Selfsufficientish.com

We have quite a good list of books that people have recommended on here now, but what about ones that you really wish you had not bought?

When you buy online it can be difficult to really know if a book is going to be any good or not.

I wish I had not bothered buying Organic living by Michael Van Straten. It is a good looking book with lots of nice photos in it, but that is really the best thing about it. I keep turning to it for information but there is just no real substance to it. With a £20 cover price you are much better off looking at the web or getting a bunch of charity shop books.

Another Use for 101 Common Household Items by Vicki Lansky

On the surface a good idea but there isn't much of use in this book that the frugal or green haven't gleaned from elsewhere.

This is an American book and British readers should be warned that "Baby Powder" in USA is not talc but Cornflour.

Lansky has some good ideas, as I said, you can get those pretty much anywhere, but loses the plot completely with other uses for a Wading Pool:

"Fill the pool with fallen leaves and drag it to the composting area". Won't it be fun to clean it afterwards? You own a wading pool but not a wheelbarrow?

"Fill the pool with birdseed instead of sand for use indoors as a substitute sand-pit". Birdseed is expensive and SANDPITS ARE OUTSIDE TOYS.

Avoid!

Wassail

Karen

Yep that birdseed sure would be fun if it got wet and mouldy... and wouldn't it cost a fortune to buy?

"make it for baby" was given to me as a gift from a well meaning family member. as it is I think it's only good as kindling or charity shop fodder. it's all for people who have no creativity, who have to make things that are exactly the same as the other people's attempts.

Home Extensions: Planning, Managing and Completing Your Extension

Just don't waste your money, it is a stupid, unreliable and patronising piece of crap... we returned our copy after buying it online and reading it cover to cover in about 30mins... most of the reason that we kept reading is that we couldn't quite belive that it was serious. Looked like a brownies guide to building (circa 1987)

"The Colour Atlas of Tropical Diseases" - don't ask......

That giving up smoking book, can't remember what it is called, but the bloke who wrote it died recently from lung cancer. Anyway it didn't bloody work!

Is it the one that tells you cigarettes are not addictive, that it is the tobacco companies that tell you so...? I thought it sounded like a piece of crap but apparently everyone my friend loaned her copy to stopped smoking, but my friend still smoked like a chimney

Oh no, it tells you quite the opposite - it's the book by Alan Carr. I've remembered now!

Not Buying It: My Year Without Shopping by Judith Levine

Seemed to spend a lot of the book justifying their 2 houses and 3 cars (between a couple) - this in a book about non-consumerism

smile_sunshine wrote:Not Buying It: My Year Without Shopping by Judith Levine

Seemed to spend a lot of the book justifying their 2 houses and 3 cars (between a couple) - this in a book about non-consumerism

hahahaha
Even more ironic, she wants you to buy her book about not buying - what a joke!

rag_grrl_nz wrote: hahahaha
Even more ironic, she wants you to buy her book about not buying - what a joke!

i got it out the library instead

The Pauper's Cookbook by Jocasta Innes

I know a lot of people really like this, which is why I bought it, but I just couldn't get on with the recipes. Too much tripe for my liking!! I also thought it was out of date as she used a lot of fish, and in my experience fish is very expensive.

I sold it again to some other mug though...

Was that the book that used chicken liver in every other recipe, because it allegedly is so cheap?

I think it may well have done, Ina. It was truly offal...