The viral spread of toilet books

A recent lunchtime wander through Waterstones for a last minute office Secret Santa gift revealed an overwhelming trend. It wasn’t the latest unpronounceable Nordic crime writer, or the next shades of grey instalment (everyone knows they need to be read on Kindles to prevent public transport embarrassment). The trend that caught my eye was the prolific, some would say, viral spread, of Internet memes turned into books. Everywhere you looked on the managers special piles was “White Whine”, “Simons Cat” or “Texts from Dog”

A quick look at the Amazon top sellers list reveals the irony of the situation is confounded further. When did this trend of online memes moving to offline books and then being sold online become so frequent?

Like many people, I laughed long and hard at the Antics of Simon’s Cat and cringed with familiarity at some of the 1st World Problems. But like the majority, I enjoy them digitally. I would never buy them to read myself (I actually caught myself feeling quite superior that I had been reading some of the blogs for ages). For me they’re a short fix of humour in a working day. So who’s buying the books?

Is it people like me who read them online and want to share this trend with others? Last year I bought a copy of “Awkward Family Photos” for my brother. Why? Is it just a way of sharing internet humour with that special luddite in your life? If so, it’s an odd introduction to internet humour.

The jokes tend to be fairly niche, almost long running ‘in-jokes’. Dark in places and best understood in the context of the wider community that helped grow them. So what do the receivers of these books think?

I asked my brother and I guess I shouldn’t be surprised to find that he didn’t actually remember receiving it. When pushed with a description and a guilt trip laid on fairly thick, he recalled it was a ‘toilet book’ for a while and then he sent it to the charity shop.

I wonder how often that tale is repeated? Are the charity shops of the UK groaning under the weight of unwanted internet meme books that were funny for the first read, but really didn’t stand the test of time.

With the dominance of X-Factor and the foregone conclusion of who will be Christmas number one weeks before the event, has the internet meme book become the new Christmas One Hit Wonder?

Bye Bye Blobby, hello Grumpy Cat?