Big Maxie

There are certain books that you consistently see on the shelves of op-shops, second hand bookstores, garage sales and weekend markets. Old high school texts such as Lord of the Flies and To Kill a Mockingbird are common sights, as are last year's 'must read' summer books, picked up at the airport on the way to Noosa. Of course most used books are unheard of titles from the seventies that were previously taking up room in garages and spare rooms. If anyone comes up with a market for old Woman's Weekly cookbooks, the ones where all the food is a funny tinge of orange, they could clean up.

But there has been one book I come across in nearly every op-shop across country Victoria. One that I often pulled down from my parents book shelf as a small person, although I carry no memory of it's contents. Obviously Max Walker's How To Hypnotise Chooks was gifted to many Dad's as an alternative to socks when it was first published. If the number of unwanted copies floating around are anything to go by, socks would have been the better option. Despite this, the good people at Tangle Press have re-issued not only 'big Maxie's' most well-known title, but all his 'How To' titles in a box set. According to the publishers, "Max’s unique turn of phrase peels off the page in a slow Tasmanian drawl … humour is the catalyst to turn each page".

So now I can also look forward to seeing Max's How to Kiss a Crocodile, How to Puzzle a Python and How to Tame Lions in my used book travels. The only other places you might find more copies are in outside toilets in rural Queensland, but I am not willing to find out.

#1

As way of brief introduction I offer an apology to the late Dorothy Parker from whom I have unabashedly stolen the title of this blog. The Constant Reader was her book review column in the New Yorker between 1927 and 1933. While I do not claim to possess Parker's vitriolic wit, I shall attempt to record the print-induced highs and pulp fiction lows of my reading life, and give credit where credit is due.


Oscar Wilde

If, with the literate, I am
Impelled to try an epigram,
I never seek to take the credit;
We all assume that Oscar said it.

- Dorothy Parker