Chekiang Fine Arts Institute Drawing Group, et al.:
TUNNEL WARFARE
Foreign Languages Press, Peking, 1972.

Rendered glorious: In this ideological graphic novel, stoic Chinese peasants use Maoist guerrilla tactics to defeat their Japanese fascist oppressors.

<-- front cover

Asomugha, C.N.C.:
NIGERIAN SLANGS
Abic Publishers, Onitsha, Nigeria, 1981.

Champalm; magun; lookry; footreon; hole power; and hundreds of other "conventionally unacceptable words and phrases."

<-- front cover

Lassiter, Luther:
BILLIARDS FOR EVERYONE
Grosset & Dunlap, New York, 1971.

Densely illustrated with time-stretching "continuous-sequence action photos" of ball trajectories -- like acid visuals in the rec room.

<-- front cover

[Greenfield, Jeff, et al.]:
JEFF GREENFIELD'S BOOK OF BOOKS
National Lampoon, New York, 1979.

Some would call it conceptual art: a digest of fake books, cruelly spoofing the covers and contents of 15 unfortunate genres.

<-- front cover

Wheeler, Russell C.:
AN ATLAS OF TOOTH FORM
4th Edition. W.B. Saunders Co., Philadelphia, 1969.

Perhaps one day denture carving will find acceptance in the pantheon of hobbies, alongside fly-tying and building model ships in bottles.

<-- pp. 106-107

Clark, Mary E., and Margery Closey Quigley:
ETIQUETTE EVERY CHILD SHOULD KNOW
The Parents' Institute, Inc., New York, 1939.

Here's why: "The doors of good society gradually close and the dinner and dance invitations are not sent to persons who do third-rate things."

<-- front cover

Svandrlik, Miloslav, and "Neprakta" (illus.):
PRAGUE GHOSTS
Pragopress, Praha, 1968.

The 45 individual ghosts known to haunt Prague neighborhoods are treated here not as malevolent ghouls, but as harmless urban eccentrics. Text in English.

<-- front cover

Cross, R.W. Jeremy L.:
THE TRUE MASONIC CHART, OR HIEROGLYPHIC MONITOR [etc.]
S.A. Rollo & Co., New York, 1859.

A practitioner's guide to Freemasonry, with 52 baffling engravings of emblems and graphic devices, intended to elucidate the brotherhood's occult iconography.

<-- frontis engraving & title page

Sorrows, Gene:
ALL ABOUT CARNIVALS
American Federation of Police, Miami, 1985.

Longtime carny turns snitch, reveals the secrets behind the sleazy swindles of the midway; very entertaining glossary also.

<-- front cover

n/a:
ILLUSTRATED PRICE CATALOGUE OF OLD BOOKS WANTED
American Book Mart, Chicago, 1937.

Apparently booksellers have always been generous: these folks would gladly offer you $3.50 for the original 1922 Paris edition of Joyce's "Ulysses."

<-- front cover

Phillips, H.I. ("Hi"):
THE FOOLISH QUESTION BOOK
Edward J. Clode Inc., New York, 1927.

"Q: Where is rubber found? A: In chicken pies... Q: Where are bisons found? A: On the backs of nickels... Q: Where is Madagascar? A: Heavens! Have they misplaced that again?"

<-- front cover

Dubas, Frederic, and Jacques Vallotton (eds.):
COLOUR ATLAS OF MOUNTAIN MEDICINE
Mosby Year Book, St. Louis, 1991.

Acute frostbite, high-altitude neurological disturbances, compound skiing fractures, mountaineering head trauma, etc.; with alarmingly grisly photos throughout.

<-- front cover

Schoenleber, F.S., and R.R. Dykstra:
CASTRATION OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS
Orange Judd Co., New York, 1919.

There's more than one way to emasculate a cat: this instructive manual describes scraping, crushing, twisting, ligating, and tearing away.

<-- front cover

Sayer, Edgar Sheappard:
PIDGIN ENGLISH
Self-published mimeograph, Toronto, 1939.

A uniquely eccentric study of ethno-linguistics; also an inadvertent lesson on proper English, as written by a sneering racist during the late colonial period.

<-- front cover

[flip book]:
ACTION MINI-MOVIES
[no bibliographic data given; ca. 1940s].

Jaded 21st century pornaholics may scoff, but we believe this tiny, furtive photo-sequence of a woman in a bubble-bath still retains a saucy charm.

<-- front cover, with pencil for scale

Kivengere, Festo:
I LOVE IDI AMIN
Fleming H. Revell Co., Old Tappan, NJ, 1977.

With the patience of Job, this Ugandan bishop maintained his Christian optimism while his colleagues were being tortured and murdered.

<-- front cover

MacFarlane, C.:
THE LIVES AND EXPLOITS OF BANDITTI AND ROBBERS IN ALL PARTS OF THE WORLD
T. Tegg, London, 1839.

"It may be said that no species of narrative, except, perhaps, that of shipwrecks, produces a deeper impression on people of all ages and conditions."

<-- front cover

[mail-order catalog]:
NATIONAL MAGIC COMPANY CATALOG NUMBER 3
Chicago, 1940.

Hundreds of illustrated ads for stage tricks like the Immortal Cigarette; Aladdin's Tea Kettle; the Mystic Tube; Cabbage from a Hat; etc. With order blank laid in.

<-- front cover

[four volumes in leather travel wallet]:
MIDGET DICTIONARIES: ENGLISH (to/from) FRENCH; ITALIAN; GERMAN; SPANISH
Burgess & Bowes Ltd., London, [ca. 1960].

Surprisingly comprehensive, considering that the books are the size of matchboxes.

<-- interior of wallet

Alison, Crichton (ed.):
MEN IN WOMEN'S CLOTHES
Medical Publishing Co., New York, [ca. 1950].

Impostors in Petticoats; The Lure of Dainty Things; Men with Feminine Bodies; A Transvestite Confesses; and more.

<-- front cover