The Homeowner's Handbook

Joseph Jones is a reference librarian in the Koerner Library at the
University of British Columbia.

This book was compiled and edited under the auspices of the Consumers’ Association of Canada. Although eleven names of individual contributors are listed on the back of the title page, only three are credited with particular sections of text, at six points throughout the book. This uneven distribution of credit leaves the reader wondering why other sections were left unattributed.

Most of the major concerns associated with purchasing and maintaining a house are touched on in the 170-page body of the book. Perhaps the two most informative sections — both of substantial length and signed by the author — are those on Canadian home mortgages and shopping for a newly built house.

Many topics are covered, and more than once they are unexpected. For example, the chapter entitled “Finance and Security” includes a signed seven-page section on moving companies. The section contains interesting and useful information, but its appropriateness to the chapter (or the book) is questionable. Even expected topics are given disproportionate treatment: ten pages are devoted to indoor air pollution.

The book does not bear a conventional publication date, although internal evidence indicates late 1985. This is a feature that educated consumers of books quickly notice. The pages (71-73) dealing with the Canadian Oil Substitution Program fail to indicate that the program was discontinued in the spring of 1985.

I learned things from this book. Unfortunately, what I learned was very unpredictable. When a small book stakes out a large territory (subtitle: “an authoritative guide to buying and caring for your home”), and then goes beyond even those boundaries, that is the result.