Ekman, Paul, et al.:
EMOTION IN THE HUMAN FACE.
Pergamon Press, New York, 1972.

Useful for poker players and other professional psychologists.

<-- front cover

Haight, Anne Lyon:
BANNED BOOKS: INFORMAL NOTES ON SOME BOOKS BANNED FOR VARIOUS REASONS AT VARIOUS TIMES AND IN VARIOUS PLACES
1 of 1000 copies. R.R. Bowker, New York, 1935.

"Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" was banned in China's Hunan Province on the grounds that "Animals should not use human language..."

<-- title page

n/a:
BRUSSELS WORLD EXHIBITION 1958: OFFICIAL GUIDE
Desclee & Co., Tournai, [1958].

The exhibition's Jetsonian centerpiece was a 100 meter tall structure (the "Atomium"), representing nine atoms of iron magnified 165 billion times.

<-- front cover

Tkachuk, Mary, et al.:
PYSANKA: ICON OF THE UNIVERSE
Ukrainian Museum, Saskatoon, 1977.

The sweet fragility of a decorated egg will warm the heart of even the most bruised cynic.

<-- front cover

Christy, Joe:
HOW TO BUY A USED AIRPLANE
2nd edition. TAB Books, Blue Ridge Summit, PA, 1979.

"Every time you fly you make a number of irrevocable decisions..."

<-- front cover

Austen, Howard, and Beverly Pepper:
THE MYRA BRECKINRIDGE COOKBOOK
Little Brown & Co, Boston, 1970.

Recipes à la drag queen -- "Breast of Capon," "Bearded Oysters," "Cod Pieces," etc.-- co-authored by Gore Vidal's boyfriend.

<-- front cover

Worcester, G.R. [and] Doris Worcester:
THE FLOATING POPULATION IN CHINA, AN ILLUSTRATED RECORD OF THE JUNKMEN AND THEIR BOATS [with] SOME CHUNGKING TYPES ON THE UPPER YANGTZE RIVER
Vetch and Lee Limited, Hong Kong, 1970.

The Hong Kong Beggar Boat, the Pig Boat of the Pearl River, the Flower Boat of Canton, the Coffin Boat...

<-- front cover

Hammett, Lorraine:
THE KNAUGHTY LOOK PRESENTS THE MAGIC OF SCARF FASHION
Hammett Enterprises, Scarborough, ON, 1983.

Wirebound to an A-frame cardboard stand, so you can refer to the instructions while tying your scarf with both hands.

<-- back cover

HOLLOW BOOK BOX
[date and manufacturer unknown]

A velvet-lined box disguised as a volume of the "Reader's Digest Condensed Books"; big enough to hold $3000 in twenties, or a small pistol.

<-- interior of box

Young, Richard S.:
EXTRATERRESTRIAL BIOLOGY
Holt, Rinehart, & Winston, New York, 1966.

Pretty much theoretical.

<-- front cover

Solomon, Ed:
SERVICE IS AN HONORABLE PROFESSION
McGarvey's Boat Drive-In Restaurant, Vermilion, OH, 1972.

The how and why of waitressing: "Could any profession be so interesting? And profitable?"

<-- front cover

Wershoven, F.J.:
LILIPUT DICTIONARY: ENGLISH-FRENCH [and] FRANCAIS-ANGLAIS
Schmidt & Gunther, Leipzig [ca. 1930s].

Cute as a button, and almost as small.

<-- spines in slipcase, with pencil for scale

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