Sholl, Clarence Vreeland:
SHOLL'S HUMANITOME
Verbis Publishing Co., Flushing, NY, 1946

An anthropocentric thesaurus, methodically listing 60,000 English words to describe human physical attributes, mental states, and activities. (Every other class of word is omitted.)

<-- front cover

Costa, E. and S. Garattini, eds.:
INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON AMPHETAMINES AND RELATED COMPOUNDS
Raven Press, New York, 1970.

Over 900 pages of useful clinical data. "In rats, amphetamine can elicit an abnormal stereotyped behavior consisting of continuous sniffing, licking or biting... in humans, meaningless, perserverative mechanical work on cars, radios, etc. was also observed."

<-- front cover

Brebion, H.:
THE LEGEND OF THE CARVED ROCKS OF ROTHENEUF
Combier, Mâcon, 1955.

A confusing guidebook to an irrational monument: 300 sculptures depicting a long-dead clan of pirates, carved into the rocky Breton shoreline by a hermit. Text in imperfect English; with 16 heliogravure photos.

<-- pp. 16-17

Kaspar, Karl:
VACATION HOUSES: AN INTERNATIONAL SURVEY
Frederick A. Praeger, New York, 1967.

Where austere modernists go to unwind: a low wooden lake cottage in Finland; a geometric split-level on an Italian hillside; even a cryptic prefab "plastic egg" from Japan. With hundreds of photos; text in German and English.

<-- front cover

Moore, Harry H.:
KEEPING IN CONDITION: A HANDBOOK ON TRAINING FOR OLDER BOYS
Macmillan Co., New York, 1919.

"A boy cannot continue to look upon immorally suggestive pictures, hear so-called 'smutty stories,' or indulge in sexual thoughts without a harmful physical reaction."

<-- frontis and title page

[Herford, Beatrice]:
BEATRICE HERFORD'S MONOLOGUES
Samuel French, New York, 1947.

Eighteen theatrical routines on mundane subjects (Choosing the Wall Papers; Man with a Cold; At the Optician's; etc.). An uncomfortable marriage of light chatter and existential hell.

<-- front cover

[Lovesick Lake Native Women's Association]:
THE RURAL AND NATIVE HERITAGE COOKBOOK
Burleigh Falls, ON, 1985.

Pan Fried Bear Steak; Raccoon Delight; Beaver Tails in Sauce; Muskrat Hash; Buffaloaf; etc.

<-- front cover

n/a:
SARAH BELL AND FANNY BLAKE
Religious Tract Society, London, [ca. 1839].

A gloomy abecedary in verse, each letter representing a lesson for Christian living, or cautioning against a dire sin. Diminutive vest-pocket format; illustrated with engravings.

<-- pp. 14-15 (D for Death; E for Eternity)

Aro, Pirkko:
ARABIA DESIGN.
Kustannusosakeyhtiö Otava, Helsinki, 1958.

Soulful artists who manufacture sensible housewares: here are brief professional bios of 26 designers at the Arabia factory in Finland, accompanied by highlights of individual craft specialties and disarmingly earnest photo portraits. Text in English.

<-- front cover

Carson, Byrta:
HOW YOU LOOK AND DRESS
McGraw-Hill Book Co., New York, 1959.

"Mastery of wardrobe planning and clothing construction gives a young girl a feeling of security and poise which not only assists her economically but socially and psychologically as well."

<-- front cover

White, Edward T.:
A GRAPHIC VOCABULARY FOR ARCHITECTURAL PRESENTATION
Architectural Media, Tucson, 1972.

Over 800 line drawings (people, furniture, shrubbery, wall textures, etc.) to jazz up your architectural sketches... or to populate the glass penthouse of your imagination.

<-- p. 32, Human Figures

n/a:
CHINESE FOLK PAPER CUTS
No place, no date. [Taiwan? ca. 1970s?]

Not a book, but a folder containing nine ethereal images: theatrical figures and masks, cut from impossibly delicate sheets of tissue paper.

<-- cover of binder, with two cuts

Metcalf, Keyes D.:
PLANNING ACADEMIC AND RESEARCH LIBRARY BUILDINGS
McGraw-Hill Book Co., New York, 1965.

Viewed from the digital age, no other subject looks so hopelessly obsolete. (Special ironic bonus: this copy was discarded by the library of an Ivy League university.)

<-- front cover

Merkulov, A.:
AUTOMATION SERVES MAN
Foreign Languages Publishing House, Moscow, [ca. 1960].

"One cannot help being enthusiastic about the wholly automated shop for the mass production of antifriction bearings at the First State Bearings Plant in Moscow."

<-- front cover

Paulsen, Chas.:
BASEBALL CURVES.
Warp Publishing Co., Minden, NE, 1936.

The science and technique of tricky pitching, "written for the experimenter, student and theorist as well as for the Amateur and Professional baseball player." With many photos and graphs.

<-- front cover

Ashley, Roberta:
SINGERS AND SWINGERS IN THE KITCHEN
Parallax Publishing, New York, 1967.

Unchallenging recipes gathered from pop stars: the Mamas and the Papas' "Chili Esperanza"; Simon and Garfunkel's potato pancakes; Paul Anka's "Party Spaghetti"; etc.

<-- front cover

Farnham, Albert B.:
HOME TAXIDERMY FOR PLEASURE AND PROFIT
A.R. Harding, Columbus, OH, 1916.

"Monkeys, bear cubs and alligators mounted erect with card trays are quite striking; equally so are foxes or raccoons peering over the edge of umbrella jars or waste baskets."

<-- front cover

n/a:
THE ENGLISH DUDEN: A PICTORIAL DICTIONARY
Librairie Marcel Didier, Paris, 1960.

Learn English by pointing! Here 25,000 nouns, obsessively grouped by genus, are visually represented as line-art details in hundreds of "real world" scenarios.

<-- pp. 454-455 (The Town, II)

Stokhuyzen, Frederick:
THE DUTCH WINDMILL
Universe Books, New York, [ca. 1965].

The history, functional typology, mechanical design, and folk symbolism of Dutch windmills; with a 6-page technical glossary for more serious students of the subject.

<-- front cover

von Hagen, Conny:
ALCOA'S BOOK OF DECORATIONS
Golden Press, New York, 1959.

A creative way to increase your aluminum foil consumption: fold, crumple, and sculpt it into animal puppets, Halloween masks, Christmas angels, bridal centerpieces...

<-- front cover

n/a:
DESIGN FOR MODERN LIVING: STORES, SHOPPING CENTERS, SHOWROOMS.
F.W. Dodge Corp., New York, 1954.

The architectural locus of American consumerism (shoes in Hackensack, men's wear in Houston, watches in Beverly Hills, etc.) at the zenith of its confidence and sex-appeal. With hundreds of photos and floor plans.

<-- front cover

Westermeier, Clifford P.:
MAN, BEAST, DUST: THE STORY OF RODEO
World Press, [Denver?], 1948.

With sections on early stampedes and round-ups; famous bucking horses; the bull riding event; rodeo superstitions; cowboy hats, boots, and spurs; rodeo announcers; "thrill circuses"; and much more.

<-- front cover

Gíslason, Gylfi:
THE PROBLEM OF BEING AN ICELANDER: PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE
Almenna Bókafélagio, Reykjavík, 1973.

A dilemma facing approximately one in every 23,000 living humans. (Text in English.)

<-- front cover

n/a:
SPORTSMANLIKE DRIVING
American Automobile Association, Washington, 1958.

"Man is reduced to a weak and foolish-looking creature when the power he is supposed to be directing runs away with him."

<-- front cover

Booth, Joy:
COOKING FOR CAMPERS
Paul Hamlyn, Feltham, UK, 1968.

Suitable for only the very most advanced campwives: recipes for stuffed egg salad, ragoût of pigs' kidneys, sweet pepper and bacon risotto, honey soufflé omelette, etc.

<-- front cover

Vagale, L.R. and O.C. Adekoya:
INDUSTRIAL ENVIRONMENT OF A NIGERIAN CITY: CASE STUDY OF IBADAN
The Polytechnic, Ibadan, Nigeria, 1974.

"Smoke, dust, noise, heat, glare, vibration, toxic effluents and chimney outfalls tend to pose a threat to the health and well-being of the community." With many graphs and photos.

<-- front cover

Caballero Bonald, José M.:
ANDALUSIAN DANCES.
Editorial Noguer, Barcelona, 1957.

Spanish melodrama on the dance floor: a bewitching combination of corny and erotic. With 60 pages of gravure photos, and a thorough descriptive text in English.

<-- Plates 6 & 7, "Two mobile poses"

Stoddard, Edward:
HOW TO REMEMBER NAMES AND FACES
Nelson Doubleday, Garden City, NY, 1958.

Not just a booklet, but a "progress kit," with 15 mugshot practice cards of unremarkable fictional characters (grocer, accountant, secretary, etc.) whose identities you can memorize in your spare time.

<-- front cover, with practice cards

Ayoob, Massad F.:
FUNDAMENTALS OF MODERN POLICE IMPACT WEAPONS
Police Bookshelf, Concord, NH, 1984.

Techniques of applied brutality with batons, saps, flashlights, etc.; with numerous photo-demonstrations by instructors costumed like the Village People.

<-- front cover

"The TV Vet":
TV VET BOOK FOR PIG FARMERS
Farming Press Ltd., Ipswich, 1979.

All the glamour of veterinary television in convenient book form: descriptions of over 50 swine ailments (joint-ill; vomiting and wasting disease; pig-pox; prolapsed anus; etc.), illustrated with appalling photos.

<-- front cover

Sparer, Fred:
HOW TO BUILD MOBILE HOME PARKS
Trail-R-Club of America, Beverly Hills, 1971.

The philosophy and implementation of domestic impermanence in the automotive age. 700+ pages long, and packed with hundreds of photos, blueprints, government regulations, etc.

<-- front cover

n/a:
HEMPHILL BANNER PARTS CATALOG FOR SOLID PATTERN MACHINE MODEL SCP-TS
Hemphill Company, Pawtucket, R.I., 1953.

Curious about the configuration and technical nomenclature of commercial sock-weaving machinery? With the help of these highly detailed schematics, you can identify every tooth sprocket, ratchet brake, tension spring, lever wire...

<-- Index to Plates, Rear View

n/a:
SNOW-FLAKES: A CHAPTER FROM THE BOOK OF NATURE.
American Tract Society, Boston, 1863.

Viewed through a magnifying glass, the snowflake reveals a multifaceted religious metaphor: purity, grace, weakness, etc. With a dozen perfect monochrome plates of snow crystals.

<-- decorative half-title

Wilke, Hermann:
DEIN "JA" ZUM LEIBE! [Your "Yes" to the Body!]
Verlag Deutsche Leibeszucht, Berlin, 1939.

Family nudism in the wholesome sunshine of the fatherland. German text; with 90 photos of naked bodies exercising on sand dunes, meadows, and ski slopes.

<-- pp. 86-87

Clarke, Jeanne:
PAPUA NEW GUINEA COOKERY
Macmillan Co. of Australia, South Melbourne, 1977.

Despite a promising photo-sequence on how to skin a crocodile, the emphasis is vegetarian (sago, manioc, banana).

<-- front cover

Minnich, Jerry:
THE EARTHWORM BOOK
Rodale Press, Emmaus, PA, 1977.

High-brow example of the "raise your own worms" genre. Includes a historical overview of human/worm relations; many technical graphs; and a 66-page bibliography.

<-- front cover

Collins, Frank D.:
POPULAR SPORTS, THEIR ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT
Rand McNally & Co., Chicago, 1935.

The history of sports, served as digestible trivia tidbits with Ripleyesque illustrations; the definition stretched to include car racing, cock fighting, and dice throwing.

<-- front cover

Bowen, Godfrey:
WOOL AWAY: THE ART AND TECHNIQUE OF SHEARING
Van Nostrand Reinhold Co., New York, 1974.

The romance of shearing; how to control the sheep; cutters and combs; sticky, sandy, or wet sheep; shearing competitions; etc. Originally published in New Zealand.

<-- front cover

James, Barry:
CALL ME MISTER.
Milady Publishing, Bronx, NY, 1974.

Everything your dad was supposed to teach you: how to fold a handkerchief, shop for a plaid blazer, offer a lady a cigarette... even how get a job in public relations. Illustrated.

<-- front cover

McClow, L.L.; D.N. Anderson (illus.):
TUMBLING ILLUSTRATED
A.S. Barnes & Co., New York, 1931.

Gymnastics rendered in absurdist shorthand, with over 650 floor routines portrayed as sequences of squiggly stick-figures.

<-- pp. 104-105 (One Performer and Thrower)

Uhlin, Donald M. and Edith de Chiara:
ART FOR EXCEPTIONAL CHILDREN
Wm. C. Brown Publishers, Dubuque, IA, 1984.

Emotional disturbance and art expression; art and the violence-prone personality; structuring and maintaining reality; etc. With over 300 unsettling illustrations.

<-- front cover

Wilson, D. Miller:
AN INSTRUCTION BOOK ON THE PIANO-PLAYER AND THE PLAYER-PIANO
[self-published, London, ca. 1910].

"Like a great steam hammer, which can crack a walnut or strike with tons of force, the player-piano has every gradation of touch from the softest pianissimo to the loudest fortissimo."

<-- Fig. IV & p. 25 (Driving Gear and Re-Wind Mechanism)

n/a:
CLASSIFIED LIST AND INTERNATIONAL REGISTER OF DAFFODIL NAMES
Royal Horticultural Society, London, 1969.

The names of over 11,000 daffodil cultivars, many of which are also suitable as CB radio handles (i.e., Tuba; Moon Boy; Gremlin; Salmon Queen; etc.).

<-- front cover

n/a:
A WAY TO DO IT BETTER
Eastman Kodak Co., [Rochester, NY, 1971].

A large-format publicity piece promoting the commercial possibilities of industrial photography; with hundreds of color photos of scientific manufacturing at its most glamorous.

<-- pp. 96-97, "Aero Commander" [detail]

Johnson, Richard D., et al. (eds.):
SPACE SETTLEMENTS, A DESIGN STUDY.
National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Washington, 1977.

Like the rest of us, NASA scientists know the uneasy claustrophobia of life on a finite, polluted planet. But they're going to do whatever it takes to find a way out of here...

<-- front cover

[multiple authors]:
[AUTOGRAPH ALBUM / COMMONPLACE BOOK].
Handwritten journal; England [Worcester?], 1833-35.

A collaborative blog for the quill-pen set: many artfully transcribed poems, epigrams, and musings, signed and dated by multiple contributors, and illustrated with occasional tipped-in engravings from other sources.

<-- p. 59 ["Few know the treasures in their own bosoms..."]

Hough, Walter:
FIRE-MAKING APPARATUS IN THE UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM
U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, 1928.

The author, a dedicated hands-on ethnologist, mastered every known pre-industrial technique of fire-making in order to write this monograph. Illustrated with drawings and photos.

<-- plates 10 & 11 (Malasian strike-a-lights and fire pistons)

Hurst, Sydney C.:
THE SILENT CITIES
E.P. Dutton and Co., New York, [1929].

Surfeit of slaughter organized in tidy rows: a comprehensive guide to British WWI memorials in France and Flanders, illustrated with photos and maps of 959 graveyards.

<-- pp. 272-273 (Somme)

n/a; Witold Janowski (design):
THE POLISH DOCUMENTARY FILM, 1961-2
Film Polski, Warszawa, [1962].

Bewitched by this catalogue's vivid graphic presentation, a vulnerable reader might lose an hour poring over descriptions of state-sanctioned travelogues and grim industrial shorts. (Text in English.)

<-- front cover

Van Yelyr, R.G.:
THE WHIP AND THE ROD
Gerald R. Swan, London, 1948.

Flagellation and religion; flogging as punishment for crime; the birch in education; medical aspects of flagellation; the future of corporal punishment; etc.

<-- frontis and title page