# Books of an unusual nature **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** books-writing-myths\ **Created:** [August 4, 2026, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-of-an-unusual-nature/1032141 "2026-08-04T13:54:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2026, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-of-an-unusual-nature/1032141/1 "2026-08-04T13:54:42Z")
Not the content, but the book itself. No audio books or e-books please, and it must have been released to the general public for purchase. First example: _The Unfortunates_ by B.S. Johnson (1969) from Panther Books. [The Unfortunates - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Unfortunates) As they put it, “It features 27 unbound sections, with a first and last chapter specified, but the 25 sections between them, ranging from a single paragraph to 12 pages in length, being designed to be read in any order, giving a total of 15.5 septillion possible combinations that the story can be read in.” You know what they say-If you have to have one book on a deserted island, have one that can be read 15.5 septillion different times without reading it the same way twice. 😁 Just post about one book, no lists. Share the…joy? ---
**Author:** ![Thumper668](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thumper668/32/20803_2.png) [@Thumper668](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thumper668)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2026, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-of-an-unusual-nature/1032141/2 "2026-08-04T14:01:07Z")
First thing that comes to my mind is _I, Libertine_ by Frederick R. Ewing. It was a joke that was started by Jean Shepherd (radio host of _Christmas Story_ fame). He had his listeners ask for it in bookstores and libraries, even though it never existed. After a while, it ended up on best seller lists, even though it didn’t exist. It eventually got written and published, (and by most accounts, it sucks). [I, Libertine - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I,_Libertine) ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2026, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-of-an-unusual-nature/1032141/3 "2026-08-04T14:25:03Z")
[La Vie: mode d’emploi](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life:_A_User%27s_Manual) is composed using dozens of mathematical and combinatorial patterns. Is that the sort of thing you are looking for? There is an index of characters at the end of the book (which is itself unusual), but not all of the lists of elements themselves IIRC. ---
**Author:** ![Briny\_Deep](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/briny_deep/32/17188_2.png) [@Briny\_Deep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Briny_Deep)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2026, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-of-an-unusual-nature/1032141/4 "2026-08-04T14:26:47Z")
I nominate _[Grapefruit](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grapefruit_(book))_ by Yoko Ono. It consists of performance pieces, whether possible to perform or not. Examples: **COUGH PIECE** > Keep coughing a year. — 1961 Winter **CLOUD PIECE** > Imagine the clouds dripping. > Dig a hole in your garden to > put them in. — 1963 Spring ### **Painting to exist only when it’s copied or photographed** > Let people copy or photograph your paintings. Destroy the original. — 1964 Spring ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2026, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-of-an-unusual-nature/1032141/5 "2026-08-04T14:53:23Z")
I know it’s not exactly what you’re looking for, but it IS a book of an unusual nature. In 1953 Ballantine published an edition (limited to 200 copies) of Ray Bradbury’s novel _Fahrenheit 451_ (which was about book burning) in an asbestos binding. It would’ve been better to publish the whole book printed on asbestos, but they made their point. Now a sought-after collectible. And carcinogenic > **[Fahrenheit 451 Asbestos signed limited edition by Ray Bradbury on Whitmore...](https://www.whitmorerarebooks.com/pages/books/7740/ray-bradbury/fahrenheit-451-asbestos-signed-limited-edition?srsltid=AfmBOorzh2rcXLS5Gm1wpfn0yegTVETOao7WHESDACkCN0HOVZMMYLYW)** > > New York: Ballantine Books, Inc., 1953. First edition. First hardback edition, signed limited issue, number 73 of 200 copies signed by the author and specially bound in Johns-Manville Quinterra, a textile made from chrysotile asbestos and therefore... > **[Fahrenheit 451 by Bradbury, Asbestos, First Edition – AbeBooks](https://www.abebooks.com/book-search/title/fahrenheit-451/author/bradbury/kw/asbestos/first-edition/)** > > Fahrenheit 451 by Bradbury, Ray and a great selection of related books, art and collectibles available now at AbeBooks.com. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2026, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-of-an-unusual-nature/1032141/6 "2026-08-04T14:56:37Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > I know it’s not exactly what you’re looking for But I am not looking for “exactly” _anything_. The book I pointed out was only a general example, not a guideline. I am looking for books of an unusual nature, not the stories themselves. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2026, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-of-an-unusual-nature/1032141/7 "2026-08-04T15:08:14Z")
In the 1920s and ‘30s the publishing house behind _Harper’s Magazine_ published a series of hardcover mysteries with the pages containing the solution sealed in tissue paper. The front cover boldly stated that a book with the tissue intact could be returned for a full refund. Harper claimed that out of the 60,000 copies sold in the first batch, only three were returned. [![](https://pictures.abebooks.com/inventory/31004902324.jpg) ](https://pictures.abebooks.com/inventory/31004902324.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2026, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-of-an-unusual-nature/1032141/8 "2026-08-04T15:09:25Z")
Well, there is Finnegan’s Wake, of course, which invented a new language, and had no plot to speak of. According to AI: “James Joyce intentionally invented a new language, rejected normal plots, and mixed ideas from dozens of countries. It uses multilingual portmanteaus, nonlinear dream logic, and dense allusions.” ---
**Author:** ![Darwins\_Finch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darwins_finch/32/20304_2.png) [@Darwins\_Finch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darwins_Finch)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2026, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-of-an-unusual-nature/1032141/9 "2026-08-04T15:13:09Z")
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**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2026, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-of-an-unusual-nature/1032141/10 "2026-08-04T15:17:21Z")
I highly recommend **The Madman’s Library** by Edward Brooke-Hitching, not as an example of “book of an unusual nature”, but as a listing of and guide to Books of an Unusual Nature. I’ve derived much satisfaction from reading it. > Books written in blood and books that kill, books of the insane and books that hoaxed the globe, books invisible to the naked eye and books so long they could destroy the Universe, books worn into battle and books of code and cypher whose secrets remain undiscovered. Spell books, alchemist scrolls, wearable books, edible books, books to summon demons, books written by ghosts, and more all come together in the most curiously strange library imaginable. From the Qur’an written in the blood of Saddam Hussein, to the gorgeously decorated fifteenth-century lawsuit filed by the Devil against Jesus, to the most enormous book ever created, _ **The Madman’s Library** _ features many long-forgotten, eccentric, and extraordinary volumes gathered from around the world and features hundreds of remarkable images and entertaining facts and stories to discover. > **[The Madman's Library: The Strangest Books, Manuscripts and Other Literary...](https://www.amazon.com/Madmans-Library-Strangest-Manuscripts-Curiosities/dp/179720730X)** > > The Madman's Library: The Strangest Books, Manuscripts and Other Literary Curiosities from History \[Brooke-Hitching, Edward\] on Amazon.com. \*FREE\* shipping on qualifying offers. The Madman's Library: The Strangest Books, Manuscripts and Other... Brooke-Hutching’s other books are worth reading, too, especially (in this vein) _The Madman’s Gallery_ and _The Madman’s Orchestra_ ---
**Author:** ![sciurophobic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cab0a1/32.png) [@sciurophobic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sciurophobic)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2026, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-of-an-unusual-nature/1032141/11 "2026-08-04T16:29:55Z")
[Cain’s Jawbone](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cain%27s_Jawbone). It’s a 100 page murder mystery puzzle, but the pages are out of order. There’s one correct order, but you still have to figure out which of the characters are the victims, and which are the killers. ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2026, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-of-an-unusual-nature/1032141/12 "2026-08-04T17:03:03Z")
_The Armchair General_ by Professor John Buckley. This is an interactive history book where you take control of key decisions during the Second World War, stepping into the shoes of real commanders and leaders — including Winston Churchill and President Eisenhower — and making the strategic and tactical decisions they faced. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2026, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-of-an-unusual-nature/1032141/13 "2026-08-04T17:44:19Z")
So, an educational Choose Your Own Adventure? > [@Czarcasm](#): > > As they put it, “It features 27 unbound sections, with a first and last chapter specified, but the 25 sections between them, ranging from a single paragraph to 12 pages in length, being designed to be read in any order, giving a total of 15.5 septillion possible combinations that the story can be read in.” A book I read last year, These Memories do not Belong to Us, by Yiming Ma, was a series of vignettes, with a foreword encouraging the reader to read them in any order (though with a suggestion to at least save the last of them until the end). The last vignette asks the reader whether they read them all straight through or not, with a suggestion that not doing so might be considered a small act of resistance against authoritarianism. Though it was still bound and published in the conventional way. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2026, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-of-an-unusual-nature/1032141/14 "2026-08-04T19:36:55Z")
Georges Perec, “La Disparition”, or in translation “A Void.” Written without the letter “E”, by far the most common letter in both French and English. Other translations have made similar language-specific constraints. Mark Z. Danielewski - House of Leaves, a book I’ve owned for 20 years but haven’t got around to reading yet. Unconventional format, influential on the limnal spaces/Backrooms meme and movie as of late. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2026, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-of-an-unusual-nature/1032141/15 "2026-08-04T20:08:01Z")
I had “The Hole Book” when I was a child: > **[The Hole Book book by Peter Newell](https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/the-hole-book_peter-newell/429218/item/47927795/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=shopping_new_condition_books_high_14637440387&utm_adgroup=&utm_term=&utm_content=545756259058&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=14637440387&gbraid=0AAAAADwY45jubVEM5-YocwWn_BVm0l_9w&gclid=Cj0KCQjwm8bTBhDWARIsAC9Hi8l2mM87pF9Nx_6Y6qXHUWe0Yvzv1n8tLDXL6zSnoJBx-e3uDtrjaGsaAtMBEALw_wcB#idiq=47927795&edition=61146854)** > > Buy a cheap copy of The Hole Book book by Peter Newell. Tom Potts was fooling with a gun (Such follies should not be), When--bang! the pesky thing went off Most unexpectedly! Tom didn't know 'twas loaded, and It scared... Free Shipping on all orders... ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2026, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-of-an-unusual-nature/1032141/16 "2026-08-04T20:38:51Z")
For that matter, the children’s classic The Very Hungry Caterpillar. ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2026, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-of-an-unusual-nature/1032141/17 "2026-08-04T20:44:46Z")
William Gibson’s _Agrippa (A Book of the Dead)_ was a combined long poem and art book which self-destructed as it was read. > **[Agrippa (A Book of the Dead)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agrippa_(A_Book_of_the_Dead))** > > Agrippa (A Book of the Dead) is a work of art created by science fiction novelist William Gibson, artist Dennis Ashbaugh and publisher Kevin Begos Jr. in 1992. The work consists of a 300-line semi-autobiographical electronic poem by Gibson, embedded in an artist's book by Ashbaugh. Gibson's text focused on the ethereal, human-owed nature of memories retained over the passage of time (the title referred to a Kodak photo album from which the text's memories are taken). Its principal The impetus... > Its principal notoriety arose from the fact that the poem, stored on a 3.5" floppy disk, was programmed to encrypt itself after a single use; similarly, the pages of the artist’s book were treated with photosensitive chemicals, effecting the gradual fading of the words and images from the book’s first exposure to light. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2026, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-of-an-unusual-nature/1032141/18 "2026-08-04T20:51:30Z")
Tête-bêche books. These are bound head-to-tail so that whatever side you pick up is a different title. They go back forever, but the most famous examples today are the Ace Doubles series of science fiction. They did them for westerns and mysteries as well. My favorites are books that had two opposing viewpoints counterbalanced. [b/w = backed with] _Spousery: His Edition_ by Emily Hahn b/w _Spousery: Her Edition_ by Eric Hatch _Oh! Well! You Know How Women Are!_ by Irwin S. Cobb b/w _Isn’t That Just Like a Man!_ by Mary Robert Rinehart Stan & Jan Berenstain’s _Flipsville: The Adult’s Guide to Teen-Age Behavior_ b/w _Squaresville: The Teen’s Guide to Adult Behavior_ ---
**Author:** ![f.coli](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/eada6e/32.png) [@f.coli](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/f.coli)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2026, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-of-an-unusual-nature/1032141/19 "2026-08-04T21:40:26Z")
There is a book titled _Gadsby,_ by Ernest Vincent Wright. The letter e, the most common letter in the English language, does not appear in a single word. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2026, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-of-an-unusual-nature/1032141/20 "2026-08-04T22:00:40Z")
Alasdair Gray’s _1982 Janine_ is typographically odd. I have seen some descriptions of the “metafictionality” of Violet Allen’s recent _Plastic, Prism, Void_ but haven’t read it. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-of-an-unusual-nature/1032141.md?page=2)