n/a:
INTERNATIONAL CLOUD ATLAS.
World Meteorological Organization, Geneva, 1956.

A nebulous subject expressed with Swiss precision: elegant, authoritative, and uniquely beautiful.

<-- Plate 35 (Opaque sheet of Altocumulus)

Wallace, Jane:
MASTURBATION: A WOMEN'S HANDBOOK
Side Hill Press, Brooklyn, 1976.

This fervid defense of female onanism is illustrated with very frank drawings of genitals.

<-- title page

n/a:
SURVIVAL IN LIKELY TARGET AREAS
Queen's Printer, Ottawa, 1962.

The duotone illustrations in this civil defense pamphlet offer a campy yet panic-inducing preview of what's in store when the H-bombs go off: doomed commuters huddling under bus seats; irradiated survivors squirming in the rubble; desperate families fighting fires; etc.

<-- front cover

Rooney, Dawn F.:
BETEL CHEWING TRADITIONS IN SOUTH-EAST ASIA
Oxford University Press, Kuala Lumpur, 1993.

Which is rarer: an English-language book on the habit of chewing betel nut, or a dilapidated bookman who admits to being a reformed daily user?

<-- front cover

[Morgan, Harry (comp.)]:
MORE RUGBY SONGS
Sphere Books Ltd., [London], 1968.

Prodigiously profane, if lacking in scholarly credibility.

<-- front cover

Lueck, Roger H. (ed.):
THE CANNED FOOD REFERENCE MANUAL
American Can Co., Hamilton, ON, 1943.

"A convenient and reliable reference text for those professional people who must deal intimately with commercially canned foods in the normal pursuit of their daily duties."

<-- pp. 226-227 (Views of the Testing Kitchen)

n/a:
DB AUSLANDKURSBUCH WINTER 1965/66.
Deutschen Bundesbahn, Essen, 1965.

With this comprehensive Euro-rail timetable and a pinch of imagination, you can ride a well-appointed express from Strasbourg to Paris; a haunted sleeper from Budapest to Bucharest; or a glacial milk run across Finland (Pieksämäki, Lapinlahti, Kontiomäki...).

<-- front cover

Hewat, A. Fergus, and G.L. Malcolm-Smith:
HEWAT'S EXAMINATION OF THE URINE AND OTHER CLINICAL SIDE-ROOM METHODS
7th Ed.; E. & S. Livingstone, Edinburgh, 1932.

A consideration of all the icky effluences, including pus, blood, sputum, feces, etc.; in compact vest-pocket format, convenient for carrying along on housecalls.

<-- front cover

Kaswell, Ernest R.:
WELLINGTON SEARS HANDBOOK OF INDUSTRIAL TEXTILES
Wellington Sears Co., New York, 1963.

Technical data on yarn manufacturing; the properties of man-made fibers; industrial fabric end uses; etc.

<-- figures 54 & 55 (weave diagrams)

Grant, Charles:
THE WAR GAME
A & C Black, London, 1971.

Grown men, playing with toy soldiers? Here the rules of engagement are formalized with grave precision by a credible-sounding lunatic.

<-- front cover

Mayle, Peter; John Thornton (phot.):
"WILL I LIKE IT?" YOUR FIRST SEXUAL EXPERIENCE: WHAT TO EXPECT, WHAT TO AVOID, AND HOW BOTH OF YOU CAN GET THE MOST OUT OF IT
Corwin Books, New York, 1977.

A recruiting manual for the sexual revolution, aimed at an adolescent readership, and written with insinuating frankness and a smarmy pop-psych tone.

<-- front cover

Fish, Donald:
AIRLINE DETECTIVE
Collins, London, 1962.

Sometimes a particularly potent dustjacket sets the level of expectation so high that no mere text can hope to live up to it.

<-- front cover

Sims, George R.:
THE BLACK STAIN.
Jarrold & Sons, London, [1907].

An especially lurid example of social-reform shock literature, its moral authority upheld by a dozen before-and-after photos of "rescued" beggar children.

<-- front cover

Jansen, Mark:
THE ART OF GEOMETRIC THREAD DESIGN
Open Door Company, Campbell, CA, 1972.

A trademarked craft activity for hippies: beautiful, inane, and unexpectedly reliant upon a sound comprehension of Euclidean geometry.

<-- front cover

n/a:
CLINICAL PHOTOGRAPHY. Kodak Publication No. N3
Eastman Kodak Co., Rochester, 1972.

Either an indispensible professional resource, or a uniquely depraved variety of porn. Illustrated with 150 intimate photos of medical patients.

<-- front cover

[three-dimensional paper model]
[COSMONAUT LAUNCH SITE DIORAMA]
["Veselka," Kiev, 1967]

Live the dream of Soviet technological supremacy with a fully equipped model space base, including rocket ship; launch pad; ground crew; support vehicles; etc. Eight uncut looseleaf pages in folder; instructions in Ukrainian.

<-- front cover of folder

McGee, W.J.:
PRIMITIVE NUMBERS
Government Printing Office, Washington, 1901.

Place of numbers in the growth of knowledge; primitive counting and number systems; germs of the number-concept; modern vestiges of almacabala; etc.

<-- front cover

Stiles, David:
THE TREE HOUSE BOOK
Avon Books, New York, 1979.

Much like the ideal dad: nerdy, practical, gently didactic and safety-oriented, yet possessing an underlying whimsy, with the promise of great fun for boys.

<-- front cover

Bernhard-Smith, A.:
POISONOUS PLANTS OF ALL COUNTRIES
Baillière, Tindall & Cox, London, 1923.

A discreet poisoner's handbook is a suggestive piece of evidence when carried by a quietly homicidal librarian.

<-- title page

Rutsch, Edward S.:
SMOKING TECHNOLOGY OF THE ABORIGINES OF THE IROQUOIS AREA OF NEW YORK STATE
Associated University Presses, Cranbury, NJ, 1973.

Plain-bore stone tubes; clay basket-bowl pipes; platform pipes; open-mouthed effigies; and hundreds of other artifacts designed to encourage the inhalation of hot smoke.

<-- front cover

Nogina, O.P.:
MOTHER AND CHILD CARE IN THE USSR
Foreign Languages Publishing House, Moscow, 1950.

The heroic story of industrial-scale nurseries, "guided by the wise Stalin policy." Many photos.

<-- front cover

Lefas, Jean:
PHYSIOGNOMY, THE ART OF READING FACES
Ariane Books, Barcelona, 1975.

As science, it's highly suspect; but there's no question that noses, chins, squints, and scowls offer an uncomplicated pictorial pleasure.

<-- front cover

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...

<-- front cover

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.

<-- front cover

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."

<-- front cover

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.

<-- front cover

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.

<-- front cover

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