Russell Ash (1946–2010)

This compilation of some of the weirdest titles, topics, etc, makes for a quick read. There are several in here that had me laugh and guffaw, sometimes in disbelief, though not all. Sometimes, the author's editorial comments on the books in the list are the funniest parts of all!

I don't think you could make this stuff up!

Probably not a book that you intend to read through in one sitting. And I didn't, but I did read it quicker than I might have planned - I think it's more of a book you dip in and out of.

The book is organized by chapter and many of the entries are just the name of the book, the author, the publisher and the date published. Sometimes there will be a picture of the cover or some other illustration in the book.

Sometimes there will be a quote, a blurb from the cover or something from the show more introduction. It's organized by chapter: Double Entendre titles, authors, sport, leisure, food & drink, etc. There is a also a section in the back entitled Remarkable Names of Real Authors.

So, there was a lot of rather juvenile and non-PC stuff in the book - making fun of author's names for example.

There were some things that made me laugh out loud - here are a few examples:

From Language:
Correct Mispronunciations of Some South Carolina Names

From Health & Medicine:
The Romance of Proctology
Memoirs of an Amnesiac
How to Get More Fun Out of Smoking

From Transport & Tourism:
The Little I Saw of Cuba
How To Abandon Ship (NOW with 40 more pages of NEW material)

From Death:
The Beginner's Guide for the Recently Deceased. A comprehensive guide to the only inevitable destination.
Premature burial and how it may be prevented. show less

"Bizarre Books" is a listing of books with odd titles and authors with odd names. It was originally published in Great Britain under the title "Fish Who Answer the Telephone," which I think is a better title.

This book might be more fun than just about any party game you might think of -- just sit around a room and read book titles like "Old Age: Its Cause and Prevention," "The Romance of Proctology" and "How to Get Fat."

Some of these titles, I'm sure, were intentionally funny. When Oscar show more Levant called his book "Memoirs of an Amnesiac" back in 1965, you can be certain he knew what he was doing. Much funnier are those titles that were probably concocted in all innocence: "Suggestive Thoughts for Busy Workers," published in 1883 by the Bible Christian Book Room; "The Gay Boys of Old Yale!," published in 1869; and "Shag the Pony," published by the Catholic Truth Society in 1952.

Whether intentionally funny or not, many titles are just plain odd: "Queen Victoria and Ping-pong," "The Supernatural History of Worms," "You Can Make a Stradivarius Violin," "Frolic and Fun with Egg-Shells," "Ice Cream for Small Plants," "Catching a Cannon Ball," "Hand Grenade Throwing as a College Sport," "Becoming a Sensuous Catechist" and "A Million Random Digits." The latter book consists of nothing but a million random digits.

Authors' names can also be fun. "The Ethics of Peace and War" was written by someone named I. Atack. Robin Banks wrote "Punishment" and Geoff Carless wrote "Motorcycling for Beginners." There have also been authors named Thomas Strangeways Pigg-Strangeways, Cornelius Crocus, Joy Muchmore Lacey, Lettice May Crump and Francis M. Fillerup.

This paperback, published in the United States in 2007, also includes many book covers and other illustrations, plus a few book excerpts, many of which are as funny as the titles. A 1933 book called "What's Wanted -- A List of 895 Needed Inventions" calls for someone to invent lipstick-proof linen, a bullet-proof stroboscope and "improvements in deckchairs whereby the user can sit sideways." Where was Thomas Edison when they needed him? show less

This Aesop collection, edited by Russell Ash and Bernard Higton, presents fifty-three of the classic fables, accompanied by illustrations taken from various Aesop editions of the last 150 years. Here the reader will encounter old favorites, liked The Fox and the Grapes and The Lion and the Mouse, as well as many lesser-known selections like The Piping Fisherman and The Fox and the Masks.

The artwork is taken from volumes ranging in date from the 1857 edition illustrated by Charles Henry show more Bennett to the 1970 volume illustrated by Edward Bawden. Other artists include: Milo Winter, Alexander Calder, Boris Artzybasheff, Walter Crane, Arthur Rackham, and Randolph Caldecott.

This was a fascinating volume, not so much for the fables themselves - all of which I had encountered before - but for the insight it gives into the various ways in which Aesop has been envisioned by illustrators over the course of more than a century. Twenty-nine artists are represented, in all, and their work ranges from the Art Nouveau to a "nursery" style. Some of my personal favorites: Arthur Rackham's Venus and the Cat, Walter Crane's The Peacock's Complaint, and Ernest Henry Griset's The Wolf and the Crane. show less