# Time/Life books, before they went wacky **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 16, 2012, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-life-books-before-they-went-wacky/615955 "2012-03-16T12:52:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2012, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-life-books-before-they-went-wacky/615955/41 "2012-03-16T22:38:48Z")
> [@Eve](#): > > And, see, _that’s_ the point where Baby rolled her eyes and gave up on Time/Life. I loved those book series. In my own defense, I was ten at the time. I think I still have the tote bag that came with “Myths and Legends” in a closet somewhere. ---
**Author:** ![Motorgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e36b37/32.png) [@Motorgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Motorgirl)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2012, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-life-books-before-they-went-wacky/615955/42 "2012-03-16T22:50:52Z")
> [@Motorgirl](#): > > My grandfather had a Time/Life series about the old west. It was really great to browse through. [$40, folks!](http://www.ebay.com/itm/17-Volumes-TIME-LIFE-books-THE-OLD-WEST-series-Excellent-condition-/251009857437?pt=US_Nonfiction_Book&hash=item3a715a779d) ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2012, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-life-books-before-they-went-wacky/615955/43 "2012-03-16T23:05:32Z")
You can pick up a lot of these at library book sales and flea markets for really low prices (often a dollar a book). My two favorites are [Time Frame](http://www.librarything.com/series/Time-Life%3A+TimeFrame) and [The Good Cook](http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/the_time_life_good_cook_series/). ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2012, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-life-books-before-they-went-wacky/615955/44 "2012-03-16T23:12:04Z")
A childhood friend of mine who grew up to become a painter told me that our Famous Artists series made him what he was. I don’t remember that his own family owned any books (I would have noticed). ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2012, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-life-books-before-they-went-wacky/615955/45 "2012-03-16T23:37:34Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > [The Good Cook](http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/the_time_life_good_cook_series/). Bah. [This](http://www.librarything.com/work/2107194) is the only cookbook worth owning. ---
**Author:** ![Hail\_Ants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/dc4da7/32.png) [@Hail\_Ants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hail_Ants)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2012, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-life-books-before-they-went-wacky/615955/46 "2012-03-16T23:59:29Z")
In one of their series there’s a book about (and called) _ **The Desert** _. It has a full page picture of a close-up of a Wolf Spider’s rather hideous face (somehow made extra evil looking). Traumatized my arachnophobic older brother the first time he unknowingly flipped to it! To this day he won’t look at it. I did a couple of Google searches but I can’t seem to find it. Plenty of other shots of Wolf Spiders but not that exact one (I’m not overly afraid of spiders, but I’d know that pic if I saw it, pretty scary looking)… ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2012, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-life-books-before-they-went-wacky/615955/47 "2012-03-17T02:23:50Z")
> [@Hail\_Ants](#): > > In one of their series there’s a book about (and called) _ **The Desert** _. It has a full page picture of a close-up of a Wolf Spider’s rather hideous face (somehow made extra evil looking). Traumatized my arachnophobic older brother the first time he unknowingly flipped to it! To this day he won’t look at it. > > I did a couple of Google searches but I can’t seem to find it. Plenty of other shots of Wolf Spiders but not that exact one (I’m not overly afraid of spiders, but I’d know that pic if I saw it, pretty scary looking)… I remember that book and the incredible picture. Scared the crap out of me for a couple of years. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2012, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-life-books-before-they-went-wacky/615955/48 "2012-03-17T02:31:50Z")
> [@Eve](#): > > Oh. Well, I was close. “_Have at you!_” _Gesundheit!_ ---
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2012, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-life-books-before-they-went-wacky/615955/49 "2012-03-17T02:50:29Z")
What I remember is the commercials where one person would ask the other person questions about the subject matter of the book, and the other person would simply say, smugly, over and over, “Read the book!” I thought it would be funny for the questioner to finally punch the other guy in the face. That never happened, though. ---
**Author:** ![joebuck20](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/74df32/32.png) [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2012, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-life-books-before-they-went-wacky/615955/50 "2012-03-17T03:40:09Z")
> [@DocCathode](#): > > The woo crap was Mysteries Of The Unexplained. That series included > > UFOs > > Mystic Places > > Psychic Powers > > and so forth. Ahh, good times. I had a friend in elementary school whose parents subscribed to those. We had a blast looking at them whenever he brought them into class. ---
**Author:** ![joebuck20](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/74df32/32.png) [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2012, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-life-books-before-they-went-wacky/615955/51 "2012-03-17T03:46:27Z")
> [@Duke](#): > > Is that the ad where some doofus twists a coat hanger into “an ancient Egyptian symbol”, points it at Stonehenge, and gets knocked down by “a surge of energy”? Fun times. Here’s the commercial. The Stonehenge bit happens at about 1:15. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/v4zBYh2PUyk/hqdefault.jpg "Time-Life "Mysteries of the Unknown" Commercial (1988)") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4zBYh2PUyk) ---
**Author:** ![rjk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ed655f/32.png) [@rjk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjk)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2012, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-life-books-before-they-went-wacky/615955/52 "2012-03-17T18:12:02Z")
> [@Bridget\_Burke](#): > > Hey, [some folks](http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0004927/quotes) liked the later Time/Life series… > > I grew up with earlier volumes from Time/Life. There was the giant [World We Live In](http://www.amazon.com/World-Live-Editorial-Staff-LIFE/dp/B0006D7N9W), with fold-out pictures of dinos, etc. (A lot of that stuff is outdated because of later findings–but it was good to have a basis for watching science develop.) And a big honking book on WWII… I have “The World We Live In” right here beside me. That was the first book I bought with my own money! (I’m sure there was a little supplement from my father’s wallet.) I definitely will be keeping that and “The Epic of Man,” also from Life. ---
**Author:** ![hazel-rah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/73ab20/32.png) [@hazel-rah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hazel-rah)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2012, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-life-books-before-they-went-wacky/615955/53 "2012-03-17T21:50:26Z")
I got the Mysteries of the Unexplained series when I was in junior high and I loved it to bits… and I am probably not alone among the skeptical bunch who frequent this message board in having spent my youth reading credulous books about ghosts, UFOs and the paranormal. Eventually you come across Martin Gardner or Carl Sagan in the stacks. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2012, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-life-books-before-they-went-wacky/615955/54 "2012-03-17T21:54:59Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Yes. In fact, I grabbed the set before my parents tossed it out, and have the Time/Life Nature Library in my basement. Some of the stuff has been superceded, like “Early Man”, but the photos are always great. I also have the “Mathematics” volume fro m the Science library. Several years ago I picked up the “Brueghel” volume from the art library (We never had the Art Library, but we had the single-volume “The Story Behind the Artist” that Time/Life published. Great stuff.) Oh, I have the Mathematics book too! My cousin had it, and I loved looking at it when I was a kid and we visited the relatives. So I found my copy at the library booksale. I learned a lot from that book. I also have the “Foods of the World” series, the “Good Cook” series, and parts of several of the history series. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-life-books-before-they-went-wacky/615955.md?page=2)