You know - the ones that cause people to look atcha kinda funny-like?
Mine are the two Vincent Price cookbooks I have from the 50s/60s. One is a collection of recipes from famous restaurants from around the world - the recipes are definitely old school but gooooooood, and the other is a cookbook with a selection of recipes from America's past - a set for each 50 year period. All extremely authentic.
They are great books, but people see "Vincent Price" on my kitchen counter, and they think I'm nuts. Most don't know he was considered a rather expert gourmand and chef in his day.
Before the obvious innuendo pops up in the thread, yes, assume all jokes about books on sex have already been made. ;) ;P
Hmmm, I'll have to think about this and come back, because it's too early in the morning for me to dredge my brain.
;o)
I find that people gets disturbed by my owning
Influence: The power of persuasion, as they think I'm a master manipulator. Touchstone partly weird - same author but not my book.
But moste people I know wonders how I could read the fiction I read - to them nonfiction as a category is "suspect" as being connected with "educational institutions" and only read under threat. Except cookbooks, books on gardening and interior design, or travel guides... of course ;-)
I find this strange, but just about anything non-fiction that I'm reading that's laying about gets a reaction from people. Relatives and friends alike seem to never stray from the John Grisham or Oprah book path, it seems. Maybe it's just my area, but people up here don't do much reading on, say, early Christianity, or Buddhism, or star formation, or evolution.
*leaves a copy of
The Kite Runner out just to be friendly, on top of his copy of
The Great Transformation : the Beginning of Our Religious Traditions*
Here's more info on the Great Recipe cookbook:
HERE.
I know what you mean, Atomic. It isn't so different in California, except here, people will have fancy books on their coffee tables that you can tell have never really been read.
(And yes, you can tell that, when you pick one up, and find that the book had been bound improperly, and 64 pages are repeated.... as I discovered at a friend's house a few weeks ago.)
#5 - What!? And they never discovered?! I hope they blushed ;-)
Or maybe you didn't point it out to them? I'm not sure I had - if they where my friends I may had chosen not to embarrass them...
These are long term friends - we have teased each other since college. So yes, I gleefully pointed it out.
:D
I have some antique English textbooks I've collected. My kids especially ask me, "Why?"
The Wordsworth Book of Spells has picked up some odd looks.
I don't know how valid thos elooks are though because I'v eonly skimmed bits of it. Bought on a whim.
my
H R Giger book raises a few eyebrows. I really like his artwork, but it is incredibly... twisted, perhaps?
(that reminds me, I have a whole stack of non-fictiony type stuff that I need to add here...)
Message edited by its author, Apr 24, 2007, 12:31pm.
JPB - I also have a cookbook by
Vincent Price and his wife! I think it is recipes from their home. I inherited it, but haven't read it yet. That blasted TBR pile. I get odd looks from my friends because I enjoy books about WWII, cowboys, sailing and other "manly" ventures. I also like odd or out of the way cookbooks.
Vincent Price had a WIFE????
Touchstones don't work on this, but if you Google it I'm sure you'll see that the weirdest book I own IS a real book!
Thinking Outside The Box: The White Castle 10th Annual Crave Time Cookbook 2001The following are ALL real recipes, all I really have to do is flip through the book at random!
Slyder Stuffed Peppers
Castleroni & Cheese
Castle Breakfast Quiche
White Castle Dim Sum
Castles Cordon Bleu
White Castle Farmhouse Barbecue MuffinsMessage edited by its author, Apr 24, 2007, 11:19pm.
I have always a suprise for the people that ask me after the books that I have read. When I have to do with a Christ I can schow him my Books about Scince. And when I have to do with a Scintist I can schow him my bible. And both people a suprise when they see my Books about esotery. And the reactions are not good at all. Buth I will now go in a chase for a special lifestyle and that can I also schow the people in that Way. And this I have together with my father. We are people that have even different interest of literatury.
My house has been such a mess for the last few years I have not had many visitors and they have not perused my bookcases so I can't answer this question.
A new Quest for 2010: invite people in so they can find books they might think weird! Great idea.
Thanks for reviving this thread :D
I'm a history buff, so I have lots of books on such fun people as Hitler and his cronies, various Confederates, etc.
lol, here I thought it was a new thread.
I also find:
-anything on Atheism gets a curious reaction.
-ditto anything on Buddhism.
It seems some think if you have a book on a subject that
it is like a label for you.
Most hilariously, I had a copy of
Rise and Fall of the Third Reich in a prominent place on a shelf, and one of my son's friends asked if I was a Nazi. :D
Oddly enough, my nonfiction doesn't get much comment (everybody knows I'm a bookworm, and they don't expect me to be reading Oprah books, or Danielle Steel). But I did get some wonderful double-takes, when I was carrying
Chicks in Chainmail around.
I did get an odd look when I mentioned that
The Prince was the set text on the management part of my degree. It's currently sitting on the shelf next to
Xenocide. Well, it's tough being an engineer :-)
Hey, this is a cool thread! You people are crazy.... ;)
My book that gets a reaction out of everyone no matter what their belief system is
God on Trial. Everyone jumps to conclusions on what it's about, and proceeds to lecture me on their view of the 'issue'. Funny thing is, no one's ever guessed what it is really about!
I have no idea what the book is about, Emma, but I cannot imagine lecturing anyone about religious belief. Religion is so personal to me. I try to live my life so people have an idea what I believe, but confrontation on this issue is really foreign to me.
Well, now might be the time to admit that I have a series of bad Christian romance novels written by a local author (long dead) that I've kept for multiple decades. They aren't listed in my library on LT in part because I don't want to have to explain it to anyone. I don't recommend them to anyone else; they are on my shelf simply because at one point in my life, I enjoyed them. I don't feel that I should *have* to have a conversation about them if I'm not pushing them (or any bad theology associated with them) on anyone else.
Like MerryMary, this is not something I feel belongs on public display but the works of this woman are definitely in keeping with the parameters set by JPB in his initial question. People who know me in real life would either just look at me quizzically or else would think it an opportunity for a debate.
Message edited by its author, Dec 6, 2009, 5:35pm.
I wonder if we have the same books? I have a bunch of Christian fiction, too. Doesn't bother me for people to know, but it's not type of book I carry around. They date back to my teenage years.
Well, I'll admit to her initials (GLH) here, if that helps. Of course, I just re-read JPB's posting and realized that he specified non-fiction (oops)
napoleon's Privates &
stiff are two that most folks seem to find odd. The first was given to me by my daughter for Xmas last year. Wonderful read - did you know they're in a suitcase under a bed in NJ? The second was loaned to me by my old HR Director. It's a fantastic look at what happens to the human body after death. Mary Roach has the perfect sense of humor for such a project.
We had a ball when we discovered the first name of our boss was Ada.
Within an hour, we borrowed every copy from the library on the Ada computer language and had our desks covered with "Ada for beginners", "Ada for professionals", "Ada for dummies", etc.
My colleague had some eyebrows raised when he brought home a stack of books on SOA (the Dutch acronym for Sexual transmittable diseases), but were in fact on Service Oriented Architecture.
People look a bit askance at my bookcase (and a half) of books on language, especially at the shelf dedicated entirely to the
Teach Yourself language series (61 books tagged here, and I think I might be missing a couple). One of the weirder ones is
Jifunze KiIngereza (Teach Yourself English, for Swahili-speaking People). Sure, I don't speak Swahili, but how could I resist that when I found it for $2 at the bookfair?
Other weird language books I have lying around include
Kanyen'keha Tewatati: Let's Speak Mohawk, A Primer of Middle High German,
A Gateway to Sindarin, and Conversational Sanskrit: The Microwave Method. I've never worked out what the microwave method is. The book doesn't say.
I also have a Microsoft Windows 1.0 User Manual.
Msg 24: I read the Nazi comment, and I laughed. And then, I thought that I should be weeping.
>33, I have a few GLH books myself that I haven't read in years, and a number of EL ones that I periodically reread, so you're not alone.
Non-fiction, I think the titles that get the oddest looks include
Men, Women and Chainsaws about gender roles in horror movies,
The History of Hell, and a strange small book called Sexual Behavior of Unmarried Women published in 1950 by Sex Guidance Publications, Inc. It's a pre-Kinsey study that claims to be "A brilliant Analysis of her desires and inhibitions, her experiences and frustrations... based on personal interviews and scientific research." I haven't read it, but it's good for a doubletake now and then.
I have a couple pre-1950 sex research books. You should read yours. They are a HOOT!
I have a book of crochet patterns by Vanna White. I get some funny looks carrying it around, since her big smile is very prominent on the cover.
My book that invokes funny looks is
Snakes in my bed by Austin Stevens...
He wrote it as a series of reminisces from his life, while he was sitting for the world record of spending time with venomous snakes (which entails him living in a 4x4 glass box with 30 odd cobras, mambas and puff adders)
Its a great, funny read! the stories about snakes and peoples reactions to them... hilarious!
Message edited by its author, Dec 7, 2009, 10:30am.
Three of my oddest non-fiction
Myth and Symbol in Ancient Egypt.
Human Sacrifice by Nigel Davis.
Zen and the Art of Making a Living by Laurence G. Boldt
Jane Austen for Dummies. I'm an Austen fan, and this actually is a good book, but people aren't sure what to make of it.
Everyone who notices my
Gray's Anatomy make comments intimating my interest in learning about certain organs of the opposite sex...
For what it's worth I think most of the books mentioned in this thread are completely normal. It's not us but the people who raises their eyebrows at them who are abnormal ;-)
Right now I read
The search for the perfect language but no one I know in meat space except a linguist and my father seems to know the concept. Instead everyone tries jokes on the "what's wrong with /language X, Y or Z/" theme.
But in general I think the fiction I read raises more eyebrows than the non fiction. Most people think SF is a juvenile, lightweight and simplistic genre. I'm perceived as knowledgeable and a wee bit on the intellectual side so their image of me jars with their image of my reading material.
Some people have thought me a little odd for crowing with delight when I found (and immediately bought) a copy of the Sporting Wife's Cookbook - oddly enough no touchstone for that. It's not quite what it sounds - it's a game cookbook that my Mum has and I wanted to steal. Brilliant game recipes.
I also have the book
stiff. Another good one is the
Undead Kama Sutra which is a fiction book, but most people think its non-fiction.
The
Decadent Cookbook also raises some eyebrows when the people read about cat in tomato sauce and different dog recipes (which, by the way, I did not try until now).
Message edited by its author, Dec 10, 2009, 7:58am.
I saved most of my books from my seafaring days. My favorite is the one volume Bowditch
American Practical Navigator that my dad had when he went to college. I also have books on ship handling and stability.
Your seafaring days? Cool. Tell us more.
Talking of seafaring..... When I lived on the coast nobody would have thought it odd to own
Lighthouses of the World, but now that I live a fair way inland it's obviously considered a bit peculiar by some of the locals. Ownership of this particular book did, however, lead to some very interesting conversation here on LT with fascinating observations and anecdotes from people who had actually visited some of the lighthouses.
I've had reactions to
Rise and Fall of the Third Reich similar to those experienced by others (No, I'm not a nazi), and
The Book of Signs by
Rudolf Koch elicits some surprise too (No, I'm not interested in the occult).
Merry - BK (Before Kids), I worked as a deck officer on a variety of ships. The first one was a break bulk freighter and we ended up going around the world! The last ship I worked on was a product tanker that carried lots of nasty stuff ending in -ene. It was quite the adventure and financially helpful but the memory of climbing in and out of holds no longer appeals to me and my arthritic knee.
#54 No it's not (thank Poseidon) and I don't remember any of our crew members with that name. Some of the stuff the cooks served was rather mysterious, though...
Maybe the wrong people see my books any comments are more likely to be along the lines of "have you read all these?"
I don't think I've ever had a comment about an individual title. Maybe I'm just considered odd;)
#57, calm, before LibraryThing when people asked me that question, which they always did when they saw my books (I think it's standard for book collectors), I could always answer "Yes." Now, my TBR collection is so substantial and continually growing, so I think I'll always be answering in the negative from now on. I can't help but grin with the delightful anticipation of it all :-D
Ditto! Exactly what katylit said (I blame LT).
#48 BekkaJo - Do you mean
The Sporting Wife by
Barbara Hargreaves? I once had a sniffy comment from a strait-laced elderly lady on that one. She could make out 'The Sporting Wife' in big block capitals but not the much smaller 'Game and Fish Cooking' below. Goodness knows what her imagination was making of it.
I also remember having disapproving comments from several people for having lying around a copy of
The Savage God: A Study of Suicide by A. Alvarez.
#58/59, katylit and booksloth
Before LT so could I about all my books!
Now my TBR shelf/pile/bookcase isn't on public display (I blame the challenge groups and some very discerning readers) therefore TBR has its own place away from my main bookcases so, apart from the inherited collection, everything I own which is where people can see it is something I have read or is a book that I can honestly say - part of (might be just one page for the reference collection)!
Still haven't had anybody say that a non-fiction I have is odd - someone once said they wanted a book (But That's different - and that copy is mine!)
#60 - LOL sounds right! Wasn't at home when i wrote so had to approximate. Just checked and yes, that's the one. It is a peculiar title these days... it's still good recipes though, if a little obsessed with aspic...
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