This is a refrence book In "The Ugly Truth", Grandpa is seen reading "The Hobbit" as a bed-time story to Greg when he was a small child. Later, in "Old School", when Greg is discussing the problems of sleeping in Manny's room, he says that Manny is probably picking out the longest bed-time stories that there are just to annoy him. We then see Susan Heffley reading a book aloud, and starting with "In a hole in the ground there lived a Hobbit". In real life, The Hobbit was written by J.R.R. Tolkien, and was published in 1937.