“The Trouble With Being Born”
E.M. Cioran
Hey, were you really on Jeopardy? You should start a thread called “ask the Jeopardy contestant”.
This is redundant. 
More. Much, much more. 
It is.
One evening, we were late to meet my husband’s parents, but I insisted on stopping at the bookstore. Twenty minutes later, I emerged. He groused for a few minutes about how long it had taken, and then asked me what book I had purchased. “I bought a book about salt!” I said brightly. He laughed long and hard at that.
I love books about the history of every-day objects. I have books about the history of shoes, books, cleaning supplies, contraceptives, personal hygeine, clocks, movies, furniture, and toys, along with many others. You never quite look at an object the same when you know the history behind it.
“A Child’s Garden of Grass,” by Margolis & Clorfene (I also have the LP)
“The Definitive Biography of P.D.Q. Bach,” signed by the author
“Jiggery-Pokery, A Compendium of Double Dactyls,” by Hecht & Hollander
“Sane Sex Life & Sane Sex Living,” by H.W.Long, M.D., a sex manual ca. 1920
“The Physical Life of Woman: Advice to the Maiden, Wife and Mother,” by George H. Napheys, A.M., M.D., a sex manual from 1883
I have several more sex manuals as part of a mini-collection, including a Boy Scout one from 1905 that sternly admonishes young boys to avoid “self-pollution.” But if I listed all these books, you would just think I was obsessed with sex, so I won’t.
Griffin & Sabine was given to me as a gift. It is kind of an art book with a storyline. You read postcards (that are printed in the book) and letters (that are folded up inside envelopes that are glued to pages in the book). The story is kind of a developing love story that ends somewhat mysteriously.
A translated version of Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler…in hungarian. Which is weird because no one in my family has visited hungary, or for that matter, speaks the language.
Yeah, I was going to say “That’s weird?” 
A Humument (a found novel within a novel).
I bought a copy of Lady Cottington’s Pressed Fairy Book for my mother for her birthday once, but she gave it back later because I found it a lot funnier than she did.
It’s written like a journal, and the handwriting changes from childish scribbles to a fluent prose as the character ages. It’s about a girl’s aging and her pressed fairy collection. (Pressed fairies being found by standing around in the fields, waiting for one to stand in the open book she was holding, then slamming it shut, with expected squishy results)
The Codex Seraphinianus by Franco Maria Ricci. With the possible exception of the author, no one on earth knows what it says. Pretty cool pictures though.
Less interesting is How To Help Your Husband Get Ahead by Mrs. Dale Carnegie. Truly a product of a different era.
My diary, circa 1976.
“Handbook of Perversions,” a pseudo-scientific manual by one Hathaway Dean, Ph.D, published in 1969. He presents case studies of “forbidden sex acts” in great detail, with an emphasis oral sex and bestiality. Whilst not terribly educational it certainly is good for a few laughs. Ah, vintage smut, how I love thee.
Well, I don’t know how weird they are, but they are certainly geeky. I have a Star Fleet Academy manual and a book with illustrated selections from the librettos of Gilbert and Sullivan operettas. Both given to me by the same dear friend, who apparently likes pandering to my geekier tastes.
I’ve got the same book (and immediately recognized your name). Can I tell him?
Let me see…I’ve already told everyone about the Winter 1923 Semi-Annual from Los Angeles High School.
Other bibliographical oddities: My 1960 vintage World Book encyclopedia. Nothing really strange about, though articles on developing countries tended to play down poverty and gloss over governmental oppression, especially in Latin America. On the other hand, oppression by Communist governments was always made very clear.
A 1930 California Penal code. Interestingly, the CA Penal Code was first set forth in 1872, and has never been recodified. Murder was 187 then and it’s 187 now. Interestingly, 1930 was during the time of national prohibition, this penal code has no laws about alcohol, other than those making it illegal to sell to minors. You also couldn’t pay wages to an employee inside a saloon.
One of my cherished possessions is from Scientific American. In the 60’s and 70’s, the September issue used to be a double thick magazine with all articles on one general topic. In 1966 that topic was computers, and it was made into a hardback book. I especially like the article on “Programming and System Analysis”, in which the author describes how to design a program to play checkers. Interestingly enough, it looks like object oriented design, way back then!
I’m not who you think I am.
He said mysteriously.
…The hell?! My copy says the Codex was by Luigi Serafini–hence, “Seraphinianus,” or so I thought. Have I been whooshed?
Weird books, weird books… well, just from where I’m sitting I can reach What Bird Did That? by Peter Hansard and Burton Silver, a “driver’s guide” to identifying “ornithological dejecta” collected on windshields.
Also, we have Dragons: The Modern Infestation by Pamela Wharton Blanpied, an otherwise staid scholarly treatise on the dragon problem that plagues our society. The weird part is the almost total lack of illustrations. One would think that with the advances in photographic techniques made since dragons first reemerged, more informative visual documentation (or at least professional scientific illustrations) could have been included in the second edition.
Tarzan Alive by Philip Jose Farmer has got to be one of my favorites. When I first ran across the hardcover edition in the local library, it was shelved in the biography section. I pointed this out, laughingly, to the senior librarian. She looked the book over and sternly advised me that the Library of Congress number clearly indicated the book was Non-Fiction, Biography. Two points, Mr. Farmer!
My personal library is a fairly non-spectacular collection of mainstream science fiction and fantasy. On the other hand, my grandfather has done a great deal of research into various religious cults, white supremacist groups, JFK assassination conspiracy believers, etc… Needless to say, he collected some fairly bizarre literature during that time. I think that my favorite was a children’s guide to the Book of Revelations (I can’t remember the actual title) complete with cartoonish pictures of the Whore of Babylon and the Angels blowing their trumpets and causing various natural disasters.
The Complete Time Traveller: The Tourist’s Guide to the Fourth Dimension