Faull, Lesley:
MEAT ON THE MENU IN SOUTHERN AFRICA
Books of Africa, Cape Town, 1968.

A pocket with eight lurid meat postcards compensates somewhat for the regrettable absence of "bush meat" recipes in the text.

<-- rear endpapers, with postcards

Palombi, John:
"SEE YOU ON THE BLACKTOP!"
A&P Publishing, Rancho Cordova, CA, 1995.

An aggressive used-car sales philosophy is equally applicable to the secondhand book trade.

<-- front cover

Crandall, Lee S.:
THE MANAGEMENT OF WILD MAMMALS IN CAPTIVITY
University of Chicago Press, 1971.

When designing a menu for two-toed sloths, stick to kale and escarole; the fussy ones won't touch celery.

<-- front cover

Murray, W., and M. Aitchison (illus.):
BOOKS ARE EXCITING
Wills & Hepworth Ltd., Loughborough, 1967.

Confirms our suspicions.

<-- pp. 30-31

Runge, Senta Maria:
FACE LIFTING BY EXERCISE
Allegro Publishing, Los Angeles, 1972.

A previously unrecognized species of porn.

<-- p. 121

Peet, Louise Jenison, and Lenore Sater Thye:
HOUSEHOLD EQUIPMENT
Fourth Edition. John Wiley & Sons, New York, 1957.

For the studious homemaker, a technical understanding of electric appliances fulfills a deeper need: "Equipment implies action..."

<-- front cover

[Ford Advanced Styling Studio]:
SEATTLE-ITE XXI
Ford Motor Co., Dearborn, MI, 1962.

400 h.p. concept car offers an alternative to petroleum: "Such a vehicle might be powered by fuel cells or a compact nuclear device."

<-- front cover

[Committee on Recording of the American Meat Institute]:
PORK OPERATIONS
Institute of Meat Packing, Chicago, 1954.

Shackle; stick; bleed; scald; dehair; dehead; open; eviscerate. (Gruesomer details available upon request.)

<-- front cover

Benda, W.T.:
MASKS
Watson-Guptill Publications, New York, 1944.

An eerie collection of theatrical masks with names like "The Miser," "Nincompoop," and "Lady Disdain."

<-- front cover

n/a:
WELCOME TO MADURODAM!
The Hague, [ca. 1960s].

Guide to a pathologically detailed, and unbearably twee, scale replica of a Dutch village. In English, with handy folding map laid in.

<-- front cover

Mitchell, Richard Scott:
MINERAL NAMES: WHAT DO THEY MEAN?
Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York, 1979.

In the mineral world, "samsonite" is not luggage, "priderite" is not a deadly sin, and "cummingtonite" is not a promise.

<-- front cover

McCully, Helen:
THE FRENCH HAVE A WORD FOR IT: MAYONNAISE
Hellmans/Best Foods, New York, 1967.

In English, we know it as "that shining golden ointment."

<-- front cover

Palmieri, Mario:
THE PHILOSOPHY OF FASCISM
Dante Alighieri Society, Chicago, 1936.

Brazen Italian propaganda promoting a now-discredited political ideology: braggadocio deflated by history.

<-- title page

n/a:
THE HORN BOOK: A GIRL'S GUIDE TO THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOOD AND EVIL
[n.p.; pirate reprint of the 1923 London edition].

63 coital postures ("The Saint-George," "The Stork," "The Sack of Corn," etc.) in quaint and utterly raunchy detail.

<-- title page

Bailey, Oscar, and Charles Swedlund:
FOUND OBJECTS: MID-CENTURY GENRE
State University College at Buffalo, 1965.

An exhibition of rusty detritus exerting its hypnotic charm.

<-- front cover

Flugel, J.C.:
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF CLOTHES
Fourth printing. Hogarth Press, London, 1966.

Tell me, professor: what does a prominent red necktie represent?

<-- front cover

Ali, Shahrazad:
THE BLACKMAN'S GUIDE TO UNDERSTANDING THE BLACKWOMAN
Civilized Publications, Philadelphia, 1989.

We also sometimes get requests for "The Bookman's Guide to Understanding the Bookwoman."

<-- front cover

[Council on Economic Priorities]:
EFFICIENCY IN DEATH: THE MANUFACTURERS OF ANTI-PERSONNEL WEAPONS
Perennial Library, New York, 1970.

Just plain sinister: a sort of chamber-of-commerce directory to the land mine/cluster bomb industry.

<-- front cover

n/a:
SECRETARY'S DESK BOOK
Parker Publishing, West Nyack, N.Y., 1975.

For a smart look in any air-conditioned office, try a demure pink dustjacket.

<-- front cover

Howard, Len:
BIRDS AS INDIVIDUALS
Doubleday & Co., Garden City, NY, 1953.

With the songs of various species (warblers, blackbirds, titmice, etc.) rendered in musical notation.

<-- front cover

Kira, Alexander:
THE BATHROOM
Viking Press, New York, 1976.

A serious ergonomic design study, and the only place you'll ever find a photographic analysis of human urine-stream trajectories.

<-- front cover

n/a:
NARCOTIC DRUGS UNDER INTERNATIONAL CONTROL: MULTILINGUAL LIST
United Nations, Geneva, 1963.

For those occasions when you need to say "morphine sulfate" in Finnish, Arabic, or Korean.

<-- front cover

Davis, Jon (illus.):
TOOLS IN THE KITCHEN
Ginn & Co., London, 1974.

With many provocative illustrations of an affectless, aproned housewife wielding an apple corer, rolling pin, scissors, meat grinder...

<-- front cover

Milgram, Stanley, and R. Lance Shotland:
TELEVISION AND ANTI-SOCIAL BEHAVIOR: FIELD EXPERIMENTS
Academic Press, New York, 1973.

Good news: one extra-violent episode of a prime-time melodrama won't turn you into a sociopath!

<-- front cover

n/a:
A KEY TO ESPERANTO
[British Esperanto Association, London, ca. 1940].

Everyone's favorite universal language, fully explicated in a humble pamphlet not much larger than a credit card.

<-- front cover

Vishneva-Sarafanova, N.:
SOVIET WOMEN -- A PORTRAIT
Progress Publishers, Moscow, 1981.

A retired fighter pilot; the headmistress of a tractor-driving school; the winner of the Moscow Hairdressing Contest; etc.

<-- front cover

Glasstone, Samuel (ed.):
THE EFFECTS OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS
Revised Edition. U.S. Dept. of Defense, Washington, 1962.

With handy circular slide rule ("Atomic Bomb Effects Calculator") in pocket at rear.

<-- front cover and slide rule insert

Kapp, Ronald O.:
HOW TO KNOW POLLEN AND SPORES
Wm. C. Brown Co, Dubuque, IA, 1969.

To the uninitiated, it's just dust.

<-- front cover

Bryan, Mary de Garmo:
THE SCHOOL CAFETERIA
F.S. Crofts & Co., New York, 1943.

The subject evokes a complicated stew of emotions in many former students.

<-- front cover

Huff, Sandy:
THE MAYAN CALENDAR MADE EASY [etc.]
Self-published; Safety Harbor, FL, 1984.

Insanely complicated, despite the encouraging title.

<-- front cover

Abramson, Harold A. (ed.):
NEUROPHARMACOLOGY, TRANSACTIONS OF THE THIRD CONFERENCE
Josiah Macy, Jr., Foundation, New York, 1957.

Articles include "Effect of LSD-25 on Snails," "Production and Control of Alcoholic Cravings in Rats," etc.

<-- front cover

Fiddes, Victor:
THE ARCHITECTURAL REQUIREMENTS OF PROTESTANT WORSHIP
Ryerson Press, Toronto, 1961.

Interesting, but distinctly dry -- just the way the vicar likes his sherry.

<-- front cover

Antrim, Minna Thomas:
A MIMIC'S CALENDAR FOR 1905
Henry Altemus Co., Philadelphia, 1904.

Tart aphorisms and pretty art nouveau duotones for every week of the year.

<-- pp. 10-11

Davis, J.J.:
COMMON WHITE GRUBS
U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, Washington, 1929.

Three and a half pounds of lead arsenate per 100 square feet of lawn should take care of the problem.

<-- front cover

Grave, Felix:
FENCING COMPREHENSIVE
Hutchinson & Co, London [ca. 1934].

With a couple of brief (but very useful) sections on the protocol of conducting formal duels.

<-- front cover

Grumley, Michael; Ed Gallucci (phot.):
HARD CORPS: STUDIES IN LEATHER AND SADOMASOCHISM
E.P. Dutton, New York, 1977.

Is it uncomfortable to wear a leather vest without a shirt underneath?

<-- front cover

Western Advertising magazine:
12th ANNUAL PORTFOLIO OF WESTERN ADVERTISING ART
Ramsey Oppenheim Pubs., San Francisco, 1957.

Evidence that late-1950s commercial art from California was the supreme expression of 20th century visual culture.

<-- front cover

Wilson, K., and D.J.B. White:
THE ANATOMY OF WOOD: ITS DIVERSITY AND VARIABILITY
Stobart & Son Ltd., London, 1986.

Those micro-photos of cellulose would make mesmerizing wallpaper patterns.

<-- front cover

Hooker, Worthington:
HUMAN PHYSIOLOGY
Farmer, Brace, & Co., New York, 1856.

Of particular interest: Chapter XVII, "Connection of the Mind with the Body."

<-- pp. 80-81

Kazakevich, E[mmanuil]:
SPRING ON THE ODER
Foreign Languages Publishing House, Moscow, 1953.

Sometimes you just feel like curling up with a Stalinist war novel.

<-- title page

Grozinger, Wolfgang:
SCRIBBLING, DRAWING, PAINTING: THE EARLY FORMS OF THE CHILD'S PICTORIAL CREATIVENESS
Faber and Faber, London, [1955].

What could be more touching than a three-year-old's drawing of a mouse eating grapes?

<-- front cover

Etlin, Richard A.:
THE ARCHITECTURE OF DEATH: THE TRANSFORMATION OF THE CEMETERY IN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY PARIS
MIT Press, Cambridge, 1984.

File under "gothitecture."

<-- front cover

Kunstmann, Josef:
THE TRANSFORMATION OF EROS
Oliver & Boyd, Edinburgh, 1964.

Creepy kitsch: a collection of 80 "putti" (i.e., cherubs) from the Bavarian Baroque, most of them photographed in cloying, blushing colour.

<-- plate 42

Batterson, Mark, and William W. Boddie (eds.):
SALT, THE MYSTERIOUS NECESSITY
Dow Chemical Company, [Midland, MI], 1972.

Published as a gift to all Dow employees on the occasion of the company's 75th anniversary; with presentation letter laid in.

<-- front cover

Hodgson, Fred. T.:
PRACTICAL BUNGALOWS AND COTTAGES FOR TOWN AND COUNTRY
Frederick J. Drake & Co., Chicago, 1912.

Over 200 architectural drawings and floor plans: like revisiting a forgotten dream city.

<-- front cover

Herrero, Stephen:
BEAR ATTACKS: THEIR CAUSES AND AVOIDANCE
Hurtig Publishers, Edmonton, 1985.

Sometimes they supplement their berries and honey with a little man-flesh.

<-- front cover

Cox, Doris, and Barbara Warren Weismann:
CREATIVE HANDS, AN INTRODUCTION TO CRAFT TECHNIQUES
John Wiley & Sons, New York, 1948.

It's a nice cover design, but the endpapers are even lovelier.

<-- front cover

Faraday, Michael:
THE CHEMICAL HISTORY OF A CANDLE
Thomas Y. Crowell, New York, 1957.

The natural world illuminated by a Victorian genius.

<-- front cover

Hymoff, Edward:
GUIDANCE AND CONTROL OF SPACECRAFT
Holt, Rinehart & Winston, New York, 1966.

Would you rather careen aimlessly through the vast emptiness?

<-- front cover

[n/a]:
THE SOVIET CIRCUS: A COLLECTION OF ARTICLES
Progress Publishers, Moscow, 1967. First printing.

Bears on motorcycles! Brezhnev-era clowns!

<-- p. 30