Yesterday's Words at Tomorrow's Prices

by David Thorne

A book about snow leopards, dancing to Free Bird, and magnetism by the New York Times Bestselling author of The Internet is a Playground. "Immensely entertaining." Jackie Shaw, ESQUIRE"Completes the collection for people who bought the first books early, but not the three books which have been removed from publication, and not for people who bought the earlier books late." Sebastian Thorne"I'm so confused. Is this book 8 or 14?" Margaret Blake

Genres: Humor, Nonfiction, Memoir

290 pages, Paperback

Published January 29, 2024

About the author

David Thorne is an Australian humourist, satirist, Internet personality and New York Times best-selling author. His work has been featured on the BBC, The Late Show with David Letterman, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, and Late Night with Conan O'Brien. Thorne gained public recognition in late 2008 for an email exchange in which he attempts to pay an overdue bill with a drawing of a seven-legged spider. The exchange spread virally via email and social networking sites, leading to a surge of visitors to his website 27b/6 (27bslash6). 27b/6 features a collection of humorous emails and articles from Thorne's life. These and additional essays appear in Thorne's book, The Internet is a Playground. Published by Penguin Group and released on 28 April 2011, the book debuted at number four on The New York Times Best Seller list.

Reviews

[jv poore · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty collection of short stories and essays.

[Darcy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've read all of these stories before, but they'll never get old!

[Kimmy C · Rating 4 out of 5]

Something old, something new - it’s the traditional bride of books. I’ve read a few of these, but others were along the same vein as his previous books. If you like them, you’ll like this.
If you can find it (limited print run).

[Rumper Stump · Rating 5 out of 5]

The cynical side of me wonders if the limited run of some of Throne's entries were always leading to the eventual release of a book like Yesterday's Words, however knowing the very legitimate legal troubles his books have landed him in, and also knowing how half-baked some of the more rushed books turned out, the other, more believing side of me is that Thorne has been very genuine in deciding it was the right decision to collect all of the stories from these out of print releases into one collection for all those who missed out.

The book is advertised as "limited run", however two years later the book is still in stock with major retailers, so either it simply hasn't sold its stock yet, or the book is in fact still readily available to fill that gap for fans who missed the boat on those previous releases.

Some stories I'd read before, some were entirely new to me, and judging from the reviews of others, it seems there are even some new stories included, either that or something collectors of his books are missing entries even they did not know about; I believe I'm missing 3 or 4 myself though so it's hard to give a definitive answer, the only ones who would be sure would be the die-hard fans who buy and read every single release and Thorne himself, but I imagine neither are in a hurry to provide a definitive index.

As an overall collection of stories, Yesterday's Prices is a fantastic collection, in both quality and quantity. This is by far his bulkiest book, and I don't believe there is a single story that didn't land with me - admittedly my favourites were the ones included in other books, but again, given (seemingly) every story is from another book, this statement would be the same no matter which story I liked.

Definitely worth the time of any fans of Throne's work, and plugs the gap in the ownership of his works.

[Harold Murphy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an odd compilation of hilarious stories from books that were limited print runs and books that have been removed from circulation. It contains a lot of stories that I haven't read before and I thought I had all of his books.

[Em · Rating 4 out of 5]

In fairness, this book should easily get the full 5*. Some of this content has appeared before in other books, though, hence the shaving-off of one star. The other 4 remain fully unshaven, probably shining and metaphors if I were good at metaphors.

[Mikey K]

I’ll read anything this man writes.

[A G Harding · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ll read another

I hate having to write reviews zzzz zzzz zzzz and being told to write more - what more do you want!

[Will · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.25

[Patty Clarke · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hilarious!

It is lol hilarious! It can be a little outrageous with some of his stories and it’s one of the funniest books I have read in a long time.

[J. N. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Amusing but I had already read half the essays because he was remixing them.

[Ian Mason · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read most of these stories already

[Claire Q · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some of the essays I had read, but the majority were new to me, which surprised me as I have all the books. Early editions though. My favorite was the one about the boat and the flex seal, especially the opening paragraph.