# 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:** 13\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Atrael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Atrael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atrael)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 1999, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-book-on-your-shelf/8046/101 "1999-09-13T14:43:00Z")
Ok…here’s the only one I can remember from work…How about Scotch and Holy Water…cna’t remember the author…about a guy’s sojourn in Turkey…and I must take a moment to stand up for the Tom Swift series by Victor Appleton…while as an adult, I think they’re horrible…that was the series of books that first got me interested in reading…I buy them whenever I come across them, and they’ll be some of the first books my children read… ---
**Author:** ![smilingjaws](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b782af/32.png) [@smilingjaws](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smilingjaws)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 1999, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-book-on-your-shelf/8046/102 "1999-09-13T15:30:00Z")
I have the worst book ever written “Elsie Dinsmore” a treacly tract about the trials of this idiot girl who insists on being a martyr. Very popular book in the late 1800s to torture little girls with. After reading this book you want to go out, attack men, smoke cigarettes, and get drunk! ---
**Author:** ![Narile](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/71c47a/32.png) [@Narile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Narile)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 1999, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-book-on-your-shelf/8046/103 "1999-09-14T05:14:00Z")
Hey TubaDiva, do you have **Carpe Jugulum** yet? * * * \>\>Being Chaotic Evil means never having to say your sorry…unless the other guy is bigger than you.\<\< —The dragon observes ---
**Author:** ![eden](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5f9b8f/32.png) [@eden](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eden)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 1999, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-book-on-your-shelf/8046/104 "1999-09-13T18:54:00Z")
Anyone else have: Rats, Lice, and History? Or, in the children’s section, Finn Familty Moomintroll? ---
**Author:** ![eden](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5f9b8f/32.png) [@eden](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eden)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 1999, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-book-on-your-shelf/8046/105 "1999-09-13T18:54:00Z")
Family. Crap. ---
**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 13, 1999, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-book-on-your-shelf/8046/106 "1999-09-13T18:55:00Z")
I bet no one out there has: A field guide to Cows How to insult, abuse and insinuate in classical latin. ---
**Author:** ![smilingjaws](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b782af/32.png) [@smilingjaws](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smilingjaws)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 1999, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-book-on-your-shelf/8046/107 "1999-09-13T19:01:00Z")
Yep to Rats Lice and History! ---
**Author:** ![Globe-trotter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/cab0a1/32.png) [@Globe-trotter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Globe-trotter)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 1999, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-book-on-your-shelf/8046/108 "1999-09-13T20:20:00Z")
I don’t have much that is unusual…but I do have a few of the books mentioned. (Bored of the Rings, etc.) Jess: I used to have Coffee, Tea or Me and Daddy Long-Legs! (they got lost somewhere, though). Tuba: Who wrote “Wanda Hickey…” ? I remember reading it in high school. My contributions: The Book of Sex Lists - compiled by Albert B. Gerber What Mad Universe - Fredric Brown Dickens’ Fur Coat and Charlotte’s Unanswered Letters - Daniel Pool The Literary Almanac Literature Lover’s Book of List - Judie L. H. Strouf * * * I prefer rogues to imbeciles because they sometimes take a rest. Alexandre Dumas the Younger (1824-1895) ---
**Author:** ![BurnMeUp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@BurnMeUp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BurnMeUp)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 1999, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-book-on-your-shelf/8046/109 "1999-09-13T20:28:00Z")
Someone mentioned “The Book of Five Rings” Were you referring to the novel or of the Go Rin No Sho by Miyamoto Musashi? I also have the Go Rin No Sho. * * * Don’t let the loveless ones sell you a world wrapped in grey. ---
**Author:** ![Fretful\_Porpentine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fretful_porpentine/32/2873_2.png) [@Fretful\_Porpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fretful_Porpentine)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 1999, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-book-on-your-shelf/8046/110 "1999-09-13T22:27:00Z")
I don’t own _Dickens’ Fur Coat …_ but I do have Daniel Pool’s first book, _What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew_. ---
**Author:** ![Greg\_Charles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/839c29/32.png) [@Greg\_Charles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greg_Charles)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 1999, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-book-on-your-shelf/8046/111 "1999-09-14T04:05:00Z")
Sorry to interrupt. I’d just like to say this is my first thread to live past 100. I’m very, very proud of it. Now, carry on! ---
**Author:** ![Ringo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/779978/32.png) [@Ringo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ringo)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 1999, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-book-on-your-shelf/8046/112 "1999-09-18T04:13:00Z")
And I’m tryin’ to help Greg. You want obscure? I’ve got the the complete works of noted anthropologist Edward Norbeck including _Pineapple Town_, _Religion in Primitive Society_, _Country to City_…(I think there’s 13 in all). ---
**Author:** ![TVeblen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/4bbf92/32.png) [@TVeblen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TVeblen)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 1999, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-book-on-your-shelf/8046/113 "1999-09-18T21:17:00Z")
Wow! Great list! Some I actually have, but what a great bunch to track down BTW, cheers for Reay Tannahill; Food in History could only be compared to her Sex in history. Probably the oddest: Flattened fauna–shows the squished outline of common animals, with some very informative stuff about the critter. The idea is that most Americans see wildlife in the roadkill stage. And Budge’s guide to the Book of the Dead. Hey, I’m an lapsed anthro/archo freak. Never know when you’re going to discover a fabulous Egyptian tomb . Oh, and Harvard Lampoon’s Bored of the Rings. Sigh. It was so funny it was worth completely spoiling Tolkien. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-book-on-your-shelf/8046.md?page=5)