# Unusual book on your shelf **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 5, 1999, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-book-on-your-shelf/8046 "1999-09-05T05:22:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Bluepony](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Bluepony](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bluepony)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 1999, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-book-on-your-shelf/8046/81 "1999-09-08T13:24:00Z")
Jophiel— I have a spare copy of St. Augustine’s \* City Of God \*, figure you might like it if you have \* Summa Theologica \*. I’ll trade it for that book \* Alien Sex \*. Hey, you might never know when you run across that cute Romulan amazon hitching a ride on the I-10. 🙂 * * * “…send lawyers, guns, and money…” ``` Warren Zevon ``` ---
**Author:** ![David\_B](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/51bf81/32.png) [@David\_B](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/David_B)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 1999, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-book-on-your-shelf/8046/82 "1999-09-08T16:24:00Z")
Jess said: > [@](#): > > DavidB, …Hystories. Darnit! Well, it was bound to happen eventually, as I kept listing more and more books. 🙂 But, do you have **two** copies of it? I do. Publisher screw-up. Ok, here’s one that I can almost guarantee nobody else here has (I didn’t mention it earlier 'cus I left it at work, not my bookshelves) : _The Nothing That Is: A Natural History of Zero_, by Robert Kaplan. I can almost guarantee it 'cus it won’t come out 'til next month. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![elbow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/cdc98d/32.png) [@elbow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbow)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 1999, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-book-on-your-shelf/8046/83 "1999-09-09T05:06:00Z")
OOOh, I want to come to all your houses. I also have Jitterbug Perfume (great book) Tuva or Bust (Richard Feynman’s last journey) But who else has: Land of Wonder and Fear (1931) The History of The Conquest of Peru (1907) Old travel journals are my very favorites, I have hordes of first hand accounts of travels in wonderous land from the last century. Hints For Travelers, ninth edition (1906) Celebrated Travellers (1849) Anybody else with such a passion? ---
**Author:** ![popokis5](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c68b51/32.png) [@popokis5](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/popokis5)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 1999, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-book-on-your-shelf/8046/84 "1999-09-09T02:31:00Z")
Navin, I have “On Killing”. Jess, I have “Coffee, Tea or Me?” Gotta love those old, really bad 60’s books. ---
**Author:** ![rjk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ed655f/32.png) [@rjk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjk)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 1999, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-book-on-your-shelf/8046/85 "1999-09-09T05:58:00Z")
Since we’re all over the place, the idea elbows put forward is a little inconvenient, but there’s still the mail. Bluepony’s willingness to trade is great too, but I don’t want to lose my books permanently. Anybody else interested in setting up The Great SDMB Lending Library? I’m sure we can all be trusted, at least the people who have posted to this thread. Please post! And elbows, I love those first-person accounts! I have quite a few; see my earlier posts here. Two more: - Women under Sail, Basil Greenhill and Ann Giffard. “Letters and journals concerning eight women travelling or working in sailing vessels between 1829 and 1949” - The Log of Christopher Columbus, trans. Robert H. Fuson. Abridged - we don’t need a dozen pages of “Still sailing west …” 😉 And a recent one: - The Way to Xanadu, Caroline Alexander, 1994. She always liked Coleridge’s “Kublai Khan”, and went after the locations he was describing. Great stuff! * * * Bob the Random Expert “If we don’t have the answer, we’ll make one up.” ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 1999, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-book-on-your-shelf/8046/86 "1999-09-09T16:17:00Z")
Elbows, I do have a 1913 Thomas Cook guide to Philadelphia and Atlantic City–complete with map! Also a lot of beauty and etiquette books from the 19th and early 20th centuries. If any of you need to clean your nubias, want to know which corner of your calling card to fold down or want to do your hair like Lola Montez, give me a call! ---
**Author:** ![BunnyGirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@BunnyGirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BunnyGirl)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 1999, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-book-on-your-shelf/8046/87 "1999-09-09T16:43:00Z")
elbows: I love travel books too! Don’t have any older ones but do have a few. I forgot. I also have an almost complete (missing 2-3 volumes) set of Will and Ariel Durant’s “History of Civilization”. Is it outdated? Probably. Can I read and understand everthing they write about? Yes! That’s why I love it; makes history accessible to me. Not just a bunch of dates and names but describes the arts, education, social matters, religion as part of the big picture of history. I’ve read all but the 2-3 I don’t have. LOVE 'EM! ---
**Author:** ![OldBroad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ed655f/32.png) [@OldBroad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldBroad)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 1999, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-book-on-your-shelf/8046/88 "1999-09-09T18:05:00Z")
Also have the 1908 edition of the “Los Angeles Times Cookbook” * * * | | | | | | | | | | Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. ---
**Author:** ![voguevixen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b5ac83/32.png) [@voguevixen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/voguevixen)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 1999, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-book-on-your-shelf/8046/89 "1999-09-09T18:54:00Z")
If anyone else has this, I’m sure you’ll be too embarassed to admit it: “Sgt.Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band Movie Scrapbook” from the Robert Stigwood movie. I also have the one that goes with Paul McCartney’s “Give my Regards to Broadstreet.” Have all the Feynman books previously mentioned as well as “What do you care what other people think?” (Hubby is a nuclear physicist. He has the lectures in 3 volumes and possibly on CD.) AND “Coffee, Tea, or Me?”…restrained myself from picking up the sequel when I saw it at the thrift store. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 1999, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-book-on-your-shelf/8046/90 "1999-09-09T22:46:00Z")
i’ve already got “Ancient Engineers” by De Camp Doesn’t everybody? * * * We have met the enemy, and He is Us.–Walt Kelly ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 1999, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-book-on-your-shelf/8046/91 "1999-09-10T15:09:00Z")
Sassy, S.S. Van Dine (a pseudonym of Willard Huntington Wright) wrote the Philo Vance mystery novels between 1926 and 1939. Only the first six of the twelve are any good (THE BENSON MURDER CASE through THE KENNEL MURDER CASE). THE BISHOP MURDER CASE is particularly tasty. Wright maintained that no man or woman was capable of creating more than a half-dozen decent murder mystery plots. The six post-KENNEL novels bear out his theory, at least in his case. * * * Uke ---
**Author:** ![Narile](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/71c47a/32.png) [@Narile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Narile)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 1999, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-book-on-your-shelf/8046/92 "1999-09-10T20:31:00Z")
Two more. **Federation** by H. Beam Piper. Great writer. **The Borribles** Enjoyable book, though the trilogy as a whole lacked. * * * \>\>Being Chaotic Evil means never having to say your sorry…unless the other guy is bigger than you.\<\< —The dragon observes ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 1999, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-book-on-your-shelf/8046/93 "1999-09-10T23:53:00Z")
## I’ve read “The True Confessions Of Ladt Niijo” an autobiography of a Shogun’s concubine. If Bunnygirl likes the “Tale Of Genji” , ypu’ll love this. I’m looking to buy a copy, if anybody’s got an extra. Also, try “Tales From A Japanese Inn”. We have met the enemy, and He is Us.–Walt Kelly ---
**Author:** ![keystream](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/a3d4f5/32.png) [@keystream](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/keystream)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 1999, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-book-on-your-shelf/8046/94 "1999-09-11T19:01:00Z")
yep, it was definitely The Barsoom Project. interesting, nobody mentioned poor old Edgar Rice before now…I have the entire Barsoom series, and most of the Tarzans. ---
**Author:** ![Persephone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecc23a/32.png) [@Persephone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Persephone)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 1999, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-book-on-your-shelf/8046/95 "1999-09-11T19:16:00Z")
I’ve got _The Encyclopedia of Witches & Witchcraft_ too, and hey Kat, I’ve also got _The Man Who Invented Saturday Morning_. Found a good one on my shelf that I’d forgotten about, called \*Who’s Had Who.\*It’s a book of “lay lines,” linking various well-known people together through their sexual encounters. ---
**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:** [September 11, 1999, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-book-on-your-shelf/8046/96 "1999-09-11T20:45:00Z")
Crud, Bluepony beat me to it with The Art of War. Another excellent book that I am really surprised no one has mentioned here is ’ Think and Grow Rich’ by Napolean Hill. I’m don’t do a lot of thinking…so that’s why I’m poor… Women Ingenuity: How women inventors changed America. (We’ve done so much for so little recognition.) ---
**Author:** ![TubaDiva](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tubadiva/32/507_2.png) [@TubaDiva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TubaDiva)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 1999, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-book-on-your-shelf/8046/97 "1999-09-12T02:09:00Z")
Most of my library is in storage (Alas!) but here’s a few of what’s handy: _Encyclopedia of Southern Culture Flim-Flam!_(by James Randi); also his \*Prophecies of Nostradamus \*and \*Conjuring A Fistful of Fig Newtons In God We Trust Wanda Hickey’s Night of Golden Memories and Other Disasters The Ferrari in the Bedroom Famous First Facts The Rand McNally Enclyclopedia of Military Aircraft \*The entire Terry Pratchett _Discworld_ series \*The Atlas of the Solar System The Florence King Reader The Random House Dictionary of the English Language, 1st edition The Random House Dictionary of the English Language, 2nd edition The Wind in the Willows A TON of computer books Learned Pigs and Fireproof Women AFofM, Local 802 directories . . . \*your humble TubaDiva Stop me before I enter another bookstore! ---
**Author:** ![David\_B](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/51bf81/32.png) [@David\_B](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/David_B)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 1999, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-book-on-your-shelf/8046/98 "1999-09-12T14:29:00Z")
Pshaw, Tuba – of course you had to know I would have _Flim Flam_. 🙂 I don’t have the Nostradamus one (borrowed it from a friend instead), but I do have _The Faith Healers_ instead. I didn’t even bother to mention most of the top shelf of my bookcase, 'cus I figured there would be lots of other people here with books by Sagan, Nickell, Randi, and other skeptics. After all, we are here to fight ignorance! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![TubaDiva](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tubadiva/32/507_2.png) [@TubaDiva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TubaDiva)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 1999, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-book-on-your-shelf/8046/99 "1999-09-12T19:08:00Z")
You’re right, David; in fact, a second glance at my list shows me I probably have much the same tastes and buying habits as quite a few people on this board. I’m not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing. 🙂 your humble TubaDiva ---
**Author:** ![GLWasteful](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/f05b48/32.png) [@GLWasteful](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GLWasteful)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 1999, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-book-on-your-shelf/8046/100 "1999-09-13T13:23:00Z")
Damn, Tuba, I didn’t even think of mentioning my prized Jean Shepherd books. I’m still hunting for a decent video of Shepherd’s Pie. Waste Flick Lives! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-book-on-your-shelf/8046.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-book-on-your-shelf/8046.md?page=6)