Making a Living Archives - Awful Library Books

DIY Bankruptcy

June 8, 2021 Holly Making a Living 7 comments

Bankruptcy: Do it Yourself
Kosel
1980

Submitter: When I pulled this sad book off the shelf and read the title – I thought “Bankruptcy : do it yourself? Honey, us Millennials have been doing that for years…” This book comes with a disclaimer that it will be old, out of date, and should no longer be consulted at some point. Bankruptcy laws change frequently enough that this book is well past its shelf life.

Holly: It has that “typed on a typewriter in 1980” font, too. And look! A form copyrighted 1979. That oughta hold up in court.

Business the Amazon Way

June 7, 2021 Holly Making a Living 7 comments

Business the Amazon.com Way
Saunders
1999

Submitter: It’s an ancient book on Amazon. This book was written before Amazon was a verb, and when it was still focused on books. Does the book accurately predict the future? Probably not.

The business section ought to have books on how current companies do business, how to do business, small business information, and how to get grants, not really old books that are ridiculously outdated.

Holly: Amazon is a whole new animal 22 years later – and so are libraries.

One man’s loss is another man’s groin

November 23, 2020 Mary Kelly Making a Living 3 comments

Keys to Mortgage Financing and Refinancing
Barron’s Business Keys
Friedman and Harris
1993

Okay, I admit I picked this one just for the cover. Then I sent it to Holly and she came up with a brilliant title. See above. Although Holly and I are professionals with more than 20 years of experience each, we still have the sense of humor of your average 12 year old boy. Seriously, Barron’s did you not take this to a focus group? Maybe they were hoping some subtle design would make mortgage information sexy.

Saving your business

March 17, 2020 Mary Kelly Making a Living One comment

Saving Your Business
How to Survive Chapter 11 Bankruptcy and Successfully Reorganize Your Company
Caplan
1992

I really have an issue with business materials this old in a public library collection. This particular book is closing in on 30 years. Even if the process hasn’t changed much, that attorney billing rate in the second picture below is almost cute. There have been changes to bankruptcy laws since 1992. Notably, the Bankruptcy Act of 1994 and the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer protection act (BAPCPA) of 2005. It truly is important to consider the impact of out of date information. Choosing to file bankruptcy is complex. Chapter 11 might not be the best answer for some kinds of businesses.

Weed. Like yesterday.

Mary

Telemarketing: Magic or Evil?

February 6, 2020 Mary Kelly Making a Living 7 comments

Telephone Magic
How to Tap the Phone’s Marketing Potential in Your Business
Weitzen
1987

This book is all about telemarketing to increase your business success. Evidently, this guy must have one of the people that started us on the path to robo calling and all sorts of other awful phone technologies. Given the topic, my first instinct is to pull the book, set in on fire, and then grind the ashes into the ground. Excuse my personal tantrum on the evils of telephone abuse that have been heaped upon me since I was old enough to hold a phone.

1-900-Kind of Sketchy

December 9, 2019 Mary Kelly Bleeding Edge, Making a Living 4 comments

Opportunity Is Calling
How to Start Your Own Successful 900 Number
Bentz
1993

900 phone numbers were quite the thing in the 1980s and 1990s. Every minute on these lines cost the caller upwards of several dollars a minute. These numbers were mostly known for phone sex or psychic hotlines. If you are of a certain age, you will probably remember Dionne Warwick’s Psychic Friends Network.

I nabbed this copy from a library and it looked absolutely untouched when I checked it out. I have no idea how good the content, but the book design is boring. Unfortunately, I don’t have any circ data but I feel pretty confident in guessing this book hasn’t seen much action.

Business Planning With Patron Edits

December 3, 2019 Mary Kelly Condition/Processing Fail, Making a Living 6 comments

Writing Business Plans That Get Results
A Step-by-Step Guide
O’Donnell
1991

Although most business plans have core concepts such as capitalization, marketing strategy, staffing, etc. A business plan is a comprehensive plan of attack and is about being able to attract investors, apply for loans, and other normal business matters. The concepts don’t really change, but the technology and methodology might.

However, the real weeding issue is evident in the fact that someone had written in quite a few of the pages. I particularly like that the defacer in question wrote (in pen!) TBD in many of the blanks. I get the feeling that our defacing entrepreneur didn’t get very far.

Mary

Consumer Help for the 1980s

October 21, 2019 Mary Kelly Home and Garden, Making a Living 7 comments

Secrets From the Underground Shopper
Goldstein
1986

As of this writing, this helpful consumer tips book it is still in a small public library collection.The author goes through a long list of consumer items and gives a brief intro to the industry and then points out those “buyer beware” type of situations. I think everyone will appreciate the tips on buying a computer or using mail order to save money. Extra points if you remember the IBM and the IBM clones of this era.