Yellow Books (sorry)

[jahshabby]

I can't remember enough to narrow the search myself so...

Can anyone remember the book that was (I think) recommended here recently. Its focus was on the 80s - both music and society. I think it was yellow.

Thanks in advance etc etc

[Cacapo]

http://www.verygoodplus.co.uk/showth...Alwyn-W-Turner

[jahshabby]

Cheers!

love this place.

And you.

Mods - feel free to delete to declutter

[alanmck]

Cheers!

love this place.

And you.

Mods - feel free to delete to declutter

delete it yourself if you want, it's easy: edit post> delete> physically remove post.

or just change the title to "that 80s music and society yellow book, what was it called and who was it by?" or something similarly snappy.

hell, you write copy, i bet you can do at least as well as i just didn't.

[babycart]

I think it was yellow.

Booksellers love it when punters say that.

[eclipsechaser]

This thread isn't clutter. I'm always amazed how searches on google find threads from years ago on here and I find a tip about a record or film or book even tipped on here.

[pitch]

I think it was yellow.

Booksellers love it when punters say that.

Best yellow book is The Yellow Book. The Illustrated Quarterly from the 1890s



I managed to pick up the first volume for a fiver in one of those secondhand shops on Charing Cross Road, who really should have known better. Aubrey Beardsley was the illustrator.... wish he'd been around to do album covers - he would have been ace. Of course there are all the Giallo pulp thriller books from Italy - they are pretty good yellow books too.

[babycart]

I managed to pick up the first volume for a fiver in one of those secondhand shops on Charing Cross Road, .

that´s a proper find.

My yellowest book is this one. It features the worst illustrations I´ve ever seen in my life.

[eine]

Do you really have that book babycart? Nice!

Glad you found the book jahshabby, it's a good un. Not yellow though, although my avatar is. Yellow is actually my favourite colour. I like how it stands for sunlight, glory, cowardice and sickness.

We should definitely keep this thread - but perhaps the mods could change the title to yellow and we could all post things about yellow. Including yellow records. Anyway here are some yellow books:



Kama Sutra is a "New Edition With Many Extra Pictures" (doesn't say 'of statues' which is what they all are )
Hypnotism And The Power Within was first published in 1950. This is a 60s repreint - I love the cover and the first sentence: 'This book has been written to show that hypnotism is a rational Christian procedure...'
Kung Fu is from 1974. It has chapters like 'David Carradine Looks For Truth', 'Kung Food?' and 'Just A Fad?'. The author was the editor of Rock Scene, produced Lou Reed and Flamin' Groovies etc. First line of his bio on the book is "Richard Robinson lives on media exploitations.'
The Dawn Of Magic is the 1967 reprint of the 1963 translation of 1960's 'Le Matin des magiciens' - probably the key occult/weird book of the 60s. A seminal text in getting 'out there'.
Bible Word Search Puzzles is one of my favourite books. Note that it is for adults. Puzzles entitled 'Israel's Enemies', 'Names of the Wicked', 'Trees in the Bible'. It's fucking great.
Sunspots And Their Effects - was published in 1937 by an MIT/Harvard physicist with an incredible name - Harlan True Stetson. It is a work of popular science but delightfully nutty. Random quote: 'This means you are better off, in general, in listening to programs from remote regions on short waves over the next few years than is likely to be the case in 1942-1943 when sunspots will again be near the minimum."
Messiah, Man, Or Myth is a self-produced book. Any book about Jesus with a first page like this is obviously ace:

[eine]

Also, great find pitch! Fantastic Beardsley cover. Lucky man!

[Sonovox]

Amazing how many books I have with bright yellow spines that are in no way yellowish on the front cover. But for your delectation I dug out:



Life A User's Manual. This has seemingly been issued in multiple different colours over the years, but this is the only yellow one I've ever seen. Yah boo. Desert island book, this one.
Sundials Their Theory And Construction. I've got three different sundial books and I still don't understand this stuff. One day... one day...
The Owner Built Home. Self published 70s book, this is cool with loads of pictures and chapters on alternative building methods like using rammed earth and salvaged material like car bonnets.
Glory. Hardback Nabakov which is very yellow indeed.

[eine]

Haven't read Life: A User's Manual. Or A Void. I should, shouldn't I? Would love to see The Owner Built Home! Have added that to my wishlist.

As to sundials, what's the complicated bit? Genuinely interested. Here's one I like:



The sunflower is fixed in cork floating on water and follows the sun around all day, due to the magnetic attraction between the sun and vegetables.

[Sonovox]

Haven't read Life: A User's Manual. Or A Void. I should, shouldn't I?

Start with "Life A User's Manual", maybe go onto "W" or the Bellos biography. "A Void" is a technical tour de force but not so great when it comes to actually reading it.

As to sundials, what's the complicated bit? Genuinely interested. Here's one I like:

There are about a zillion different varieties, depending on where it is to be mounted (horizontal, vertical in various compass orientations, ceiling, angled) and what dial furniture you are using. While following a template is relatively straightforward, unpicking the theory of how it works so I can design custom dials has always stymied me. If I start trying to extrapolate away from being at the North Pole on an equinox to understand where the sun will be at different times and places (for example) I end up... confused.

[babycart]

Here´s a yellow book I found on my charity Challenge a few years ago. You get the idea from the cover, but manipulating 9 letters, some of which form the word SHITE basically never stops being hilarious fun. I think it certainly gives Eine´s Biblical Word Search Puzzles book a run for its money.

[pitch]

Wow - it is pretty amazing how many books there are that have yellow as there predominant colour!! Some impressive examples shared

There is of course the daddy of informative yellow books - sadly in decline due to the power of the internet search engines:



It even has yellow pages - an added bonus



there's that proto-Sherlock Holmes French novel called the Mystery of the Yellow Room - my edition has a yellow cover too - which ticks lots of yellow boxes.



More please!