# Strangest Book You Have Ever Found **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 5, 2005, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strangest-book-you-have-ever-found/334110 "2005-12-05T00:09:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Governor\_Quinn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/d26b3c/32.png) [@Governor\_Quinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Governor_Quinn)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2005, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strangest-book-you-have-ever-found/334110/1 "2005-12-05T00:09:25Z")
When I was doing research in my campus library a short time ago, I found a book claiming to be the autobiography of William Shakespeare. This struck me as peculiar, for reasons that are obvious. Curious, I decided to read it. It turned out to be even stranger when I actually read it. It was quite clear, from both word usage and style, that it owed more to the late 19th century (it was published in 1911) than it did to the late 16th, and its’ claims about Shakespeare’s life seem to have come more from earlier authors than from the facts. The final weirdness came when I researched the self-professed editor (and, in my opinion, the author), expecting to find him to be some obscurity. He turned out to be the founding secretary of the Royal Historical Society. So, anyone else found any stranger works? ---
**Author:** ![carlotta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/898d66/32.png) [@carlotta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carlotta)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2005, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strangest-book-you-have-ever-found/334110/2 "2005-12-05T00:24:49Z")
_The Osmond Brothers and the New Pop Scene_ Back cover copy: “Just how special are Donny, Wayne, Merrill, Alan and Jay? What do they have in common with David Cassidy and the Jackson 5?” First page: “There is a new sound in America, a catchy pop sound that is completely different from anything that has ever happened before in pop music. The age of the rock dinosaurs with their blaring chords and their ear-splitting amplification has come to an end” Used book store. 98 cents ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2005, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strangest-book-you-have-ever-found/334110/3 "2005-12-05T00:58:50Z")
Whe I was working at the library of the American Museum of Natural History, I found an early 19th-century book on how to track and kill vampires of every nation. ---
**Author:** ![capybara](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/capybara/32/202_2.png) [@capybara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/capybara)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2005, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strangest-book-you-have-ever-found/334110/4 "2005-12-05T01:25:02Z")
There’s a very very odd book published 1499 or so in Venice called the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili-- something vaguely like (multiple pun) "the Strife of Love in a Dream (but with Polifilo used as the protagonist’s name as well-- Mr Many-Luvs). It’s written in something like Italian mixed up with Latin, Greek, Hebrew, fake hieroglyphics, chaldeaen (!), etc in James Joyce-style portmaneau, following this character (maybe?) from one place to another-- a garden made all of precious gems-- flowers made from diamond and leaves from jade, etc etc, to a huge building shaped like an elephant, etc etc, in search of his women. And the illustrations and typography are absolutely wacky, too-- some totally graphically erotic (for the time–a Priapus character, naughty fauns, etc), others just confusing. A book for the über-elite-intellectual of 1500. It’s the Italian Renaissance equivalent of Finnegan’s Wake. I want that vampire manual. … ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2005, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strangest-book-you-have-ever-found/334110/5 "2005-12-05T01:53:08Z")
_The Destruction of the Temple_ a sci-fi novel by Barry N. Malzburg. It’s about a director filming a reenactment of the Kennedy assassination in an apparently post-apocalyptic America who somehow keeps getting looped into the bodies of participants in the actual assassination. The whole thing reads like Hunter S. Thompson wrote it, and even though I’ve read it half a dozen times, I still haven’t completely figured it out. ---
**Author:** ![Shalmanese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shalmanese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shalmanese)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2005, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strangest-book-you-have-ever-found/334110/6 "2005-12-05T01:55:00Z")
I found a book in my university library published early 20th century going on this huge crazy rant about how the move away from the gold standard was a massive consipracy by an international cartel to keep the working class down. And that the war and the recession were both deliberatly engineered to keep the population down. ---
**Author:** ![Orual](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/779978/32.png) [@Orual](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Orual)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2005, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strangest-book-you-have-ever-found/334110/7 "2005-12-05T01:59:35Z")
I once ran across a purported copy of the _Necronomicon_ in a used bookstore. It was a cheaply bound paperback with no publishing information. Very weird. I want **Eve** ’s vampire hunting manual too! ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2005, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strangest-book-you-have-ever-found/334110/8 "2005-12-05T02:37:20Z")
_Why Paint Cats?_ a satire on the art world consisting of dozens of cats painted in various styles, Gothic, classical, op-art, whatever. In addition it has discussions with the cat’s owners discussing their artistic message. The cats are done in photoshop and the interviews are pure parody. The thing is that it is so well-done, I had the book for years before I finally and authoritatively figured out it was a send-up. It is still on Amazon. ---
**Author:** ![jasonh300](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/46a35a/32.png) [@jasonh300](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jasonh300)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2005, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strangest-book-you-have-ever-found/334110/9 "2005-12-05T02:39:00Z")
\*\*_As I Lay Dying_ \*\*by William Faulkner. VERY strange. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Tooth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c67d28/32.png) [@The\_Tooth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tooth)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2005, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strangest-book-you-have-ever-found/334110/10 "2005-12-05T02:43:27Z")
> [@Paul In Saudi](#): > > Why Paint Cats? a satire on the art world consisting of dozens of cats painted in various styles, Gothic, classical, op-art, whatever. In addition it has discussions with the cat’s owners discussing their artistic message. > > The cats are done in photoshop and the interviews are pure parody. In a similar vein, and probably by the same bunch of jokers, there’s _Dancing With Cats_. ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2005, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strangest-book-you-have-ever-found/334110/11 "2005-12-05T02:46:19Z")
> [@](#): > > Whe I was working at the library of the American Museum of Natural History, I found an early 19th-century book on how to track and kill vampires of every nation. That sounds like a very interesting and odd book. I’ll take two. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2005, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strangest-book-you-have-ever-found/334110/12 "2005-12-05T02:48:22Z")
[Great Mambo Chickens and Transforming the Human Condition"](http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0201567512/ref=sib_dp_pt/103-8215159-8606240#reader-page) – a book about the Extropian movement. They’re most noted for cryogenically preserving their bodies instead of burying them or incinerating them. It was a weird but exhilirating read - to encounter that kind of faith in the future. ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2005, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strangest-book-you-have-ever-found/334110/13 "2005-12-05T02:56:15Z")
> [@Evil Captor](#): > > [Great Mambo Chickens and Transforming the Human Condition"](http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0201567512/ref=sib_dp_pt/103-8215159-8606240#reader-page) – a book about the Extropian movement. They’re most noted for cryogenically preserving their bodies instead of burying them or incinerating them. It was a weird but exhilirating read - to encounter that kind of faith in the future. A friend got me that from a Dollar Store! Cool read! Alex Heard’s APOCALYPSE PRETTY SOON reminds me of it, to some extent. To the OP- Adam Parfrey’s APOCALYPSE CULTURE. ---
**Author:** ![SandyHook](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dec6dc/32.png) [@SandyHook](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SandyHook)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2005, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strangest-book-you-have-ever-found/334110/14 "2005-12-05T04:12:43Z")
Not exactly in line with the OP but, IMHO, worthy of some mentions is somethig I ran across several years ago. I was looking in the “Writer’s Market,” for a magazine or two to send a short story to when I came across… get ready… “The Foreskin Quarterly” All stories must have a foreskin/circumcision slant. Alas, it walks this vale of tears no more. Also, about 6 months ago I ran across a book entitled, “Mr. Stupid Goes To Washington.” No it’s not about you-know-who, but was written several years earlier. It was a buck so I took it home. ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2005, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strangest-book-you-have-ever-found/334110/15 "2005-12-05T04:33:46Z")
> [@Evil Captor](#): > > [Great Mambo Chickens and Transforming the Human Condition"](http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0201567512/ref=sib_dp_pt/103-8215159-8606240#reader-page) – a book about the Extropian movement. They’re most noted for cryogenically preserving their bodies instead of burying them or incinerating them. It was a weird but exhilirating read - to encounter that kind of faith in the future. You know, I have this one somewhere at home. Loompanics is a great source of bizarre books, including my favorite: _Contingency Cannibalism: Hardcore Survivalism’s Dirty Little Secret (with recipies)_ ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2005, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strangest-book-you-have-ever-found/334110/16 "2005-12-05T04:53:25Z")
> [@Orual](#): > > I once ran across a purported copy of the _Necronomicon_ in a used bookstore. > > It was a cheaply bound paperback with no publishing information. Very weird. This was actually advertised in _Heavy Metal_ (the comics magazine) circa 1978. The photo looked like it was solidly bound with a gold-leaf pseudo pentagram on the cover. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2005, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strangest-book-you-have-ever-found/334110/17 "2005-12-05T05:13:16Z")
There was once a chain of drug stores/discount stores called _Phar-Morr_ that I loved because in addition to renting movies for $.69 each (who cares if they’re good?) they sold books for a fraction of the cover cost. Usually it was a recent bestseller or the type of book you’d see in a remainder bin at a chain store, but sometimes they had “the hell?” titles, a couple of which I bought just for my bookshelf. One was a children’s book about Woodstock (luckily not scratch and sniff- “stick the little Mickey Mouse tab on your tongue, then look at the paisley picture”) and the other was my favorite (actually had it, I bought several copies to give as gifts): _An Illustrated Guide to Chinchilla Diseases_. Buying too many copies of Chinchilla disease books bankrupted the company. Well, that and executives embezzling a half billion dollars from the company, in some order. ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2005, 6:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strangest-book-you-have-ever-found/334110/18 "2005-12-05T06:52:55Z")
I once ran across [The Complete Time Traveler: A Tourist’s Guide to the Fourth Dimention](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0898152844/qid=1133765171/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/104-7304947-4971104?s=books&v=glance&n=283155) in an isolated antique store run by a Torgo-like fellow…a shop which later completely disappeared from the face of the Earth. (Probably because it was pretty ramshackle, and was built over the bank of a river that’s prone to flooding.) Odd little book, that. I still have it’s packaged away, somewhere. And I saw _The Stuwwelpeter_ in Borders, but I already knew about that one, so I don’t suppose it counts. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2005, 7:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strangest-book-you-have-ever-found/334110/19 "2005-12-05T07:51:51Z")
> [@Orual](#): > > I once ran across a purported copy of the _Necronomicon_ in a used bookstore. > > It was a cheaply bound paperback with no publishing information. Very weird. This? [http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0380751925/qid=1133769066/sr=8-1/ref=pd\_bbs\_1/102-6887069-1625718?n=507846&s=books&v=glance](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0380751925/qid=1133769066/sr=8-1/ref=pd_bbs_1/102-6887069-1625718?n=507846&s=books&v=glance) ---
**Author:** ![tiltypig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dbc845/32.png) [@tiltypig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tiltypig)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2005, 8:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strangest-book-you-have-ever-found/334110/20 "2005-12-05T08:08:19Z")
> [@The Tooth](#): > > In a similar vein, and probably by the same bunch of jokers, there’s _Dancing With Cats_. I think the book _Why Cats Paint_ actually came first. Same style of book, supposedly describing masterpieces painted by cats. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strangest-book-you-have-ever-found/334110.md?page=2)