A somewhat-literary Instagram account has earned thousands of followers for its book commentary — though the ‘grammer behind it doesn’t seem to have actually read any of the titles.
Snide Octopus offers witty commentary on books he finds in the library, taking pictures of the spines of books that have interesting titles and posting them regularly.
Then, using Snapchat, he adds captions to the images, dreaming up subtitles (or sometimes teasers or first lines) that take the titles of the books completely out of context.
The result is a series of funny subtitles that make the books seem a whole lot more interesting than they might actually be — though they can also be quite bizarre.
‘Causing disturbances in libraries nationwide,’ the witty jokster wrote in his Instagram bio.
Those fireworks really bark! An Instagram user who goes by ‘Snide Octopus’ shares his witty takes on books on social media
REALLY old-school hip-hop! He takes pictures of library books and adds his own subtitles using Snapchat (sometimes he writes a line from the first page instead)
Too witty! The funny captions have earned thousands of followers
A tall tale: He joked that this book of war stories includes the pretty unbelievable tale of a family member single-handedly taking on the Nazis
Sometimes the account simply shares an image of the book and lets followers come up with the subtitle
If this were the actual subtitle, we’d be happy if no one at this particular office read this book
Medical advice specific to teenagers would, probably, focus on puberty and sexual topics
He jokes that white women aren’t being truthful when they use the expression ‘I can’t even’ and also imagines a book called Tobacco Kingdom is about a theme park
The jokester writes that this book about a ‘Gloomy Egoist’ features musings from a conceited guy who is also suffering from some existential angst
Blood on the Saddle becomes a literal title, while The History of a Barometer gets a cheesy dad joke in the subtitle
Special skills: It seems like this book could feature romantic stories featuring Liam Neeon’s character from the Taken movies
The Private Press could be about suppressing the urges of a bladder, while The Economics of Taste could be about fast food
If this book were a manual for a nursing home, it would be quite depressing
Another meaning: He images that The Spare Wife is about a woman who knocks over all the pins in two tries while bowling
Certainly, if dead bodies were hidden under the ice at a rink, no one would want to play there
No Arms, No Armour became the Queen’s reasoning for withholding knighthood from amputees