Books given as gifts are rarely entertaining, uniquely Australian, able to be read in under five minutes and useful for months, if not years.
Great Australian Fly Recipes is the exception because it’s essentially two very different books in one.
First and foremost, the volume is a harmless practical joke – an infinitely repeatable demonstration of the Australian sense of humour which might otherwise be impossible to explain clearly to anyone not clever enough to have visited Australia.
Second, it’s a surprising, 120-page blank-paged notebook ( yes, there’s not a single Great Australian Fly Recipe) which can be re-gifted indefinitely or used productively until it has been filled.
It is also highly flammable and has already been used to fuel several successful barbecues and, in one rare alleged instance still before the courts, the fire which razed the Video Hire Warehouse, shortly after the introduction of online downloading.
‘Great Australian Fly Recipes’, like ‘Famous Yiddish Surfers’ and ‘ How to attract a bikini model if you’re poor and ugly’ is a practical joke just waiting to be enjoyed by all those who pick it off your coffee table or out of your rubbish bin.
If you’re a sub-Saharan African it will cost you many months’ income* ( and possibly the respect of your loved ones) to acquire the work.
But if you’re an employed American or an unemployed Scandinavian or New Zealander living in Australia, the book is around half the cost of a glass of beer at a Crown Casino bar.
And it won’t leave you with an urge to eat salty snacks or put your entire week’s income on number 4.
*You may qualify for our ‘Impoverished and/or Dying Discount of 15 per cent, providing you can supply an original medical certificate and the contact details of the relevant general practitioner/specialist and/or NGO aid officer.