The Coffee Table Book of Doom by Steven Appleby

by Steven Appleby

Dear fellow mortal, Imagine that you're sitting on your sofa leafing through this book, when you feel an odd vibration. Ripples start to shiver across the surface of your teacup. Puzzled, you strain your ears. Then you hear a distant rumbling sound. The noise grows louder. And nearer. The sound is unfamiliar at first, but then you realise what it is. Hoofbeats. Don't go to the window and peer through the curtains. Don't tempt the horsemen of the Apocalypse by showing your face. Doom is no longer far off in the distant future. It could arrive as early as Tuesday morning. There's nothing you can do except read on... Yours anxiously, t he authors. Remember the good old days, when doom was straightforward? When all we had to worry about were those 4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse from the Pestilence, War, Famine and Death? Well now we have reason to believe that there are more than 4 horsemen. Many more. In fact, at the last count the authors of The Coffee Table Book of Doom put the estimate at 27 horsemen. And that's not all. According to the ancient prophesies of the Mayan Calendar, our next date with doom is due on December 31st, 2012...The Coffee Table Book of Doom is a brilliantly funny yet erudite compendium of all the 27 doom-laden horsemen we need to worry about - personal doom, gender erosion, asteroid impact, pandemics, super storms, sexual ruin - and much more besides.

Genres: Humor, Nonfiction

Unknown Binding

First published October 17, 2011

About the author

Steven Appleby is a British and Canadian cartoonist, illustrator, writer and visual artist based in London, whose comic strips are best known for their absurdist humour.
Appleby studied graphic design at Newcastle Polytechnic (1978–1981), then illustration at the Royal College of Art of London (1981–1984), where they met future major collaborators George Mole and Malcolm Garrett.
Appleby cartooning work first appeared in the magazine 'New Musical Express' in 1984 with the Rockets Passing Overhead comic strip about the character Captain Star, later featured also in 'The Observer', as well as other newspapers and comic magazines in Europe and America. Other comic strips followed in many publications, including 'The Times', the 'Sunday Telegraph' and 'The Guardian'. In particular, the strip series Steven Appleby's Normal Life made into a radio series for the BBC. Appleby's debut graphic novel Dragman (2020) was awarded the Jury Special Prize at the Angoulême Comic Festival, in 2021 and the award for Best International Comic Book at the Erlangen Comic Salon, Germany in 2022.
Appleby’s illustrations and paintings have appeared in numerous exhibitions and on a number of album covers for pop-rock bands, such as Duran Duran and Pixies.
In 2008 Appleby came out as transgender. In 2021, Appleby stated to be "relaxed about pronouns," going by both "Steven" & "he" and "Nancy" & "she."

Reviews

[Carmen · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was prepared to like this book, and was disappointed. It sounds fun, right!? Doom! *sings the Doom Song from Invader Zim*

THINGS I LIKED:

Reading about all the different ways the world could end. The book is pretty thorough.

The pages 'count down' so that the book ends on page 0. Pretty clever.

THINGS I DIDN'T LIKE:

It wasn't as funny or as clever as I thought it would be.

The illustrations are ugly.

There's an emphasis on "the world might end in 2012!" Probably because of when the book was published. Needless to say, the world did NOT end in 2012, and so this emphasis, in retrospect, seems silly.

The book exhibits a dislike of fat people.

The book exhibits a dislike of transvestites.

...

In short, I thought it was going to be funnier. Unfortunately, I found it to be a bit mean-spirited and most of the jokes fell flat for me. And I don't enjoy looking at ugly artwork.

[Bean · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a mix of funny, freaky, yet (mostly) true things that could happen to make earth as we know it end. It has really funny illustrations and descriptions and as many ways to die as you can think of! For people that really believe about the world ending this December and are freaked out by it, I recommend NOT reading this because lots of things relate and talk about 2012.

[I'mogén · Rating 3 out of 5]

I probably should have read this around 2012 when everyone was predicting the end of the world in December, and talking about our inevitable impending doom, but I still liked the humour and it didn't feel as dated as I was expecting.

I like that the pages are a countdown. It gives it that extra something but made it hard to update my progress. I ended up just taking away the countdown number to the amount of pages in the book and that gave me what I assumed was my actual page number. Guys, let me have this moment to shine- I'm pretty shit at maths all round so I was proud of this "discovery".

To be honest, I'm pretty shocked at how scientific this was and the fact that this actually has proper theories (some more backed up than others), so it actually left me with some newfound knowledge.

I like that the introduction is all yellow hues (a little more optimistic), followed by the heavy blue influence and finally a pinkier tone for the ending. The blue hues reminded me of the cold and thus the end of the world, so quite fitting. The illustrations were goofy and fun too. That poor guy holding up the doom signs for each chapter was falling more apart as it went on, bless him! This book kind of reminds me of Teach your grandma to text and other ways to change the world.

The reason it gets a 3 out of 5 stars is because it wasn't as funny as I hoped and isn't anything that will stay in my mind for that long. Don't read this book if you are a hypochondriac, because although this is written in a jokey manner, it still made me feel a bit anxious.

Pick it up, give it a go and enjoy! ^^
Gén

[Carley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice overview of the catastrophic events society fears. Entertaining cartoons are a nice juxtaposition.

[Lori Winters · Rating 5 out of 5]

Now in the thick of covid19 lockdown, I remembered my copy of the Coffee Table Book of Doom of some years ago, and have not yet located it at home. Thing is, I have lent it out so many times; now where is it when I need it?! A brilliant book written on the relentless imagination of us 'children of the savannah', who scan their world--or rather their representation to themselves of it--vigilant for patterns that signal doom. Well it could happen! The book is delightful in its thoroughness and grimness, lightened and made tender by Stephen Appleby's wonderful illustrations. But is this an attitude baked into our evolution, or is it a cultural habit of mind? The writer Art Lester is a fine Unitarian minister whose *practice* as leader of his congregation active in his local community is decidedly anti-doom.
Highly recommend, with advance warning to the doom sensitive.

[Julia]

好幽默的一本書, 不用太嚴肅的看待世界末世(這本書), 書中的文字與插畫, 這我看這本書一邊看一邊笑...

[Sam · Rating 4 out of 5]

While this may be slightly out of date since it was written pre-2012 (although this is acknowledged throughout by the author) it is still a very interesting and surprisingly humorous read that covers all the many ways that we as a planet, species and individuals could face our doom. Each section covers a certain type of doom from global to individual, natural and man-made and comes with hints and tips on how to manage (or in some cases not manage) to survive before, during and after. While this is fairly tongue in cheek it is also rather accurate and has obviously been well researched and best of all it leaves space for you to add in any new doom scenarios and update what happened with the old ones. It also has space for you to list out your own doom survival kit, should you feel the need. I also liked how the pages counted down, just to add to the feel of the inevitable end.

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

Don't be deceived by the cute cartoons. This is one of the most depressing books on the apocalypse I've ever read. It may also be one of the more accurate in terms of our possible fates (which is pretty much why it's depressing). Still, it's clever, funny, cute, interesting, and entertaining (even on the publication details page), and we're all going to die someday. Why not accompany that dread with clever cartoons to distract us?

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Appleby's an amazing cartoonist -- and this book is an odd mix of his humorous illustrations and his co-author's (mostly) deadly serious text. We're all doomed, but we may as well have a few laughs on the way to our extinction.

[Brian Groce · Rating 3 out of 5]

http://naptownbuzz.com/2012/10/the-co...

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very funny. It almost makes we wish for an apocalypse.

[DeAnne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pardon me -- I need to go hide in my closet now.

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

Funny, amusing, yet scary at the same time. Especially since they talk about possible things that could happen, and since being published in 2011... some of them have!!

[Ash · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love this book... got it for Christmas and couldn't put it down.

[Nicola · Rating 1 out of 5]

Beautiful looking book on the outside, but sadly the contents are lacking.