"They Call Me Naughty Lola"

"Shy, ugly man, fond of extended periods of self-pity, middle-aged, flatulent and overweight, seeks the impossible. Box no. 8623."

"Things I won't do for love include replacing corroding soil pipes and trepanning at home. Everything else is A-OK. Eager-to-please woman (36) seeks domineering man to take advantage of her flagging confidence. Tell me I'm pretty, then watch me cling, at box no. 3286."

"They call me Naughty Lola. Run-of-the-mill beardy physicist (M, 46). Box. 4023."

Since 1998, the London Review of Books has featured a column of remarkable personal ads. Now, the LRB advertising director--David Rose--has gathered the most memorable of these eccentric ads into a collection called They Call Me Naughty Lola: Personal Ads from the London Review of Books.

All personal ads are a wonderful exercise in concise writing, but those from the LRB serve up something extra: wordplay, wit, erudition, and "the occasional philosophical reference."

They are also often self-deprecating and brutally honest. One ad starts, "I’ve divorced better men than you." Surely this volume deserves a home in the Christmas stocking of someone you know.

• Personal ads from the current issue of LBR
  
• Review from The New York Times
• Review from Salon.com