The Little Opinion of Stocking Fillers (Ideas For Stocking Fillers)

Member Name: moronboy

Product:	Ideas For Stocking Fillers
Date:	25/11/00 (350 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Cheap and cheerful

Disadvantages: None

I mentioned these in another review, but I feel that they are such an ideal stocking filler that they deserved a mention entirely of their own (so apologies if you've already read my 'One who has everything contribution and feel cheated).

Many publishers have jumped on the bandwagon, but the format is relatively consistent - a book of about two inches across, priced at around two to three pounds, with quotes or thoughts on each page. At this size, they fit perfectly into a stocking.

I think the 'Little Book of..' phenomenon started with Paul Wilson's 'Little Book of Calm', which has been a huge bestseller. This book is either a very comforting and helpful aid to beating stress, or the biggest load of empty-headed New Age twaddle perpetrated on a gullible public in twenty years, depending on your perspective. I tend towards the latter, if only because it makes me feel better about myself to know that reading it doesn't make me feel better about myself, if you see what I mean.

The companion volumes to this are the Little Books of 'Chaos' by Craig Brown and 'Bollocks' by Alistair Beaton. Both are well-written diatribes, brilliantly satirising all the touchy feely garbage which has made Wilson a millionaire. Buy someone both the Calm and Chaos books, and all their moods will be matched.

Also finely matched are Lillian Too's Little Book of Feng Shui, one of several Little Books by Too about the furniture shifting phenomenon ('Feng Shui at work' is another), and Rohan Candappa's 'Little Book of Wrong Shui', which perfectly spikes the nonsense of 'Feng Shui' (sample observation "A door should never be bigger than the space it has to fill" is actually from Wrong Shui, but wouldn't look out of place in Too's daft books).

Also on my level is Alec Bromcie's 'Little Book of Farting', which is full of handy tips on farting eti
quette, observations on the biological origin of flatulence, and some very funny ephemisms for farting (my favourite is 'barking spider'). It's a cut-down version of Bromcie's 'Ultimate Book of Farting', which no home should be without.

Where do I stop? 'Abuse' features a brace of fine insults and putdowns collected by a stand-up comic over a career of dealing with hecklers who didn't like her act, whereas 'The Little Book of Crap', is also funny (the author of that has two promising titles for 2001, the Little Books of Crap Excuses and Crap Advice).

Just go to Amazon or Alphabetstreet and type in the words 'Little Book of' and you'll find tiny books for all ages and senses of humour (Shakespeare quotes, Winnie The Pooh, it's endless). as you might have guessed, I have a heap of these in my house (outside the toilet door, in case anyone fancies a quick read). They're cheap and a bit throwaway, but anyone finding an appropriate one in their stocking is certain to get a few chuckles out of it.

Summary: