Bizarre Books: A Compendium of Classic Oddities

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 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 show more - 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 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 show more 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

Lists of books with strange titles, bizarre subjects, unfortunate author/title combinations, or all of the above. It's fun to browse through, and the entries range from mildly bemusing to pleasantly chuckle-inducing. A lot of them are perfectly innocent titles which, approached by those with dirty minds in our less-than-innocent age, sound as if they're about much more, um, interesting subjects -- including rather a lot of books about guys named Dick. Yes, this is pretty juvenile, but I have to admit that many of those are the ones that made me laugh the loudest.

Some of the titles listed in this book are absolutely hilarious. There are also some really funny author/title combinations that will crack you up, such as Oh! Sex Education! by Mary Breasted or Your Teeth by John Chipping. At the end there is a list of strange author names (seriously, why would you call your child 'semen'?) that will have you shaking your head at the cruelty of parents.

I am making it my life challenge to obtain and release as many of these books as possible. This book is definitely worth reading and I would recommend purchasing a copy keep on your coffee table and show off to guests.

I don't usually write joint book reviews, but since Russell Ash and Brian Lake's Bizarre Books: A Compendium of Classic Oddities and Michael Bell's Scouts in Bondage and Other Violations of Literary Propriety cover much the same ground, it seemed only appropriate to write just one review rather than two. Both books provide a sampling of book titles/cover/authors which are innocent enough, but which have either fallen prey to changes in word usage over time, ("entendres that have double'd over the years", as Bell puts it) or simply serve to amuse and puzzle.

Ash and Lake's book is the larger of the two; it contains several chapters of subject-oriented titles complemented by the occasional black-and-white image or excerpt. Bell's sample show more size is smaller, but the book is hardbound and contains lovely full-color illustrations of the book covers in question (many of the titles are also to be found in Bizarre Books).

Interestingly, the LC classifies Bell's book in PN (Wit and Humor), while Ash and Lake's is shelved in Z (Books on Books). Both are quite funny and well worth a good browse-through.

http://philobiblos.blogspot.com/2008/04/book-reviews-bizarre-books-and-scouts.ht... show less

Although basically a collection of titles with summaries and quotes where appropriate, this book still had me laughing. As a general rule, these are books whose existence is amusing but I don't want to own, hence this book fits the bill.