Oh You Nasty Boys.
One of the cool things about writing this blog is being *forced* to review books (and genres) that I would normally not even take off of the shelf. This is one of those books.
Barry Yourgrau’s Yet Another Nasty Book is almost indescribable. It’s weird. It’s oddly written. It has no sense of order. The cover isn’t attractive. The chapters aren’t organized. Some of the pages can’t be read because they’re printed backwards or because there are odd fonts.
And I will say this: if I were a 10 (or so) year old kid, I’d totally be into this book.
With entire chapters that read like this:
If this sentence contains exactly nineteen words, your very least favorite person will turn into a turtle wearing purple earmuffs!
And others with shrinking text, stories about swallowed cell phones and creepy fairy tales, how can you not love it?
The book changes direction every few pages, which is annoying if you’re trying to read a novel, but it’s cool if your attention is short to begin with… The book is clearly written by someone who has a handle on what it’s like to be a kid. A weird kid, maybe, but a kid.
No wonder Lemony Snicket wrote about it: “Barry Yourgrau’s work makes me shudder…”
To find out more about the craziness, you can visit the nasty book web site or Barry’s own site.
Yet Another Nasty Book, Barry Yourgrau
June 7th, 2007 at 2:37 am
That sounds totally fabulous. I’m going to have to go buy it for my ten year old brother now. We were just talking the other day about this book that I’m reading called “On Revolutions” and it is kind of written like that. It’s a bit of an experimental novel. Anyway, he thought it sounded really cool but there are things in it I wouldn’t really want him to read you know?
Anyway, I will so be giving him this one instead! Thanks for making me aware that it exists!!! =)
June 7th, 2007 at 10:53 am
I think I first felt like one of the “weird kids” when I read the Grimm fairy tales and felt gypped that the step sisters didn’t cut their heels off to fit into the glass slippers in the cartoon Disney movie. Now my little girl loves those Disney princess movies. I wonder if she’s going to feel the same way if/when she ever reads that book.
June 7th, 2007 at 7:15 pm
My girls love Disney princess movies. But then they also love this really gruesome series of German “moral stories” that one of our friends gave them. I think a lot of it is what you’re exposed to. If you ever only read the cutesy stuff, you think that’s what you’re supposed to read.