The 1982 book The Kids' Whole Future Catalog features a broad range of paleo-futuristic hopes and dreams. From floating cities to rocketbelts this book runs the gamut of 1980s futurism. Unfortunately, it also contains some scam artists such as Uri Geller. For the most part it's a great read and we'll definitely be checking out more from this book over the next few weeks.
7 comments:
OMG! I've been looking for this book for almost 20 years. I can't even begin to describe to you my sheer elation in seeing this again!!
I had this book as a kid and my mother threw it out when I was in junior high. I used to read it all the time and had it's cover emblazoned in my brain for years.
Over the years I had one problem--I couldn't remember the title. At last the answer has arrived, it's called, "THE KIDS WHOLE FUTURE CATALOG!!!!!!!"
Thank You! I was beginning to think I would never see it again!!!
I had that book! Wow, that takes me back.
This was my very very favorite book as a kid; it took Amazon several years and a somewhat ridiculous amount of cash to find me a copy to share with my own kids.
I think I still have a copy of this book. I remember getting a copy when I was a kid, then found another copy at a yard sale about ten years back.
I was googling around for fun when I came across this. I'm a huge fan this book. Like everyone else I had a copy in the early 80s. I too forgot the title, but about five years ago I somehow recalled it and bought a copy on eBay for a few bucks on eBay.
A few years back I happened across a box of books at my parents house and found my original copy. So now I have two!
Six or seven years ago there was a web project out there that was trying to follow up on the book to see whether any of the predictions came true or not. I can't find it now, but I've been interested in sacrificing (because to do it right you have to cut off the binding) one of my copies to scribd it... not sure about the copyright though. Maybe I'll get around to looking up the publisher...
As for the book itself, thumbing through it today I realize just how super progressive it was. The section on "Future Families" would have Focus on the Family seething if they could see it.
Anyway, glad to see that I wasn't the only nerdy kid in the 80s who loved this book.
I still have this. Yeah, some of the predictions seem ridiculous now (we should have space colonies and everything today), but our world would have been a bit more pleasant if they had come true. For instance, they claimed that by 1990 something like every third car in the US would be electric. And here we are 26 years later with gas at almost $5 a gallon...
classic! i still have my copy....somewhere...
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