Customer Reviews

Bizarre Books

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I bought this book because of its cover which featured a lady who appeared to be from the fifties holding two toads, upside down, one in each hand. It was apparently the front cover for a book about making profits from raising frogs. The rest of the book is simply about weird and wonderful books. Whether they have unintentionally amusing titles, such as "Penetrating Wagner's Ring", unbelievable prosaic titles such as "A study of Liverpudlian water cocks, 1932-1955" or ridiculous authors' names, one of which included something like "D'Bang-D'Crashes" (I'm using my memory here so these may not be exactly correct) it is a very funny book. I work in London, and the London Underground is a very staid place. But I read it while I was commuting and could not help laughing out loud at some of the entries. I got some very strange looks from fellow commuters until I passed the book to one of them. Then they started laughing out loud too. Even if you can't get a copy for me, could you hunt down who ever I loaned it to and force them to return it to me?

While browsing in one of London's classic book stores, I purchased this thin book as a gag gift for a friend addicted to buying books back in Los Angeles.

My friend never received it. I kept it. You can't let such an odd, funny, and unique book leave your hands. Each page provides insight into strange obsessions and peculiar beliefs that have grabbed writers. Some celebrate taboo lifestyles (The Madam as Entrepreneur: Career Management in House Prostitution; Scalping in America) while others document extreme optimism ( You Can Make a Stradivarius Violin, Thirty-six Reasons for Believing in Everlasting Punishment) and lots of dry British humor (Books in Bottles: The Curious in Literature, and a blank book of 400 pages titled What Women Know About Men.)

An instant classic for book collectors and bookstore owners.

This is one of those books which is especially good for those unmentionable moments when you can do little more than stare at the bathroom door. Ash and Lake present their amazing collection of odd (and often unintendedly perverse) book titles like "Suggestive Thoughts for Busy Workers", "The Potatoes of Bolivia", "Who's Who in Barbed Wire", "Play with your own marbles", "Making it in leather", and "Scouts in Bondage".