Kernaleguen, Anne:
CLOTHING DESIGNS FOR THE HANDICAPPED
University of Alberta Press, Edmonton, 1978.

A subject of unassailable earnestness, capable of inflicting painful empathy. Spiral bound in highly defensive plastic covers; illustrated with many photos and patterns.

<-- front cover (detail)

Hagemann, Otto:
DAS NEUE GESICHT BERLINS
Arani Verlagsgesellschaft, Berlin, 1959.

Post-historical European metropolis emerges from cataclysmic war: an austere cityscape of modernist rectangles. Beautiful photos; text in German.

<-- front cover

King, Michael S.:
ISLANDS IN THE NIGHT
[Self-published], Tallahassee, FL, 1974.

In this documentary photo-essay on nocturnal gas stations, an obscure photographer celebrates the transitory, the anonymous, the starkly overlit...

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n/a:
GLOBE GENERAL CATALOG No. 47: MACHINERY, EQUIPMENT AND SUPPLIES FOR THE MEAT PACKING, SAUSAGE AND RENDERING PLANTS
The Globe Company, Chicago, 1947.

800 pages of nightmarish gear that no one wants to think about: shackles, stunning hammers, meat hooks, rib shears, scalding tubs, boning tables, offal pans, etc. Photo-illustrated, of course.

<-- front cover

Meyer, Jerome S.:
ADVICE ON THE CARE OF BABIES (BY A BACHELOR WHO CAN'T BEAR THEM)
Irwin & Gordon, Toronto, 1927.

Apparently intended as a gag gift for expectant fathers, these jokes and cartoons about parenthood are not just puerile -- they're downright sadistic. A real laff riot.

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Scobie, Alastair:
WOMEN OF AFRICA
Cassell, London, 1960.

Anthropological voyeurism with an alarmingly smug premise: "This is a different kind of African adventure, a safari into the private lives of African women."

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n/a:
THE SUCCESSORS TO THE REVOLUTION
Korean People's Army Publishing House, [Pyongyang, ca. 1978].

What incomparable joy can be found in the smiling faces and revolutionary zeal of the cadets at this North Korean military orphanage! Text in stilted English; with many surreal color photos.

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Wilkie, Barnard:
CREATING SPECIAL EFFECTS FOR TV AND FILMS
Focal Press, London, 1977.

Smoke; mirrors; pyrotechnics; bullet effects; snow and frost; destruction of automobiles; and many more tricks, all explicated with pleasingly technical duotone illustrations.

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Chang Kuang-Yu and Chang Cheng-Yu:
PEKING OPERA MAKE-UP: AN ALBUM OF CUT-OUTS
Foreign Languages Press, Peking, 1959.

Eastern melodrama leaps off the page: a leopard demon, a monkey hero, a girl who dies of a broken heart, etc., rendered as full-color three-dimensional paper dolls.

<-- front cover

Thurgood, R.J.:
THE COMPLETE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BARBED WIRE
Collector Books, Paducah, KY, 1972.

What could be more captivating, or more cruel, than tiny, painstaking sketches of 487 species of barbed wire?

<-- front cover

Hovannessian, Arshavir Ter ["Aterhov"]:
RAW-EATING, OR A NEW WORLD FREE FROM DISEASES, VICES AND POISONS
Second Edition. [Self-published], Tehran, 1967.

"The consumption of cooked food is the most terrible barbarism in the history of mankind, a barbarism that no one seems to be aware of and to which everybody falls an unconscious victim."

<-- back cover, with photo of author's daughter (who has never tasted cooked food)

Izard, Janet Wright:
MANDALA COLORING PAD
Doubleday & Co., Garden City, NY, 1973.

As every 4-year-old knows, nirvana is most easily achieved by lying on the floor with a coloring book and a rainbow assortment of crayons.

<-- front cover

n/a:
DICTIONARY OF OCCUPATIONAL TITLES. VOLUME I: DEFINITIONS OF TITLES
Third Edition. U.S. Department of Labor, Washington, 1965.

A compilation of some 20,000 brief and often unexpected job descriptions, ranging from "Abalone Diver" to "Zylo Mounter" -- without a single mention of "Used Book Tycoon."

<-- front cover

Sjöstedt, Ulf (ed.):
HASSELBLAD, FEATURING: APOLLO IX, X AND XI
Victor Hasselblad, Göteborg, Sweden, [1969].

Justifiable bragging rights: If the first three Apollo moon landings were documented with cameras designed and manufactured by your family company, you'd probably be proud enough to publish a commemorative pamphlet about it, too.

<-- front cover

Champion, Baba Rick:
YOGA TENNIS.
A.S.I.A, Inc., Phoenix, 1973.

Hindu meditation meets country club recreation on the hot asphalt courts of Arizona, then wraps up with a sexy foot massage.

<-- front cover

Borzilleri, E.J.:
THE ROYAL ROAD
395th edition(!!). Tyrrell Hygienic Institute, New York, 1945.

The road in question is the digestive tract; and the debilitating condition known as "constipation" is best understood as a traffic jam on the highway to health.

<-- "Digestive Organs of Man," with explanatory key

Rickford, John R. (ed.):
A FESTIVAL OF GUYANESE WORDS
University of Guyana, Georgetown, 1978.

Creole words for body parts; cane-farming slang; cooking terms from Hindi; and even a list of personalized names for cars (Hang On; Aristocrat; the Screw; etc.).

<-- front cover

Bulka, Reuven P.:
LONELINESS [Social Problems in Canada series]
Faculty of Education, University of Toronto, 1984.

In a fierce boreal land with a population density of just three people per square kilometer, it's a palpable threat.

<-- front cover

Miller, Andrew:
MEMBERS OF A BIZARRE ORDER
[Classic Publications, Los Angeles], 1969.

Nun porn, with all the requisite flagellation and cunnilingus. No pictures.

<-- front cover

Mandzuk, William G.:
THE SECRET OF ETERNAL LIFE
Douglas Printing Co., Edmonton, 1956.

Confusingly: "If you flipped the pages of this book in a simple maneuver either wittingly or unwittingly to determine the purpose of its origin then you could not be held responsible for not knowing what this book is all about."

<-- front cover

Newton, Shaw:
THE SECOND LINE OF OFFENCE.
Russell Motor Car Co., Toronto, [1918].

The achievements and inner workings of a munitions plant are extolled with vengeful pride in this account of a car parts company retooled for industrialized warfare. Illustrated with many photos and diagrams.

<-- p. 48 / plate 4

n/a:
THE MAORI HEITIKI, GREENSTONE SOUVENIR OF NEW ZEALAND
Whitcombe and Tombs Ltd., Christchurch, [ca. 1950].

A study -- necessarily brief -- of a traditional jade pendant carved in the form of a homunculus: "There is no explanation in legend or folk lore of its origin or meaning." With nine eerie duotone illustrations.

<-- front cover

Clason, George S.:
THE BABYLON COURSE IN FINANCIAL SUCCESS
Institution of Financial Education, Toronto, 1938.

A five-volume self-improvement program in a box, tarted up with an incongruous (and altogether specious) "Babylonian" theme.

<-- front of slipcase

Richards, Brian:
THE PENIS
Valentine Products, New York, 1977.

A monograph by a monomaniac. The author (himself a penis owner) insists that his subject is "the one single most important thing on all the earth and in the entire history of the earth."

<-- front cover

Cantine, Holley, and Dachine Rainer (eds.):
PRISON ETIQUETTE: THE CONVICT'S COMPENDIUM OF USEFUL INFORMATION
Retort Press, Bearsville, NY, 1950.

Personal experiences and advice from American war resisters incarcerated during World War II; though lacking in hardened criminal street-cred, this is a unique document of protest and moral indignation.

<-- front cover

Muslin, E.:
MACHINES OF THE 20TH CENTURY
Mir Publishers, Moscow, 1974.

"...mainly deals with such modest unassuming hard workers as rolling mills, excavators, lathes, presses and turbines..."

<-- front cover

Graham, Harry:
RUTHLESS RHYMES FOR HEARTLESS HOMES
Edward Arnold, London, [later reprint, ca. 1949].

Illustrated verse, gleefully describing hideous accidents and sadistic cruelties visited upon stiff Edwardian families. Is this where Edward Gorey learned his shtick?

<-- front cover

[folding wall ruler]
McDONALDLAND METRIC & INCHES GROWTH CHART
McDonald's Systems, [U.S.], 1978.

Allows devotees of corporate fast food to track the metabolic conversion of cheeseburgers into children. Unfolds to 5 feet (1.5 meters); illustrated with insipid McDonaldland characters.

<-- top panel

Mershon, Wm. B.:
RECOLLECTIONS OF MY FIFTY YEARS HUNTING AND FISHING
Stratford Co., Boston, 1923.

A lifetime of decimation with shotgun and fly-rod, and never a moment of moral reflection: "I think it was in the fall of 1886 that I killed the last wild turkey in Michigan..."

<-- frontis and title page

Caprilli, Federico; Piero Santini (trans.):
THE CAPRILLI PAPERS: PRINCIPLES OF OUTDOOR EQUITATION
J.A. Allen & Co., London, 1967.

The writings and photo archive of an Italian cavalryman who, on the brink of the automobile age, revolutionized riding with his "forward seat" style (and later died by falling off his horse).

<-- front cover

Smith, William Wye:
THE NEW TESTAMENT IN BRAID SCOTS
Alexander Gardner, Paisley, 1901.

The gospels with a wee o' the Scottish burr: "Gie us ilka day oor needfu' fendin. And forgie us a' oor ill deeds, as we e'en forgie thae wha did us ill..."

<-- title page

Senn, C. Herman:
THE ART OF THE TABLE
Ward, Lock & Co., London, 1923.

Not an art at all, but an inflexible set of formalities for serving nine-course meals to demanding socialites. Includes many diagrams of elaborate napkin-folding.

<-- front cover

Talmage, T. DeWitt:
SOCIAL DYNAMITE; OR, THE WICKEDNESS OF MODERN SOCIETY
C.R. Parish & Co., Philadelphia, 1888.

All the usual dangers, including High License; Fashion's Follies; Watering Places; Sequence of Evil Companions; Dark Deeds; etc. Illustrated with numerous engravings.

<-- front cover

[library record]
MY BOOK LIST
Boots Book-lovers' Library, [London, ca. 1935].

Snapshot of print culture at its zenith: a want-list, issued by a pharmacy chain that rented books to its customers, entirely filled in with the titles of popular novels.

<-- pp. 4-5

Skeaping, John:
HOW TO DRAW HORSES
The Studio, London, 1944.

To encourage real beginners, the author gently compares the ways that children and adults differ when observing and representing equine subjects.

<-- Figs. 2-3 [drawings by five-year-olds]

Erichsen-Brown, Charlotte:
USE OF PLANTS FOR THE PAST 500 YEARS
Breezy Creek Press, Aurora, ON, 1979.

Suspiciously ambitious title lives up to its claim: an almost comprehensive catalogue of written historical references to the ethnobotany of Canada (plants eaten, smoked, used as medicines, etc.).

<-- front cover

Burt, Olive Woolley:
AMERICAN MURDER BALLADS AND THEIR STORIES
Citadel Press, New York, 1964.

"Mother believed in rocking her babies to sleep, but she seldom chose conventional lullabies." Includes complete lyrics, historical origins, and some musical notation.

<-- front cover

Graumont, Raoul, and John Hensel:
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF KNOTS AND FANCY ROPE WORK
Cornell Maritime Press, New York, 1944.

With 332 plates depicting thousands of knotted ropes and strings -- some useful, some decorative, some seemingly created by spiders on LSD.

<-- frontis and title page

[promotional brochure]
WORLD TRADE CENTER, NEW YORK: THE CLOSEST SOME OF US WILL EVER GET TO HEAVEN
Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, [ca. 1982].

Foldout leaflet opens to more than 30 inches wide, to accommodate a dizzying observation deck photo panorama of New York -- a view nowadays attainable only from a helicopter.

<-- front panel

"Koresh" [pseud. Cyrus Teed]:
THE CELLULAR COSMOGONY, OR, THE EARTH A CONCAVE SPHERE
Guiding Star Publishing House, Chicago, 1899.

The inside-out doctrine of a Florida cult leader, who maintained that all terrestrial life actually occupies the inside of a hollow sphere; with elaborate geometric evidence to prove his point.

<-- front cover

Bled, C.E.:
UNDERSTANDING CHINA THROUGH CARTOONS
Canadian Society for a Better Understanding of China, Ottawa, 1985.

Even accompanied by translated captions and an earnest cultural analysis, these badly-drawn didactic cartoons (culled from Beijing's "People's Daily") come across as comically inscrutable.

<-- front cover

Crespo, Merlito S.:
THE PAPER AIR MACHINES
Dorrance Publishing, Pittsburgh, 1993.

Blueprints for air superiority on the playground: "It only takes one 8.5x11 sheet of paper to make an accurate copy of the latest military aircraft flying in the skies today."

<-- front cover

Scott, Claude L.:
THE SCIENCE OF PORNOGRAPHY, VOL. 2
Editions Erectus, [no place or date; ca. 1970].

A rigorous discipline, requiring the graphic portrayal of onanism, orgies, homosexuality, bestiality, and the "grotesque fringes" of sexual behavior. (We'd love to know what Vol. 1 covered.)

<-- front cover

Blunt, Wilfrid, and Will Carter:
ITALIC HANDWRITING
Newman Neame, London, 1954.

For connoisseurs of elegant form and decontextualized content, this collection reproduces 44 random excerpts of handwritten letters in italic script.

<-- p. 5

Leathem, Harvey T. and Hugh Jones:
AUTO EROTIC DEVICES [SEX GADGETS]
Century Books, Cleveland, 1968.

A refreshingly clinical description of 56 masturbatory aids (many arcane), organized by erotic function.

<-- front cover

Sadler, William S. and Lena K. Sadler:
THE CAUSE AND CURE OF COLDS
American Publishers Corp., Chicago, 1938.

Emphasizes the basics of prevention: cold baths, saltwater gargle, regular bowel habits, etc.

<-- frontis and title page

Zinkowski, Nicholas B.:
COMMERCIAL OIL-FIELD DIVING
Cornell Maritime Press, Cambridge, MD, 1971.

Mortal risk at 50 fathoms: "The bold diver who rushes into situations without sufficient forethought tends to have a short career."

<-- frontis and title page

Axler, Bruce H.:
SHOWMANSHIP IN THE DINING ROOM
ITT Educational Publishing, Indianapolis, 1974.

Big displays of salad ingredients on ice; rolling cart service; beverage drama; carving for an audience; flambé...

<-- front cover

Shaftesbury, Edmund [pseud. Webster Edgerly]:
INSTANTANEOUS PERSONAL MAGNETISM
Ralston University Press, Meriden, CT, 1929.

Long-winded crypto-scientific sermons by a disagreeable self-improvement guru, who ultimately found success as a manufacturer of breakfast cereals.

<-- front cover

[Underground Space Center, University of Minnesota]:
EARTH SHELTERED HOUSING DESIGN
Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York, 1979.

A handsome and confident technical resource for anyone planning a "below grade" home. (The finished examples look like basements without buildings on top.)

<-- front cover