Biography Archives - Awful Library Books

David Cassidy-Teen Idol

February 18, 2022 Mary Kelly Biography 7 comments

Meet David Cassidy
Hudson
1972

As the resident “elder” at ALB, I can tell you that Cassidy was all that and a bag of chips in the early 1970s. Since this was the early 1970s and Cassidy was about 22, so this is mostly just fluff and stuff about the television show. I would imagine this was probably done by a publicity department with stills from the shows and his concerts.

Cassidy struggled with his fame and public perception his whole life. Struggles with alcoholism, issues with his father, the actor Jack Cassidy and toward the end of his life, dementia. Cassidy did pen a couple of memoirs: C’mon, Get Happy … Fear and Loathing on the Partridge Family Bus 1994 and Could It Be Forever? My Story 2007. Cassidy died in 2017.

Daniel Boone

December 2, 2021 Holly Biography 9 comments

Daniel Boone
Daugherty
1939

Submitter: In Daniel Boone, Native Americans are variously described as savages, demons, “rats in the night,” “infesting the woods,” cat-eyed, and “as doomed as the buffalo.” White skin or white racial identity is frequently painted as superior to other races, for example: “The great landlords were demanding costly land titles and bringing in slave labor so that it was a disgrace for a white man to work with his hands” (page 25).

Bye Bye Bye

July 16, 2021 Holly Biography 5 comments

*NSYNC
Boekhoff and Kallen
2003

Submitter: This book is ‘tearing up my heart’ knowing it’s still sitting on the shelf all these years. So who’s going to weed this book? “It’s gonna be me.” I guess I could have gone with Bye Bye Bye old book…

Holly: This was published just as the group was breaking up. I think we can safely let it go. “This I Promise You.”

Victim of Love

June 1, 2021 Holly Biography, Celebrity Gossip and Advice 7 comments

The Cars
Kamin and Goddard
1986

Submitter: This was an excellent book about a local band to purchase for this library. 35 years later, the band split up, reunite under a new name, reunite under the old name, and saw two of the found members die, and all not covered here. Time to Shake It Up and replace!

Holly: This was NOT Just What I Needed. You Might Think so…but you’d be wrong. Weed it. Drive it off a cliff. Give it to My Best Friend’s Girl. Weeding is not Magic, it’s science. Library Science.

Ok, I’m done now.

Great Men of India

March 31, 2020 Holly Biography, Spanning the Globe 6 comments

Great Men of India, Including Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi
Williams
1985

Submitter: I work at an international school library in India, and the collection development philosophy in the India section seemed to be: “Never throw anything away. Ever.” The dusty, damaged, and out of date outnumber the relevant, unfortunately, so I’ve decided it’s time to take a deep breath and dive in. These are just some of today’s treasures, including my favorite of the day: Great Men of India, Including Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi […]. It’s not the oldest, or most inaccurate, or even the most damaged. I’m just amazed that in 1985 people thought that “men” was a non-gender-specific term.

Holly: They even put a woman on the cover! If this isn’t the most damaged, then I’d hate to see the rest of the collection.

Al Franken

August 15, 2019 Holly Biography, Celebrity Gossip and Advice 19 comments

Al Franken: Giant of the Senate
Franken
2017

Submitter: So, I was making a delivery of intra-network media transfers to a local college library the other day, and as I was waiting for the right person to accept the delivery and fetch my pick-up, my eyes scanned the shelves, just happening to fall upon the “political commentary” shelves. I spotted this tome sitting there, pulled it off, and immediately recognized it as probably dated with “weeding” potential.

Burt Reynolds Revisited

September 7, 2018 Mary Kelly ALB Announcements, Biography, Entertainment 5 comments

Burt Reynolds Hotline: The Letters I Get…and Write!
Reynolds
1972

Late yesterday afternoon, I heard that Burt Reynolds passed away at age 82. You can read the NYT obituary here. I was a teen in the 1970s and Burt Reynolds was THE guy. Probably the most famous Burt Reynolds moment I remember was his controversial picture in Cosmo as a centerfold. I thought you all might want to take a peek at the book we originally posted back in 2010. It ended up being one of my favorites and is one of the most popular posts since we started this little dog and pony show back in 2009. I remember that for about a year after posting, the most popular search term for our site was “Burt Reynolds Naked.”

KnoWhutIMean Vern?

June 14, 2017 Holly Biography, Ha Ha Ha? 4 comments

Ask Ernest!: What, When, Where, Why, Who Cares
Worrell (fictional character)
1993

Submitter: Here is a poster child for the importance of weeding your library’s humor section. Helpfully, the book’s subtitle asks many of the relevant questions I had about it being in our collection, such as why? Why was this book ever printed? What? What was someone thinking when they bought it? Who cares? This dated gem hadn’t circulated in over a decade, so I guess the answer is no one. From a public library.

Holly: Ernest P. Worrell was pretty darn funny to middle schoolers everywhere in the 80s. (Ok, to adults too, though they might not admit it.) Sadly, Jim Varney, who played Ernest, died of lung cancer in 2000. In other words, kids today grew up in a world without Ernest and Vern and this book is only valuable to nostalgic adults. It wasn’t a horrible choice for a public library in 1993, but it definitely had a limited shelf life and could have been weeded shortly after Varney’s death. Also, I’m bothered by the typo in the last image below.