I recently purchased “The Gallery of Regrettable Food” and “Interior Desecrations” by James Lileks. They are, respectively, a book about horrible food from the 50’s through to the 70’s, and a book about horrible interior design from the 70’s.
I read the Gallery first. It was funny and all, and they really are terrible looking pictures of food, oh yes. I was amused.
But tonight, I read Interior Desecrations.
I don’t think I actually laughed at anything in it. But it, several times, it actually produced a totally visceral result from me. I found myself turning a page, and saying things like “Fuuuuuck!” and “Holy SHIT!” and “Oh, Jesus, no.”
It’s genius. There are 70’s home decorating designs in this book which quite literally make me wince involuntarily.
I HIGHLY recommend this book. I surely will be coming back to it. It’s like a permanent traffic accident which I can now drive past whenever I want, and rubberneck the grisly results.
Glorious.