# Unintentionally absurd encyclopaedic works **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 27, 2011, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unintentionally-absurd-encyclopaedic-works/600923 "2011-10-27T00:20:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2011, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unintentionally-absurd-encyclopaedic-works/600923/1 "2011-10-27T00:20:22Z")
I’m intending to slowly build a collection of books that are (or purport to be) encyclopaedic on a topic that is for one reason or another absurd - perhaps because of obsolescence, perhaps just the esoteric or selective nature of the material, or maybe just because the title makes for amusing wording. But it must be unintentional - I don’t want _The Complete Book Of Uses For A Dead Cat_, for example, because this sets out to be absurd. My first purchase was _[The World Atlas Of Cheese](http://www.amazon.com/World-Atlas-Cheese-Nancy-Eekhof-Stork/dp/0846701332)_ And I’ve got my eye on a copy of [_The Complete Book Of Mince_](http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Book-Mince-Ren%C3%A9-Sagne/dp/1902407741/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1319674688&sr=1-3) (That these two are food-related is purely coincidental - I’ll consider any subject area). Any suggestions - the more grandiose, yet absurdly irrelevant the title, the better. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2011, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unintentionally-absurd-encyclopaedic-works/600923/2 "2011-10-27T00:33:53Z")
I don’t see anything absurd about a cheese encyclopedia, no more than a wine or beer encyclopedia. ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2011, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unintentionally-absurd-encyclopaedic-works/600923/3 "2011-10-27T00:34:55Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > My first purchase was _[The World Atlas Of Cheese](http://www.amazon.com/World-Atlas-Cheese-Nancy-Eekhof-Stork/dp/0846701332)_ It’s customary to drink wine with cheese, but how to open the bottle? That’s where [Corkscrews for Collectors](http://www.amazon.com/Corkscrews-Collectors-Bernard-Watney/dp/0856674311) comes in handy. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2011, 6:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unintentionally-absurd-encyclopaedic-works/600923/4 "2011-10-27T06:40:55Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > I don’t see anything absurd about a cheese encyclopedia, no more than a wine or beer encyclopedia. There’s nothing absurd about the concept of the book (indeed it’s actually a good and highly informative work). The title has a tendency to be understood as a joke - that’s all. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2011, 7:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unintentionally-absurd-encyclopaedic-works/600923/5 "2011-10-27T07:19:52Z")
_[Fighting Helicopters of the 20th Century](http://www.powells.com/biblio/17-9781855018082-0)_ by Christopher Chant I found it a vast improvement over the previous nineteen volumes. ---
**Author:** ![Floater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/dc4da7/32.png) [@Floater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Floater)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2011, 7:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unintentionally-absurd-encyclopaedic-works/600923/6 "2011-10-27T07:40:25Z")
What about [_Optical Chick Sexing_](http://books.google.com/books/about/Optical_chick_sexing.html?id=Ou01AQAAIAAJ)? ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2011, 8:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unintentionally-absurd-encyclopaedic-works/600923/7 "2011-10-27T08:03:28Z")
I had good results with “A compendium of…” [Raising the Standard: A compendium of audit recipes (Second edition 2006)](http://www.rcoa.ac.uk/index.asp?PageID=125) - so good they made it twice! [A Compendium of On-Line Soil Survey Information](http://www.itc.nl/~rossiter/research/rsrch_ss.html) and my favourite: [A Compendium of Conjugate Priors](http://www.johndcook.com/CompendiumOfConjugatePriors.pdf) ---
**Author:** ![Manduck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manduck/32/256_2.png) [@Manduck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Manduck)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2011, 8:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unintentionally-absurd-encyclopaedic-works/600923/8 "2011-10-27T08:51:47Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > - I don’t want _The Complete Book Of Uses For A Dead Cat_, for example, because this sets out to be absurd. > > … > And I’ve got my eye on a copy of [_The Complete Book Of Mince_](http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Book-Mince-Ren%C3%A9-Sagne/dp/1902407741/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1319674688&sr=1-3) According to the description in that Amazon page, this one sets out to be absurd also. ---
**Author:** ![Student\_Driver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3da27b/32.png) [@Student\_Driver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Student_Driver)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2011, 11:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unintentionally-absurd-encyclopaedic-works/600923/9 "2011-10-27T11:43:32Z")
I’m a fan of RAND Corp’s [A Million Random Digits with 100,000 Normal Deviates](http://amzn.com/0833030477). It is exactly what it sets out to be. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2011, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unintentionally-absurd-encyclopaedic-works/600923/10 "2011-10-27T12:48:54Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > _[Fighting Helicopters of the 20th Century](http://www.powells.com/biblio/17-9781855018082-0)_ by Christopher Chant > > I found it a vast improvement over the previous nineteen volumes. Presumably, the new volume also notes the considerable increase over previous centuries in mortality resulting from fighting helicopters. ---
**Author:** ![Goblin\_Queen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/4da419/32.png) [@Goblin\_Queen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Goblin_Queen)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2011, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unintentionally-absurd-encyclopaedic-works/600923/11 "2011-10-28T03:27:58Z")
I own a book by one of my undergraduate professors that would probably fit your criteria: _Cultural Encyclopedia of LSD_, by Wayne Glausser–it is what it says on the cover: An encyclopedia of everything to do with LSD. The cover is pretty fantastic, if I do say so myself. ---
**Author:** ![Don\_t\_Panic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/don_t_panic/32/398_2.png) [@Don\_t\_Panic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_t_Panic)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2011, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unintentionally-absurd-encyclopaedic-works/600923/12 "2011-10-28T03:38:35Z")
> [@Student\_Driver](#): > > I’m a fan of RAND Corp’s [A Million Random Digits with 100,000 Normal Deviates](http://amzn.com/0833030477). It is exactly what it sets out to be. Some of those customer reviews are awesome. ---
**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:** [October 28, 2011, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unintentionally-absurd-encyclopaedic-works/600923/13 "2011-10-28T03:42:51Z")
\*\*Oxford Companion to Food \*\*(Second Edition) by Davidson **Codeword Dictionary** by myself ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2011, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unintentionally-absurd-encyclopaedic-works/600923/14 "2011-10-28T04:01:56Z")
_Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex But Were Afraid to Ask_ by David Reuben. It didn’t answer half my questions, all kinds of stuff were never mentioned, and a good chunk of it is homophobic nonsense. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2011, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unintentionally-absurd-encyclopaedic-works/600923/15 "2011-10-28T15:04:08Z")
_[Handbook of Parapsychology](http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=ZxN-AAAAMAAJ&q=Handbook+of+Parapsychology&dq=Handbook+of+Parapsychology&hl=en&ei=gMOqTvOCKsPesgbu-7D1Dw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CC8Q6AEwAA)_, (ed. B. B. Wolman). New York: Van Nostrand & Reinhold, 1977. It is 967 pages long, so you will need strong hands. (I actually possess a copy. I did not pay for it though.) ---
**Author:** ![Big\_Norse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/big_norse/32/9954_2.png) [@Big\_Norse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Big_Norse)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2011, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unintentionally-absurd-encyclopaedic-works/600923/16 "2011-10-28T15:57:59Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > There’s nothing absurd about the concept of the book (indeed it’s actually a good and highly informative work). The title has a tendency to be understood as a joke - that’s all. If you want a good title you have to go with the [Cheesecyclopedia](http://www.eatwisconsincheese.com/cheese/cheesecyclopedia.aspx) (I have a hard copy). ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2011, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unintentionally-absurd-encyclopaedic-works/600923/17 "2011-10-28T16:17:30Z")
> [@Big\_Norse](#): > > If you want a good title you have to go with the [Cheesecyclopedia](http://www.eatwisconsincheese.com/cheese/cheesecyclopedia.aspx) (I have a hard copy). So it completely leaves out brie and mozzarella? ---
**Author:** ![statij](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c2a13f/32.png) [@statij](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/statij)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2011, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unintentionally-absurd-encyclopaedic-works/600923/18 "2011-10-28T16:43:10Z")
I found [Modern Mailroom Management](http://www.amazon.com/Modern-Mailroom-Management-Herbert-Akers/dp/0070007608/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpt_2) in a hospital waiting room and I’m embarrassed to say I had to keep it. I think I was doing future waiting room patrons a favor though really. It now goes with me any time the whole family gets together and we pass around “Akers” and have a good laugh/nap. ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2011, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unintentionally-absurd-encyclopaedic-works/600923/19 "2011-10-28T17:42:56Z")
It’s too bad there isn’t an encyclopedia of encyclopedias. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2011, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unintentionally-absurd-encyclopaedic-works/600923/20 "2011-10-28T17:59:06Z")
There are a number of specialized gardening books that border on absurdity. One of my favorites is _The Potato Book_. From the promo on Amazon: _“Sharing his ‘overwhelming enthusiasm for the humble spud’ and a lifetime’s experience in the seed potato industry (this guy must be fabulous at parties), Alan Romans combines an engaging account of potato growing with an expert guide to potato varieties.The Potato Book traces the history of the potato from its beginnings in South America to the development of variety breeding. It explains all aspects of growing, from choosing seed potatoes, planting and maintenance, to harvest, storage, and pests and diseases. An exhaustive and definitive guide to over 150 varieties currently available in Europe…”_ Now there’s a page-turner. (actually I’d buy it if I found a copy on sale somewhere) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unintentionally-absurd-encyclopaedic-works/600923.md?page=2)