Please Don't Do Coke in the Bathroom: Irreverent Lettering for Every F*cking Occasion by Sami Christianson

Fond of calligraphy? Big fan of swearing? I bet you never thought your hobbies would intersect like this. (Or maybe you did. After all, arts-and-crafts get PG-13 all the time with winners like GO F*CK YOURSELF, I'M COLORING and STITCH 'N BITCH.) All I know is, after taking one look at that title I was sold.

PLEASE DON'T DO COKE IN THE BATHROOM surprised me, though, in the sense that it is actually a guide for fancy fonts...sort of. It starts out with an alphabet of swear words and crude phrases, from A all the way to Z, and every other page has space for you to practice.

The end of the book is a collection of hipstery stylized quotations - you know, the kind you see in boutique dessert shops in Los Angeles, or inked onto painted wooden squares in Etsy stores for like $20, except these say things like "Your cat is kind of an asshole" and "wash your hands (they smell like shit)."

I thought this was fun. I'm not sure how useful it is, or how sincere it is (is it a craft book? a parody? both?), but for the right person, I suppose it would be a fun gift. (You know, that one friend who goes into Forever 21 stores just to bitch about the stuff that's printed on the t-shirts...) All I know is, I picked it up because of the title and I imagine plenty of other people will do the same.

Thanks to Netgalley/the publisher for the review copy!

2.5 to 3 out of 5 stars