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    UK Avalon Founder Bill Ryan's Avatar
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    Default Wonderfully Weird Books (and their wonderfully weird titles)

    I was originally going to post this on the Interesting Free Books in PDF thread, for the delight of all bookworms that visit there. But these aren't actually books in PDF, and besides, it would hopeless derail the thread forever.

    It's a page from AbeBooks, called 'Wonderfully Weird Books' (and their wonderfully weird titles).

    Do take a look. The original page is here, which features images of all the [real!] covers. I do highly recommend reading carefully through all the titles below. Every one of these has been published.


    Wonderfully Weird Books

    1001 Sandwiches
    by Florence A. Cowles

    I Can't Chew Cookbook
    by J. Randy Wilson

    Treat Your Own Neck
    by Robin McKenzie

    How to Raise Your I.Q. by Eating Gifted Children
    by Lewis B. Frumkes

    Extreme Ironing
    by Phil Shaw

    The Lodge Goat and Goat Rides
    by James Pettibone

    Description of a New Toad from Cuba
    by Leonhard Stejneger

    The Second-Hand Parrot
    by Mattie Sue Athan

    Favorite Flies and Their Histories
    by Mary Orvis Marbury

    How to Enjoy Your Weeds
    by Audrey Wynne Hatfield

    Rats for Those Who Care
    by Susan Fox

    Versailles: The View From Sweden
    by Elaine Dee

    The History of the Concrete Roofing Tile
    by Charles Dobson

    How to Avoid Matrimony
    by Herald Froy

    Curses and Blessings for All Occasions
    by Bradley Trevor Greive

    Cereal Grass: What's In It for You!
    by R.L. Seibold

    The Book of Marmalade
    by C. Anne Wilson

    Embarrassing Moments in German
    by Noah J. Jacobs

    Acrobat Hamster
    by Mary Cockett

    Stop-Motion Puppet Sculpting
    by Tom Brierton

    Tulipomania: The Story of the World's Most Coveted Flower and the Extraordinary Passions it Aroused
    by Mike Dash

    How to Cook for a Ghost
    by Hope McIntyre

    Extinct for a Reason
    by Scott Cooney and Aaron Adler

    SPAM: A Biography: The Amazing True Story of America's Miracle Meat!
    by Carolyn Wyman

    The Importance of Being Fuzzy
    by Arturo Sangalli

    My Parish is Revolting
    by Norman Ellis

    Barbs, Prongs, Points, Prickers, and Stickers: A Complete and Illustrated Catalogue of Antique Barbed Wire
    by Robert T. Clifton

    Be Bold With Bananas
    by the Banana Control Board

    Zombie Sharks with Metal Teeth
    by Stephen Graham Jones

    Bread Sculpture: The Edible Art
    by Ann Wiseman

    Practical Muskrat Raising
    by E.J. Dailey

    Fart Proudly: Writings of Benjamin Franklin You Never Read in School
    by Benjamin Franklin

    Wildlife Contraception
    by Cheryl S. Asa and Ingrid J. Porton

    How God Gives Us Ice Cream
    by Mary LeBar

    Red Army Uniforms of World War II in Colour Photographs
    by Anton Shalito, Ilya Sajvchenkov & Andrew Mollo

    Liberace: Your Personal Fashion Consultant
    by Michael & Karan Feder

    The Thermodynamics of Pizza
    by Harold J. Morowitz

    Knit the Christmas Story
    by Jan Messent

    How to be Danish
    by Patrick Kingsley

    Still Stripping After 25 Years
    by Eleanor Burns

    How to Sharpen Pencils
    by David Rees

    The Stray Shopping Carts of Eastern North America
    by Julian Montague

    Do-It-Yourself Coffins: For Pets and People
    by Dale Power

    Managing a Dental Practice the Genghis Khan Way
    by Michael Young

    Goblinproofing One's Chicken Coop
    by Reginald Bakeley

    How Tea Cosies Changed the World
    by Loani Prior

    The Magic of Old Tractors
    by Ian M. Johnston

    A History of Thimbles
    by Edwin F. Holmes

    Catflexing: The Catlovers Guide to Weight Training, Aerobics and Stretching
    by Stephanie Jackson

    How to Poo on a Date: The Lovers' Guide to Toilet Etiquette
    by Mats & Enzo

    Fashion is Spinach
    by Elizabeth Hawes

    Mole Catching: A Practical Guide
    by Jeff Nicholls

    All About Pockets
    by Christine Petrell Kallevig

    What Makes Me Amish?
    by Charles George

    Manifold Destiny: The One! The Only! Guide to Cooking on Your Car Engine
    by Chris Maynard & Bill Scheller

    Teach Your Wife to Be a Widow
    by Donald I. Rogers

    Fancy Goldfish Culture
    by Frank W. Orme

    Baboon Metaphysics
    by Horace Bent

    The Best Fences
    by James Fitzgerald

    Land Snails and Slugs of Russia and Adjacent Countries
    by Alexander Sysoev and Anatoly Schileyko

    Successful Muskrat Farming
    by Robert G. Hodgson

    Dictator Style: Lifestyles of the World's Most Colorful Despots
    by Peter York

    How to Live with an Idiot: Clueless Creatures and the People Who Love Them
    by John J. Hoover

    The Strange Story of False Teeth
    by John Woodforde

    My Cat's in Love
    by Frank Manolson

    I Told You I Was Sick: A Grave Book of Curious Epitaphs
    by Nigel Rees

    An Intellectual History of Cannibalism
    by Catalin Avramescu

    The Needlework Book of Bible Stories
    by Carolyn Meyer

    Your Three-Year-Old: Friend or Enemy?
    by Louise Bates Ames

    Encyclopaedia of Medical Ignorance
    by Ronald Duncan and M. Weston-Smith

    Ghosts: Minnesota's Other Natural Resource
    by Brian Leffler

    Electricity in Gynecology
    by May Cushman Rice

    How to Avoid Huge Ships
    by John W. Trimmer

    English Smocks
    by Alice Armes

    How to Disappear Completely and Never Be Found
    by Doug Richmond

    A Popular History of British Seaweeds
    by Rev. D. Landsborough

    Boy George Fashion & Make-Up Book
    by Wayne Winder

    The Humanure Handbook: A Guide to Composting Human Manure
    by Joseph Jenkins

    Toilet Paper Origami: Delight Your Guests with Fancy Folds and Simple Surface Embellishments
    by Linda Wright

    Dating for Under a Dollar
    by Blair Tolman

    People With Long Ears: A Practical Guide to Donkey-Keeping
    by Robin Borwick

    Crafting with Cat Hair
    by Kaori Tsutaya

    Tattooed Mountain Women and Spoonboxes of Daghestan
    by Robert Chenciner,Gabib Ismailov and Magomedkhan Magomedkhanov

    Death in the Pot: The Impact of Food Poisoning on History
    by Morton Satin

    What Moles Tell You About Yourself
    by Pietro Santini

    Impeccable Birdfeeding
    by Bill Adler Jr.

    Beverly Hillbillies Bible Study
    by Stephen Skelton

    The Bible Cure for Irritable Bowel Syndrome
    by Don Colbert, MD

    Gangsta Rap Coloring Book
    by Aye Jay Moreno

    Jewish Chess Masters on Stamps
    by Felix Berkovich

    Old Age, Its Cause and Prevention
    by Sanford Bennett

    Paint It Black: A Guide to Gothic Homemaking
    by Francois Voltaire

    Hanging Out: The Upside Down Exercise Book
    by Ira J. Rappaport

    Monk Habits for Everyday People: Benedictine Spirituality for Protestants
    by Dennis Okholm

    How to Good-bye Depression
    by Hiroyuki Nishigaki

    Nuclear War: What's In It For You?
    by Ground Zero Fund, Inc.

    Old Tractors and the Men Who Love Them
    by Roger Welsch

    Cheese Rolling in Gloucestershire
    by Jean Jefferies

    Was Karl Marx A Satanist?
    by Richard Wurmbrand

    300 Hundred Ways to Serve Eggs from Appetizers to Zabaglione
    by Ruth Berolzheimer

    Whittling
    by Bill Higginbotham

    People Who Don't Know They're Dead
    by Gary Leon Hill

    50 Sad Chairs
    by Bill Keaggy

    Outwitting Squirrels
    by Bill Adler

    All About Sausage
    by Ellen Edwards

    The Social History of the Machine Gun
    y John Ellis

    An Incomplete History of the Art of the Funerary Violin
    by Rohan Kriwaczek

    The Pop-Up Book of Phobias
    by Gary Greenberg

    Sonya Fitzpatrick, Pet Psychic
    by Sonya Fitzpatrick

    How Green Were the Nazis?
    by Franz-Josef Bruggemeier

    International Book of Beer Can Collecting
    by Richard Dolphin

    Face Lifting by Exercise
    by Senta Maria Runge

    The Deer-Smellers of Haunted Mountain
    by John Joseph Meyer

    The Great Pantyhose Crafts Book
    by Ed and Stevie Baldwin

    How To Survive a Robot Uprising
    Daniel H. Wilson

    The Art and Science of Embalming
    by A.O. Spriggs

    American Hair Metal
    by Steven Blush

    Teleportation: A How to Guide
    by Tim Swartz

    Natural Bust Enlargement with Total Mind Power
    by Donald L. Wilson

    The Joys of Jello
    by General Foods Corp.

    Maverick Cats
    by Ellen Perry Berkeley

    What Not to Wear on a Horse
    by Ginny Oakley and Stephanie Soskin

    The Manga Guide to Calculus
    by Hiroyuki Kojima and Shin Togami

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    UK Moderator/Librarian/Administrator Tintin's Avatar
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    Default Re: Wonderfully Weird Books (and their wonderfully weird titles)

    Glorious

    My favourites:

    Goblinproofing One's Chicken Coop
    by Reginald Bakeley - ...for 'One's' in the title.

    How to Poo on a Date: The Lovers' Guide to Toilet Etiquette
    by Mats & Enzo - ...there's a personal anecdote there that I'm really not quite ready to share, yet. However, the date went amazingly well and we were together for two years! (And she laughed with me about it during that time too.)
    “If a man does not keep pace with [fall into line with] his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.” - Thoreau

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    Canada Avalon Member Ernie Nemeth's Avatar
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    Default Re: Wonderfully Weird Books (and their wonderfully weird titles)

    How yo cook on a car engine - priceless!
    Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless — like water...Now water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend. Bruce Lee

    Free will can only be as free as the mind that conceives it.

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    Default Re: Wonderfully Weird Books (and their wonderfully weird titles)

    The Breast by Philip Roth

    Like a latter-day Gregor Samsa, Professor David Kepesh wakes up one morning to find that he has been transformed. But where Kafka's protagonist turned into a giant beetle, the narrator of Philip Roth's richly conceived fantasy has become a 155-pound female breast.

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    Default Re: Wonderfully Weird Books (and their wonderfully weird titles)

    Quote Posted by Tintin (here)
    Glorious

    My favourites:

    Goblinproofing One's Chicken Coop
    by Reginald Bakeley - ...for 'One's' in the title.

    How to Poo on a Date: The Lovers' Guide to Toilet Etiquette
    by Mats & Enzo - ...there's a personal anecdote there that I'm really not quite ready to share, yet. However, the date went amazingly well and we were together for two years! (And she laughed with me about it during that time too.)
    I had to poo on a date, a second date. She invited me to her house after an early dinner. She lived in a tiny apartment, with the bathroom directly adjacent to the living space. Literally three steps from the sofa. The rumbling began, juices and bile bubbling in the digestive caldron. Something wasn't right and my tummy wanted to be rid of it. I knew it would not be a quiet event. there was only one solution, honesty. She was most gracious and turned on the stereo, loud enough to cover the sounds of distress. Not much to do about the smell, however. We just laughed about that. She had a great sense of humor and an even better sense of how the body betrays us on occasion. We dated for many years and the toilet turmoil became a runny, er ah, running joke.
    Thanks for the list of books Bill.
    The quantum field responds not to what we want; but to who we are being. Dr. Joe Dispenza

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    Default Re: Wonderfully Weird Books (and their wonderfully weird titles)

    My favorite one :
    !. How To Survive a Robot Uprising
    Daniel H. Wilson

    2. Outwitting Squirrels
    by Bill Adler

    3. How to Avoid Matrimony .... I could have wrote this one
    by Herald Froy

    4. Dating for Under a Dollar ....that's what made me an expert on avoiding matrimony
    by Blair Tolman

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    Scotland Avalon Member angelfire's Avatar
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    Default Re: Wonderfully Weird Books (and their wonderfully weird titles)

    Quote Posted by ramus (here)
    3. How to Avoid Matrimony .... I could have wrote this one
    by Herald Froy

    4. Dating for Under a Dollar ....that's what made me an expert on avoiding matrimony
    by Blair Tolman
    Thanks ramus for giving me a badly needed belly laugh.

    Wonderful, thanks Bill. I'm now going to check some of these out as christmas presents!!
    Last edited by angelfire; 12th December 2018 at 14:12.

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    Default Re: Wonderfully Weird Books (and their wonderfully weird titles)

    Quote Posted by Bill Ryan (here)
    The Humanure Handbook: A Guide to Composting Human Manure [/B]
    by Joseph Jenkins

    Ahh, The Humanure Handbook, I actually own this book. It's a great book, practical, funny and oddly spiritual.

    Quote Posted by Bill Ryan (here)
    Do-It-Yourself Coffins: For Pets and People
    by Dale Power

    And I've had the honor of building two coffins and have helped dig four graves for my dearly departed.

    Go figure.

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    Default Re: Wonderfully Weird Books (and their wonderfully weird titles)

    I just think one of the weirdest (?) books was Frank Baum's "The Wizzard of Oz"- am not so sure it was really so weird-

    the book was/is/remains a political allegory-

    Frank Baum was very much a proponent to get the US dollar off the gold standard and go onto the silver standard;

    then came the film (typical hollywood distortion)-

    gold bars look like yellow bricks and hence they are weighed in ounces; hence the abbreviation OZ-

    what did the "wicked witch of the west" want the most?

    Dorothy's slippers- in the book Dorothy's slippers were silver colored, not ruby colored (thank you Hollywood)-

    the wicked witch of the west represents the western financial system which is dollar based and which is why her skin color was dark green-

    and the good witch of the east, Glinda, was silver colored (gosh!)-

    now it's too much for an Email to get into what the scarecrow, cowerdly lion and tin man represented but it's all part of the allegory-

    Larry

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    Default Re: Wonderfully Weird Books (and their wonderfully weird titles)

    Quote Posted by Cardillac (here)
    I just think one of the weirdest (?) books was Frank Baum's "The Wizzard of Oz"- am not so sure it was really so weird-

    the book was/is/remains a political allegory-
    Whoa.
    Well if you think that one's weird, check the Return To Oz, if you haven't already!
    I recall the book version frightened me as a child, but I don't recall why. I think it had something to do with goblins. Or maybe it was the illustrations. I did however find this article about it titled The 11 Most Traumatizing Moments From "Return To Oz" (what! 11?! lol) NOTE: Those traumatizing moments are related to the movie, not the book.
    Last edited by petra; 13th December 2018 at 17:46. Reason: Which came first, the book or the movie (ha ha). Goblins are afraid of eggs :)

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    Default Re: Wonderfully Weird Books (and their wonderfully weird titles)

    What moles tell you about yourself! Is it a book about blemishes or a book about verbal gerbils?

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    UK Avalon Founder Bill Ryan's Avatar
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    Default Re: Wonderfully Weird Books (and their wonderfully weird titles)

    Quote Natural Bust Enlargement with Total Mind Power
    by Donald L. Wilson
    That one raised an eyebrow. What could a guy called Donald Wilson know about that?

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    Default Re: Wonderfully Weird Books (and their wonderfully weird titles)

    Maybe he has double d empathy.

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