One that is a complete departure from my library (which happens to be on the dry side) is Street Survival, from Calibre Press.
The only other “Doper” I’d expect to have it would be Blue Pony.
Another one is a first edition paperback of Journey to the Center of the Earth…quite yellowed by time.
–Kalél Common ¢ for all ages…
Doncha just hate word problems?
“If it takes a four-month old woodpecker, with a rubber bill, 9 months and 13 days to peck a hole through a Cypress log that is big enough to make 117 shingles, and it takes 165 shingles to make a bundle worth 93¢, how long will it take a cross-eyed grasshopper, with a cork leg, to kick all the seeds out of a dill pickle?”
I try to keep Robbins Pathologic Basis of Disease, Winning Low-Limit Hold’em, and The Phishing Manual: A Complete Guide to the Music of Phish on the shelf together, just for juxtaposition value.
This is the stack currently sitting next to my computer. This usually means I was either checking a reference for a post or I was browsing while a file was downloading.
Quirky Quotations
V is for Vampire
Sex, Laws, and Cyberspace
Sacred Writings: The Tanakh
Stupid Celebrities
Finding the Lesbians: Personal Accounts From Around the World
The Fire and the Rose
The Encyclopedia Sherlockiana
The Great War: Walk in Hell
The Magnificent Century
Sex Lives of the Hollywood Screen Goddesses
The 60 Greatest Conspiracies of All Time
Webster’s Dictionary & Thesaurus
After the Fact: The Art of Historical Detection
What They Didn’t Teach You About World War II
Rivals of Sherlock Holmes
2107 Curious Word Origins, Sayings, & Expressions
The Last Plantagenets
The Three Edwards
Judgment of Tears
Shakespeare: Who Was He?
Bram Stoker’s Dracula Unearthed
A Nervous Splendor: Vienna 1888/1889
Thunder at Twilight: Vienna 1913/1914
How Do They Do That?
Importing the European Army
Empire of Ecstasy: Nudity and Movement in German Body Culture 1910-1935
Lethal Kisses
Little Deaths
Astro City: Confession
Frozen Desserts
NTC’s Dictionary of British Slang and Colloquial Expressions
NTC’s Dictionary of the United Kingdom
Mini World Factfile
American Sex Machines: The Hidden History of Sex in the U.S. Patent Office
Anno Dracula
The Holy Bible (King James Version)
Ha! Shorter OED, 1955, first sectional edition. Remember those volume-a-week encyclopedias from the supermarket?
I’m pretty sure I have a copy of the de Camp bio of Lovecraft, but can’t lay my hands on it right now. Damn, I need more bookshelves!
I also have: Rivals of Sherlock Holmes, and the KJV.
Ones nobody mentioned:
Winnie ille Pu, A. A. Milnei, trans. into Latin by Alexander Lenard, MCMLX. Yes, the bear.
Tom Swift in the Caves of Ice, Victor Appleton, 1911. Really bad kid’s adventure.
Before Hansard, Horace King, 1968. “A quaint Collection of curious Details from the Story of the Mother of Parliaments, gathered from the ancient Journals and from the Diaries of former M.P.s”
Probably there are more oddities there, and I’m going to the library book sale next weekend.
Bob the Random Expert
“If we don’t have the answer, we’ll make one up.”
Thought of a few more that nobody else here probably has:
Victims of Memory by Mark Pendergrast Scams from the Great Beyond by Peter Huston Monty Python: The Case Against by Robert Hewison Hystories by Elaine Showalter Deliberate Intent by Rod Smolla
United States Customs Service Field Guide to Detecting Disguised Weapons - 1973 Edition
Everything you never wanted to know about how to make a shock absorber or motorcycle handlebar into a shotgun, a keychain into a pistol or a flashlight into a shrapnel throwing bomb.
“I guess it is possible for one person to make a difference, although most of the time they probably shouldn’t.”
Wow! I’ve got a lot of books, some of them obscure, but the only one I’ve got that was mentioned here is Mark Twain in Hawaii. (Sorry, TennHippie!)
My candidate is one called Save the Last Bullet for Yourself. It’s an account of Custer’s Last Stand and the premise is that when it was obvious the battle was lost, the soldiers shot themselves because they were fearful of being captured. (The Sioux were not in the habit of killing their enemies to the last man, and there had been a lot of yellow press about how savage the Indians were to their prisoners.) Interesting and plausible.
I purchased the book at the Little Bighorn Battle Site in Montana. Visiting the site, it’s obvious that Custer was foolhardy in the extreme – he was out on the end of a ridge in plain sight where the only way back was a narrow trail and he was outnumbered about a zillion to one. But the media of the day made him a martyr, if not a hero.
I’m excluding books that are related to my vocational and/or avocational specialties. I doubt any of you have books written in the Maori language.
Wait! – I do have a copy of Practical Astronomy With Your Calculator, which is not unusual but it’s autographed by a Space Shuttle astronaut who used to work in my group here at Boeing. I met her (Janet Kavandi) exactly once – when she signed my book!
“non sunt multiplicanda entia praeter necessitatem”
– William of Ockham
“The Circus of Dr. Lao”
“If At All Possible, Involve A Cow”
“How To Make War”–this is a do-it-your-selfer’s guide
“Bigot Hall”
“The Crime Studio”
“The Cartoon History Of The Universe”
“Bride Of The Rat God”
“Songs Of The Doomed”
“The Complete Pegana”—I recommend this one in particular
“How To Tell Your Friends From The Apes”
“Bored Of The Rings”—the spelling of this title is correct
