Professor Plausible’s Baloney Books

“In the past year, I have received research papers whose bibliographies included such sources as a golfing manual, a thriller set in the Vatican, and Leadership Lessons from the Dog Whisper (sic). I have tried to convince my budding scholars that popular books are not to be relied on as sources of Truth, as they are far from infallible. There is no requirement that a book be fact-checked or peer-reviewed; with the advent of easy self-publishing, it doesn’t even need to be spell-checked. One fateful day, I exclaimed to my class that I could throw together a book of my own made-up facts, and put it up for sale on Amazon tomorrow. Would you use that as a source for your paper? I asked. The glazed look that I got in response gave me an idea. I decided to step aside and let the rock roll back down the hill. Behold Professor Plausible’s Extra-Large Book of Baloney, the world’s first combination notebook, sketchpad, and academic source: It’s the only [Citation] you’ll ever need.”