Rigby Instant Books
In the 1970s in Australia, the equivalent of the internet was the Rigby Instant Book. They covered many topics from Ways with Dried Flowers to Transcendental Meditation, Your Teeth and How to Keep Them and Shell Collecting as a Paying Hobby.
Earlier this week my friend Jane posted me a package of Rigby Instant Books she’d found among her Great Aunt’s books.
One of the great things about the Rigby Instant Book is that they are just the right dimensions to slip into your apron pocket. They cost 25-35c, and for the 21st century reader contain plenty of lost information, such as the Egg Crash Diet, from The Simple Art of Egg Cookery.
You can have as many eggs and as much black coffee as you like on this diet, a combination that I imagine would make you feel crazy a few days in, even with the occasional steak for variety.
Another favourite excerpt comes from 365 Home Hints ”the most valuable little book you will ever buy”. The back of the book has the half-peeled-off price tags, which shows that the book was 29c at Target. I like this page not so much for the overall concept but for the one really rather serious situation among the small domestic moments.
Mostly life in the 70s was washing one’s hair with eggs or icing one’s sunburnt skin, with the occasional bushfire threatening your home.
The Instant Books were published by Rigby Ltd, which operated from South Australia, with offices in London and New Zealand. The American equivalent of these books, Dell Purse Books, were the same size and shape.
This book, with invaluable advice about how to position your wiglet, comes with the usual list of other titles of Dell Purse Books you might enjoy. This list has some intriguing titles such as: Face Reading, How to Spell it Right, Test your Emotions, Self Hypnosis, and possibly my favourite What To Do When “There’s Nothing To Do”. With a collection of Rigby’s Instant Books, you would never have had nothing to do ever again. There are endless new topics to explore.
