 31, 2022 Holly Sports, Games, and Exercise 3 comments

Bruce Jenner’s The Athletic Body: A Complete Fitness Guide for Teenagers
Jenner and Cobbins
1984

Submitter: This book was weeded from a suburban high school in Georgia. Really everything about this book, including the exercises & title, is outdated. I wonder if Caitlyn would cringe about the ‘sissy’ squats terminology? It could be considered a little offensive in today’s world. My favorite part of the book is the dedication page to “all the future Jenner kids”… who knew there would be so many Kardashian ones as well?!

Holly: Sissy squats? That’s awful! What’s with the kids’ pants on the cover, too? They’re HUGE!

Poodle Pompadours

March 28, 2022 Holly Critters 11 comments

Know How To Clip A Poodle
The Pet Library LTD
Miller
1962

Submitter: This little bit of fluff crossed my desk because of its condition. It was split right down the middle as you can see in picture #2 / the spread. We won’t be sending this one off to the binder and instead be tossing it in the dog pound, I mean recycling bin.

Holly: My husband’s grandma has a standard poodle. I’ll have to send her the link to this post to get her opinion.

I don’t understand the Royal Dutch Clip. Basically, just shave the dog bald around its middle and down to the poofed tail? But…whyyyy?

Brace yourselves for Dairy

March 7, 2022 Holly You Ate What? 16 comments

300 Tasty, Healthful Dairy Dishes
Culinary Arts Institute
1940

Submitter: Hold onto your stomachs for this one. Just when you think you have found everyone of these items for the series, another mystery stained volume appears like a zombie crawling out of a hefty bag. I hope this won’t spoil anyone’s lunch!

Holly: Instant recognition after the an egg cookbook. Dairy is so 1940.

Mary: Thank God this is in black and white. I think if we saw the Green Pea Ring recipe all decked out in a pea color, it could cause some kind of trauma.

DIY Bazooka

February 28, 2022 Holly Health and Safety 19 comments

Bazooka : How to Build Your Own
Lewis
1993

Submitter: This explosive title came in a box of donations. “Simple Follow this procedure step by step, and before you know it you’ll be blasting away like Rambo on a good day” I think this is the same imagination that has been taking place in our bathrooms lately. Easy to say this went to recycling bin.

Holly: The good news is that WorldCat doesn’t show any library holdings for this book. The better news is that its subject heading:

Bazookas — Design and construction — Amateurs’ manuals

only matches this one title in WorldCat. Apparently no one else cashed in on the lucrative publishing industry of DIY bazooka manuals.

I know we’re Awful “Library” Books, but indulge me in this one anyway. It’s too good to pass up. And by good I mean awful.

Misogyny Ahoy!

February 16, 2022 Holly Ladies only! 10 comments

The Woman’s Guide to Boating & Cooking
Morgan
1974

Submitter: Ahoy ye landlubbers! This book floated across my desk this week and I thought to submit it to you. The condition is what landed it on my little island of a desk. There are some very practical items in the book, like knot tying and sailing information. However, it’s buoyed by its dated ideology. Enjoy the scans before this one is cast off to the recycling bin.

Holly: Fashion, interior design, cooking, “boatkeeping,” and potato wine. Women can have it all…on a boat, no less!