# Weirdest Books You Own **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 7, 2004, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdest-books-you-own/238654 "2004-04-07T00:24:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![plnnr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ea924/32.png) [@plnnr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/plnnr)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2004, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdest-books-you-own/238654/41 "2004-04-07T12:29:07Z")
Susan and I were in an antique store and found a 5 volume set of what can only be called “antique erotica.” It had all been owned by the same man (his plate was in each book) in the 1930s and had been privately printed. I looked up his name on Google and, I’ll be damned, there he was! He was a history professor at the College of William and Mary. Susan and I picture him as a little, Mr. Peepers-type guy, living with Mother in an old house in Williamsburg, who, every so often, would get a new edition of pornography. BTW, the material is really tame by current standards - some De Sade, “Memoirs of Casanova,” and some erotic Greek poetry translations. I also have “Hippies, Drugs, and Promiscuity,” which was printed in 1969 or thereabouts. A “marriage manual” from the 1920s, the title of which esacpes me. Lots of articles about how awful masturbation is and how every woman should remember that men have “urges” that must be satisfied (but not by masturbation, apparently). I gave this one to Susan as a wedding present. ---
**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:** [April 7, 2004, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdest-books-you-own/238654/42 "2004-04-07T12:36:42Z")
**Why Paint Cats?** I am still trying to prove to myself the whole thing is a Photoshop job. It would be a very good one. ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2004, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdest-books-you-own/238654/43 "2004-04-07T12:38:54Z")
I have a great many books on many bookshelves, (as do most of us I imagine) and one of my favorite impish things to do was to place at random intervals about 20 copies of **I’m OK Your OK** and see if anyone noticed. I have been asked about these books with a nervous smile… **High Weirdness by Mail** a _subgenius_ how-to hobby! **De Re Metallica** medieval metalworking manual **Guns** a _huge_ photo encyclopedia of, what else? guns! **The Annotated Sherlock Holmes** I have about every kind of published tale, anathology, commentary and what-not concerning the writings. **Basics of Biblical Greek** a helpful textbook, came with a CD! **Armoured Combat Handbook** not really a book, but I printed out the SCA manual that’s online and had it bound at kinko’s for reference, and on that note… **The Known Worlde Handbook** a Society for Creative Anachronism how-to manual. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2004, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdest-books-you-own/238654/44 "2004-04-07T12:50:14Z")
Good Lord, I actually own several of the books people have listed here. I also have quite a few of my own weird books The weirdest one, though, has to be **End Product: The Last Taboo** – a comprehensive book about ---- uhhh — poop. Heavily footnoted and surprisingly entertainingly written. I found it at a used book store, and have never seen another copy anywhere. There are other books on the subject out there (I’m amazaed and ashamed that I know this), but this is the best one. **The Snouters** – a very weird German parody of Dartwin’s discovery of evolution. Instead of observing finches on the Galapagos, the fictional narrator discovers adaptive radiation among mouse-like creatures on some other island. Some of the adaptations are downright gross (the book is profusely illustrated – and I think some of the author’s enemies end up as siome of the more disgusting creatures). My copy is an English translation, but I ordered a German original for my Ph.D. advisor. **You _May_ Smoke** – a paperback put out by some cigarette-company think tank in the 1960s that argues that all the cancer and emphysema statistics are wrong and inglated. **LDS SF** , a collection of Mormon Science Fiction that I bought from the editor at an SF film festival in Salt Lake City. I suggested to him that he should have called it _Zion’s Fiction_, but he had apparently heard that one way too many times. **High Weirdness by Mail** – the least weird of this bunch. I actually bought it in a real bookstore. It’s by “The Reverend Ivan Stang” of the Church of the Subgenius. Describes all of the strange stuff you could get for the price of a stamp and a SASE. This book is practically obsolete now – all these folks listed here now have Internet sites. It’s interesting to note that there was a vast market of eccentrics, weirdos, and obsessive people out there using the U.S. Mail as a distribution system, and that the Internet simply streamlined and broadened (and didn’t _create_) this community. ---
**Author:** ![DeVena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/dec6dc/32.png) [@DeVena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DeVena)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2004, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdest-books-you-own/238654/45 "2004-04-07T12:58:32Z")
**Lynn** , I have [Lady Cottington’s Pressed Fairy Book](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1857933362/102-6408473-3964932?v=glance), too. Very neat book, only kinda weird. And the Foxfire series of How-to books. What to do when society collapses - purify water, preserve food, how to forage, etc. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2004, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdest-books-you-own/238654/46 "2004-04-07T13:17:11Z")
> [@Paul in Saudi](#): > > **Why Paint Cats?** I am still trying to prove to myself the whole thing is a Photoshop job. It would be a very good one. I have that right here at my office desk, and it is indeed a very good Photoshop job. I am considering the Charlie Chaplin-butt cat for my New Year’s card this year . . . ---
**Author:** ![Snooooopy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Snooooopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snooooopy)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2004, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdest-books-you-own/238654/47 "2004-04-07T13:32:27Z")
I have a book called **Tilt** about the Leaning Tower of Pisa. The book isn’t rectangular. Its sides are slanted, i.e., it tilts. ---
**Author:** ![Trion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ccd318/32.png) [@Trion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trion)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2004, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdest-books-you-own/238654/48 "2004-04-07T13:37:51Z")
> [@DocCathode](#): > > **Who In Hell** It’s a list of demons, and of famous folks who the authors think are in hell. Errol Flynn is in hell. Bette Davis is not. I have that one. Fun book. I also own: **Sell Yourself to Science: The Complete Guide to Selling Your Organs, Body Fluids, Bodily Functions and Being a Human Guinea Pig** by Jim Hogshire. and **Professional Discotheque Management** by Daniel A. Emenheiser - though technically this one belongs to my wife. ---
**Author:** ![DeadlyAccurate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ac91a4/32.png) [@DeadlyAccurate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DeadlyAccurate)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2004, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdest-books-you-own/238654/49 "2004-04-07T13:41:39Z")
Secrets of the Ninja by Ashida Kim Medieval Prostitution (Family, Sexuality and Social Relations in Past Times) by Jacques Rossiaud I have a strange fascination with medieval prostitution, and I remember reading an incredible book in college about it, but the name of it escapes me. ---
**Author:** ![DemonSpawn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ac8455/32.png) [@DemonSpawn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DemonSpawn)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2004, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdest-books-you-own/238654/50 "2004-04-07T14:40:21Z")
> [@BMalion](#): > > **The Annotated Sherlock Holmes** I have about every kind of published tale, anathology, commentary and what-not concerning the writings. I have that too - it is a wonderful book (actually 2 books) and I enjoy it immensely. Since you can not buy it new anymore, I ordered a used copy (1960s) from the US. Cost me a fortune for shipping, but worth every penny. My stranger books include: **Sex lives of the popes** This should actually be a really short book, but it’s not … **The bizarre sex life of the animals** A series of true crime books focusing on autopsies (titles translated from the original German): **The language of the dead The games of the dead The traces of the dead** ---
**Author:** ![Olentzero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/90ced4/32.png) [@Olentzero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Olentzero)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2004, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdest-books-you-own/238654/51 "2004-04-07T15:10:24Z")
**Eva** , there’s one other person I knew from college who’d have a Chechen-English phrasebook, and that’s 'cos she actually worked there after Georgetown. All my books are on my floor at this point (too poor for furniture yet!) but I think one book that would make people do a double take is **Obabakoak** , a very highly regarded novel in the Basque Country - in the original Basque. It was a gift from a half-Basque friend I met in Russia. Can’t think of anything else at the moment, although it’s possible most of my foreign language collection would make the average Joe from the street boggle for a few minutes. ---
**Author:** ![Wile\_E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c37758/32.png) [@Wile\_E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wile_E)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2004, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdest-books-you-own/238654/52 "2004-04-07T15:10:44Z")
I’m pretty boring. Like a previous poster most of my books are still in boxes but all I can think of that I have that may be weird is some writing books on weapons, poisons, police procedure and forensics. I also have a big thick book titled “The Coming Plague” by Laurie Garrett, about all sorts of viral and bacterial diseases. I have read it a couple times and one of my favorite things to do is take it with me to Doctor’s appointments and read it in the waiting room … while making little coughing noises. So, maybe that might qualify as a little weird. ---
**Author:** ![Balance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Balance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balance)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2004, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdest-books-you-own/238654/53 "2004-04-07T15:49:49Z")
I have several minor oddities–Gaelic and Tagalog dictionaries (which are rather rare around here) and a number of books already mentioned in this thread (I need to look for a copy of _The Poisoner’s Handbook_). I also have the beautifully illustrated _Nobilis: A Game of Greater Powers_, the only RPG manual I’ve ever seen that would make a good coffee-table book for non-gamers. The book that catches the most attention, though, is one I believe I’ve mentioned on the boards before: _How to Build a Corpse (In the Privacy of Your Own Home)_. It’s a Kinkos-esque production, with a plastic ring spine and a floppy transparent cover, that details the process of making a realistic-looking prop body on the cheap, with tips for adjusting the design to the appropriate level of…juicyness. There’s a picture of a particularly shriveled specimen sitting on a park bench on the cover. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2004, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdest-books-you-own/238654/54 "2004-04-07T16:12:12Z")
[The Book Of Weird](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0385065914/qid=1081354275/sr=1-3/ref=sr_1_3_xs_stripbooks_i3_xgl14/002-2170400-6625645?v=glance&s=books) Oh, this is _fun!!!_ ---
**Author:** ![rjk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ed655f/32.png) [@rjk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjk)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2004, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdest-books-you-own/238654/55 "2004-04-07T16:18:00Z")
Just as a small highjack for **Balance** , here in Vancouver you can watch the TV news in Tagalog on our local multi-cultural station. Putting on Mandarin news and Hindi movies I can understand, but seeing Tagalog up there seems pretty odd. For weird books, I don’t have much that’s really out there, and they’re mostly in boxes. One is _The Next Hundred Years_ by C. C. Furnas (1936), a preview of science and society that’s already wrong. We’ll see how it comes out. Another that I’ve mentioned before is _Winni ille Pu_ (sp?), a classic Latin tale about a bear and his friends. I also have the English version. Finally, I still have the first book I bought with my own money. I had to save my allowance for ages to order _The Wonders of Life on Earth_, a Time-Life coffee-table book from the late 50s. I remember my father helping me fill out the order form. ---
**Author:** ![Master\_Wang-Ka](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/master_wang-ka/32/3325_2.png) [@Master\_Wang-Ka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Master_Wang-Ka)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2004, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdest-books-you-own/238654/56 "2004-04-07T16:37:50Z")
**High Weirdness By Mail,** by Ivan Stang, is indeed a fascinating look into a bygone time, back when you had to depend on the mail to get a look at some of the crazier elements of society, rather than just fire up the internet. I picked this one up in 1988, and still have many of the bizarre pamphlets I ordered from various loony groups (my fave is still the one declaring that Steven Spielberg is the Antichrist). **A Field Guide To Demons** , a sort of folklore guide to the demons and evil spirits of a variety of cultures. **Necronomicon** , the old black-leather hardbound edition from the seventies. Gets a lot of commentary. I keep it next to the **Necronomicon Ex Mortis** , which had my special edition DVD of \*Army Of Darkness \* in it… **Guerilla Warfare** , by Mao Tse-Tung. In English. You never know. **The Big Book Of Losers The Big Book Of Vice The Big Book Of Weirdos The Big Book Of Death The Big Book Of Conspiracies**, all from Feral House publishers. Hysterically funny facts and events, presented in cartoon fashion, all within each given subject area. Nearly the first entire third of \*\*Conspiracies \*\* deals with the JFK assassination… \*\*Tales From The Doc Side, \*\* a bound compilation of various essays I’ve written over the years, many of which can be found on this message board. It’s always fun to see people do double takes when they see my picture on the cover… **The Cartoon History Of The Universe (vols. 1 and 2) The Cartoon History Of The United States The Cartoon Guide To Communication The Cartoon Guide to Physics The Cartoon Guide to Genetics**…all by Larry Gonick and others. Basically, they’re textbooks in cartoon format. Great for grabbing teenagers’ interest in given subjects. ---
**Author:** ![NailBunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecae2f/32.png) [@NailBunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NailBunny)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2004, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdest-books-you-own/238654/57 "2004-04-07T17:09:19Z")
Let’s see…most of these belonged to Mr. Bunny before we got together, and were one of the things that attracted me to him, actually. **Lustmord: The Writings and Artifacts of Serial Killers** **The Encyclopedia of Superstitions** **The Pop-Up Book of Phobias** AND **The Pop-Up Book of Nightmares** **A Criminal History of Mankind** **Cause of Death: A Writer’s Guide to Death, Murder and Forensic Medicine** **Death in Paradise: An Illustrated History of the Los Angeles County Department of the Coroner** **Death Scenes: A Homicide Detective’s Scrapbook** Why yes, he _is_ a horror writer. Why do you ask? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2004, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdest-books-you-own/238654/58 "2004-04-07T17:33:33Z")
> [@](#): > > The Cartoon History Of The Universe (vols. 1 and 2) > The Cartoon History Of The United States > The Cartoon Guide To Communication > The Cartoon Guide to Physics > The Cartoon Guide to Genetics… Do you know that **The Cartoon History of the Universe Part III** has been out for quite some time now? There’s also **The Cartoon Guide to Computers** and, I think, one or two others. I’ve got 'em, too. If you like Gonick’s take on US History, you might like **Stan Mack’s History of the American Revolution**. Mack is the guy who did (does?) Stan Mack’s Real-Life Funnies. ---
**Author:** ![sj2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/65b543/32.png) [@sj2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sj2)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2004, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdest-books-you-own/238654/59 "2004-04-07T18:15:31Z")
American Negros: A Handbook has got to be the oddest. I’ve also got a bunch of books from the 30’s-50’s like, Your Guide to Bermuda, Tell Me about Jesus and Dictionaries ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2004, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdest-books-you-own/238654/60 "2004-04-07T18:24:20Z")
> [@sj2](#): > > American Negros: A Handbook has got to be the oddest. Is it…a repair manual? 😉 Tell us! 'Cause I doubt we’re ever gonna find a library copy… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdest-books-you-own/238654.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdest-books-you-own/238654.md?page=4)