Cake Wrecks is, for the three of you who didn't realize this already, the latest manifestation of the blog-into-book phenomenon, leaping forth from the blog of the same name. Some people in the publishing biz have complained about books like these -- because they're done quickly, often are reusing already existing content, and are usually quite frivolous -- but I have no problem with them; I've been a fan of the quickie Zeitgeist-y humor book since long before I was in the business myself, back in the days when I was buying things like The Official Preppy Handbook
and Real Men Don't Eat Quiche
. (I never claimed to have perfect tastes in books, and who would want that, anyway?)So I don't feel superior to Cake Wrecks in any way; it's a blog I enjoy a lot -- Jen Yates is a great blog-writer, with a wicked sense of humor and timing, and she's developed an immense network of readers and followers, which, in that great bloggy way, has given her ever more content -- and I was happy to see it jump to book form, and just as happy to see it succeed. (I just quickly looked it up on that famous book-industry sales-tracking system, to be sure it has succeeded, and it has.)
In fact, this is one of the very rare books that my entire family loved -- I grabbed it from the library a few weeks ago, and we were all looking through it over dinner afterward, laughing at the cakes with "Nothing" and "I want sprinkles" and "Congratulations as small as possible" and "I didn't like you that much anyway" written in frosting on them. The whole Hornswoggler clan -- yours truly, The Wife, Thing 1, and Thing 2 -- all laughed out loud at this book, with Thing 2 particularly enjoying it. A book that can do that is a big success. Cake Wrecks is a silly, frivolous, gift-y humor book, an impulse buy, and will never be seen as a contribution to deathless literature, true. But it's also genuinely funny, and one of the best ways to spend a couple of hours with your clothes on.
Book-A-Day 2010: The Epic Index
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Listening to: The Deathray Davies - I Put Opium In The Food
via FoxyTunes
1 comment:
The venerable, but as yet unsurpassed, model for Cake Wrecks is *The Gallery of Regrettable Food,* by James Lileks, and if you haven't seen it yet, I highly recommend it.
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