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Cover of Motel of the Mysteries by David Macaulay

Motel of the Mysteries

  • 95 pages · about 2 hours
  • First published 1979
  • 10 editions

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1 About this book

An arch and witty tale purporting to be the dissertation of some future archeologists' discovery and exploration of the "Toot and C'mon Motel" (any resemblance to a Holiday Inn and the Egyptian pharaoh is entirely intentional.)

In the process, they get just about every detail wrong, surmising it to be a necropolis - does the "Plant That Would Not Die" symbolize eternal life or… wait a minute, isn't that just the ubiquitous plastic philodendron in every room? - and along the way cast doubt on what we really think we "know" about ancient Egypt. It's all enhanced by Macaulay's detailed and meticulous pen-and-ink sketches. Hilarious and memorable.

Good for readers who want: humor and a short read.

  • Humor
  • Humor, parodies
  • Pictorial American wit and humor
  • Civilization, modern
  • Modern Civilization
  • Antiquities
  • Anecdotes

2 About David Macaulay

Born 1946

David Macaulay (born 2 December 1946) is a British-born American illustrator and writer. His works include Cathedral (1973), The Way Things Work (1988), and its updated revisions The New Way Things Work (1998) and The Way Things Work Now (2016). His illustrations have been featured in nonfiction books combining text and illustrations explaining architecture, design, and engineering, and he has written a number of children's fiction books.

Bio adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)

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