For your reading pleasure....

[mysterygal]

a collection of weird-but-true book titles. Hard to believe, but these titles were chosen and published in all seriousness. How would you like to spend your time reading...
why people move,by Jorge Balan (1981)
oh angry sea(a-ab-ba, hu-luh-ha)the history fo a Sumarian congregational lament,by Raphael Kutscher (1975)
Animals as criminals,by J.Brand (1896)
A pictorial book of tongue coating,anonymous (1981)
the dentist in art,by Jens Pindborg (1961)
how to get fat,by Edward Smith (1865)
how to cook husbands,by Elizabeth Worthington (1899)
cold meat and how to disguise it,by M.E. Rattray (1904)
how to boil water in a paper bag,anonymous (1891)
sex life of the foot and shoe, by William Rossi (1977)
how to be happy though married,by E.J Hardy (1885)
Lets make some undies, by Marion Hall (1954)
Life and laughter midst the cannibals,by Calvin Schwabe (1926)
nasal maintenance: nursing your nose through troubled times,by William Stuart (1983)

 

[imoldfashioned]

I call dibs on...

Let's Make Some Undies! (this phrase has got to have an exclaimation point, don't you think?).

When I started my job a book that had been left behind at my desk was entitled "Heart Attacks and the Law"; an intriguing title dating from the 1930s but I never cracked the book.

 

["Doc" Devereux]

oh angry sea(a-ab-ba, hu-luh-ha)the history fo a Sumarian congregational lament,by Raphael Kutscher (1975)

Oooh - Sumerian linguistics! I shall have to come back for that when I'm not so busy.

As it happens, I'm not joking. I became interested in the subject after reading Neal Stephenson's first novel Snow Crash.

 

[Haversack]

A lot of those books look like they could be perfectly reasonable in the right context. Specialized subject areas such as medicine, history, sociology, etc. often produce papers and books the titles of which sound odd to the layman.

how to boil water in a paper bag - I once had a child's paperback entitled _Boiling Water in a Paper Cup_. It was full of little science experiments and oddities that you could do yourself. (You can in fact boil water in a paper cup. No Microwave either).

the dentist in art - How common objects or professions have been viewed and depicted through history can be a fascinating study. Particularly if one is interested in how peoples of the past lived and thought.

Animals as criminals - There is a long history of animals being tried for crimes. In fact there is a rather good movie called _The Hour of the Pig_ which hinges on this point.

I think that many of these titles also illustrate that the past is a different country. How many of us here and today: Sew our own clothes, See being fat as desirable, Have no respectable alternative but to remain married?

Where did you find this collection of titles?

Haversack

 

[mysterygal]

these collection of titles are from I book I found. This book has a lot of funny weird facts and what-nots, which was exactly what I need after a hard day!

 

[Cousin Hepcat]

That's a great list Mysterygal.

One semester I worked replacing books in the stacks in between classes; Some of the titles were so great I tried to keep track of the best title I ever re-shelved. WISH I'd kept a list of them all.

The winner: "HAMMER: The King of Tools".


Swing High,
- C H

 

[Maj.Nick Danger]

I hope that Calvin Shwabe brought his own lunch when researching, "Life and Laughter Midst the Cannibals".