Hennessey, James, and Victor Papanek:
NOMADIC FURNITURE
Pantheon Books, New York, 1973.

A sensible and eco-oriented guide to cheap, portable and build-it-yourself furnishings for students and other urban gypsies; includes a description of an entire secondhand bookshop built from fruit crates.

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n/a:
POULTRY PORTRAITS: No. 1, ENGLISH TYPES
Canadian Poultry Review, Toronto, [ca. 1898].

For the devoted chicken fancier, a portfolio of 12 large-format engravings (Hamburg Hen, Minorca Pullet, Black Hamburg Cock, etc.), suitable for framing.

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Jowett, George F.:
MOLDING A MIGHTY GRIP
Jowett Institute of Physical Culture, Philadelphia, 1930.

A strong-man program for those who wish to hoist a barrel of nails using only the tips of their fingers; to our satisfaction, the first exercise involves lifting a heavy book.

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Wilke, Arthur:
DIE ELEKTRIZITAT, IHRE ERZEUGUNG UND IHRE UNWENDUNG [etc.]
["Electricity, Its Production and Its Application..."]
Verlag Otto Spamer, Leipzig, 1895.

The romantic spirit of Imperial Germany expressed as an electrified technological utopia, with over 800 engravings, diagrams, and photos.

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Bozzini, Lidio (ed.):
ITALIAN PRODUCTION 1961
Unitalia Film, Rome, 1962.

Catalogue of 130 not-so-famous Italian movies from 1961, illustrated with select stills. Sultry eyebrows, well-groomed moustaches, and roman sandals much in evidence; text in English.

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Henry, Alfred J.:
LOSS OF LIFE IN THE UNITED STATES BY LIGHTNING
U.S. Dept. of Agriculture (Weather Bureau), Washington, 1901.

"The greatest fatality from a single stroke occurred at Chicago, where 11 persons, huddled together in a zinc-lined shanty under a pier, met instant death."

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Rohleder, Hermann:
TEST TUBE BABIES
Panurge Press, New York, 1934.

Historical Development of Artificial Impregnation; Technique of the Operation; Best Method of Obtaining the Semen; Artificial Impregnation with the Semen of a Stranger; etc.

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n/a:
THE PUPPET IN YOUR COMMUNITY
Ontario Department of Education, [Toronto], 1953.

"Mr. Puppet will sing, dance and clown his way into the hearts of all who meet him. His antics will enliven any social gathering."

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["Diet Book"]
WALKER'S PEARL DIARY 1929
John Walker & Co., London, [1928].

A partly-used datebook, smaller than an arrowroot biscuit, in which an invalid has catalogued his bland meals; the inauspicious final entry (Aug. 3) reads, "Pain about 5:00 o'clock."

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Browne, D.J.:
THE FIELD BOOK OF AMERICAN MANURES; OR, THE AMERICAN MUCK BOOK [etc.]
C.M. Saxton & Co., New York, 1858.

Animal manures (including human "nightsoil"); liquid manures; vegetable compost; and, most intriguingly, "Gaseous and Imponderable Manures."

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Bliss, Charles [with Shirley McNaughton]:
THE BOOK TO THE FILM "MR. SYMBOL MAN"
Semantography-Blissymbolics, Sydney, 1976.

The life work of an optimist who believed he could save the world by creating a "universal" pictograph language, and who subsequently became the subject of a 1974 documentary.

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Heriot, Angus:
THE CASTRATI IN OPERA
John Calder Ltd., London, 1960.

"...strange creatures mutilated in the name of art, but sometimes reaping rewards more glittering than any other singers have achieved..."

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MacFadden, Bernarr:
HAIR CULTURE
Physical Culture Corp., New York, 1922.

A quack's theory on hair health, illustrated with dozens of faintly obscene photos of young models brushing, towelling, massaging, and tugging at their thick manes.

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Tabak, Aelene, and Rochelle Savetman:
CB HANDLES
Dell Publishing, New York, 1977.

Even if you're not a trucker, you can still use these as gmail addresses, pet names, or insulting nicknames for coworkers.

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Chekiang Fine Arts Institute Drawing Group, et al.:
TUNNEL WARFARE
Foreign Languages Press, Peking, 1972.

Rendered glorious: In this ideological graphic novel, stoic Chinese peasants use Maoist guerrilla tactics to defeat their Japanese fascist oppressors.

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Asomugha, C.N.C.:
NIGERIAN SLANGS
Abic Publishers, Onitsha, Nigeria, 1981.

Champalm; magun; lookry; footreon; hole power; and hundreds of other "conventionally unacceptable words and phrases."

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Lassiter, Luther:
BILLIARDS FOR EVERYONE
Grosset & Dunlap, New York, 1971.

Densely illustrated with time-stretching "continuous-sequence action photos" of ball trajectories -- like acid visuals in the rec room.

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[Greenfield, Jeff, et al.]:
JEFF GREENFIELD'S BOOK OF BOOKS
National Lampoon, New York, 1979.

Some would call it conceptual art: a digest of fake books, cruelly spoofing the covers and contents of 15 unfortunate genres.

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Wheeler, Russell C.:
AN ATLAS OF TOOTH FORM
4th Edition. W.B. Saunders Co., Philadelphia, 1969.

Perhaps one day denture carving will find acceptance in the pantheon of hobbies, alongside fly-tying and building model ships in bottles.

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Clark, Mary E., and Margery Closey Quigley:
ETIQUETTE EVERY CHILD SHOULD KNOW
The Parents' Institute, Inc., New York, 1939.

Here's why: "The doors of good society gradually close and the dinner and dance invitations are not sent to persons who do third-rate things."

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