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BOOKSAGA: Adventures in the Book Trade

Weird Books Guaranteed to Make You Happy

Okay I'll admit it. Some of the books I link to on this site aren't all that weird; sometimes they're just a little quirky and sometimes they're just books I found interesting enough to want to draw your attention to. So yes it's all kind of a mixed bag here at Publishing Oddities.

However there is available a wonderful magazine about collecting truly weird books with reviews and articles. It's called Book Happy, and there are seven issues in all.

Here's a partial list of contents: Confessions of a Cheap Book Fiend; Collecting Contactees; Satanic Panic books; Nonfiction paperback sleaze; Youth Studies Alcohol; The Ultimate Weird Book Caper; Jack Chick; Orfeo Angelucci; Bad Drug Books; White Slavery books; The Worst Science Fiction Novel Ever Written: Galaxy 666; Harry Stephen Keeler; Theodore L. Shaw; Crucified Gods Galore; Handbook on Hanging; How to Electroplate Baby Shoes; Rebellious Wives & Slacker Husbands; Novel of Chiropractic; Bad Poetry; Health Books for Hillbillies; Weirdest Book Ever Published; Obscure Genres; Hypnotism books; David Icke & co.; Kenneth Goff, L. Ron Hubbard, Brainwashing & Psychopolitics; Book Hell; Wickedest City in the World; much more. Contributors include: Donna Kossy, Ken DeVries, Dan Howland, Lyell Henry, Rob Tucker, Greg Bishop, John Marr, Chris Mikul, Seth Deitch, Dan Kelly, Ray X, & others.

Find out more at http://www.book-happy.com by clicking the "Book Happy" link.

True Norwegian Black Metal

Description: "When we’re on the road, all we watch is VBS, and our favorite series is Norwegian Black Metal." (Dave Grohl of Foo Fighters) Documentary photographer Peter Beste has spent the last five years working in the milieu of the Norwegian black metal scene. This scene, with its notorious events of murder, church arson, and self-mythology, is absolutely sealed to outsiders. The international black metal fan base is one of the most devoted, fanatical, and proprietary in the world. Beste’s access and insight into this world is unprecedented and has yielded an amazing photographic journey, along with a very popular documentary series on VBS.tv, also available on YouTube. Beste, together with Johan Kugelberg, noted writer, editor, and collector of documentary photography, has brought the images into a hermeneutic narrative that makes for a compelling experience along the lines of Anders Petersen’s Café Lehmitz, Ed Van Der Elsken’s Love on the Left Bank, or William Klein’s Life Is Good and Good for You in New York. (more...)

Happy Kitty Bunny Pony: A Saccharine Mouthful of Super Cute

Description: From turn-of-the-century novelties and Depression-era distraction, through wartime comfort, to Hello Kitty and Jeff Koons, cuteness has thrived in the fertile soil of American modern-age media and pop culture. What is it about fluffy bunnies with bows, baby ducks splashing in puddles, kittens snuggled in baskets, and little lambs on their way to school? Happy Kitty Bunny Pony celebrates America's "cult of the cute" in all its campy, kitschy, ironic glory. (more...)

Greetings From the Gayborhood: A Nostalgic Look at Gay Neighborhoods

Description: From the Castro to Chelsea, Greetings From the Gayborhood celebrates twelve traditionally gay neighborhoods in America, past and present. Featuring archival images along with nostalgic and sometimes kitschy ephemera (bar ads, event programs, matchbooks, flyers, and more) this scrapbook-style collection is the perfect souvenir for where the boys are and were. Donald F. Reuter has chronicled the evolution of gay neighborhoods in twelve cities--Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Fort Lauderdale, Los Angeles, New Orleans, New York City, Philadelphia, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington DC--and studied how gentrification has affected them and their role in the greater community. Greetings From the Gayborhood is a spirited and sexy time capsule that celebrates the history, creativity, and longevity of gay America. (more...)

And Speaking of Odd Book Finds...

I put this up on my other book blog about my recent unusual book find, though it certainly relates here.

http://booksaga.blogspot.com/2008/06/unusual-book-find.html

Getting Out: Your Guide to Leaving America

"Taking a decidedly pessimistic view of the current American moment, Ehrman's well-designed, all-encompassing guidebook provides detailed instructions for fleeing 'before America comes crashing down upon you.' Ehrman includes a large number of first-person stories from folks who did just that, starting new lives in China, Australia, Slovakia and Israel, among other destinations" (Publishers Weekly). (more...)

Lourdes Grobet: Lucha Libre

Description: Take one part Mexi-Monster cinema, one part Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, throw in a little Zoro, the WWF, and the knit-costume-wearing performance art collective Forcefield, and you come up with the raw, vivid, and psychologically unhinged world of Lucha Libre, the sports-entertainment phenomenon that first swept Mexico and now the world. (more...)

No Regrets: The Best, Worst, & Most #$%*ing Ridiculous Tattoos Ever

Description: Dr. Phil, Gay Unicorns, and Jesus Christ... They're all tattooed on someone's ass. Or face, or whatever. Remember that time you were wasted and thought it would be a good idea to get a tattoo on your leg of Maury Povich shaking hands with Sasquatch, but your friends talked you out of it at the last second? Well, some people don't have any friends... (more...)

Dances with Werewolves (Memoirs of a Spanking Model)

Since her teens, Niki Flynn has been able to achieve sexual satisfaction only by imagining elaborate punishment scenarios in which she is restrained, caned and spanked. After meeting an English spanking enthusiast online and relocating to the U.K, she became involved with the notorious Lupus Films in eastern Europe. Soon she evolved into an underground adult film star who submitted to harrowing scenes of torment and severe corporal punishment for the entertainment of a large audience of educated voyeurs. This is her story. (more...)

A Practical Guide to Racism

A Practical Guide to Racism tackles America’s tragic flaw from a new, illuminating perspective. As a world-renowned expert on ethnography, as well as phrenology and the rhythm method, C.H. Dalton is uniquely qualified to offer his perspective on this difficult topic.

The book is divided into nine chapters, one for each of the nine races: Whites, Blacks, Jews, Asians, Indians (and Injuns), Arabs, Gypsies, Hispanics, and Merpeople. In each chapter, Dalton provides a comprehensive and unapologetic handbook to the race in question, as well as a history of their oppression, and a guide to the stereotypes about them and their basis in fact.

In several helpful appendixes, Dalton examines, in turn, sexual races like Gays and Women, ancient races like Phoenicians and Doozers, and interracial dating. He also provides a handy guide to "The Good Ones" from each race, and their crania.

Finally, Dalton has compiled the first complete glossary of racial epithets, including a selection of his own suggestions for additional slurs. Like "Frazetta," a slur for a rugged, muscled white person holding a battleaxe. (E.g., "Hey, look at that Frazetta standing triumphantly over the corpse of that Orc!") (more...)

Other People's Love Letters: 150 Letters You Were Never Meant to See

"If I have learned only one thing from a) personal experience and b) Vivian Cash's fascinating memoir, I Walked the Line, it is this: No human can compose a love letter without seeming slightly insane. Love letters are like suicide notes--if someone is in the emotional position to consider writing one, they're generally in the worst psychological position to make any cogent sense. That disconnect is what makes Other People's Love Letters: 150 Letters You Were Never Meant to See a painfully entertaining twelve-minute read. The book delivers exactly what it purports: random personal letters from people who are either wildly ecstatic or profoundly depressed over the condition of their romantic existence. (One of my favorite entries is from a person who just printed the word liar 183 consecutive times.) Judging from the contents of these notes, we appear to live in a society that is sex crazed and optimistic yet consumed with deep regret. This is probably true" (Chuck Klosterman). (more...)

Off Topic

My new blog: BOOKSAGA: Adventures in the Book Trade

How Animals Have Sex: A Guide to the Reproductive Habits of Creatures Great and Small

Whether in the wild or in captivity, our furry, scaly, and feathered friends exhibit an incredible determination to mate. Find out which animals engage in dance competitions, cannibalism, and intercourse that lasts for six months. Discover why lady weevils have a really hard time of it. And why the female Mormon cricket isn't offended when her partner insists on weighing her first. Marvel at the transgender clownfish, and gaze with envy at the humble barnacle and its remarkable sexual-organ-to-body-length ratio. In the world of animal sex there are apparently few traits or behaviors nature has deemed too bizarre to evolve.

Barcode Jesus

Everyone knows that in this day and age religion is just a product. Scott Blake demonstrates the point with this ingenious flipbook. Watch as a mosaic portrait of the Son of God dissolves into a single (and scannable) barcode. (Available from BlueQ.com)

Trance formation of America

O'Brien's story is one of a survivor of a CIA-sponsored program called MK Ultra, which aimed to explore the limits of human "suggestibility." The program began following World War II, when numerous top Nazi scientists resettled in the United States, at the invitation of the CIA, to continue their research into mind control. The project was based upon the research finding that if a person is severely traumatized, he or she will "split" off a "multiple personality" as a defense mechanism. It was those "multiples" that CIA scientists sought (successfully) to "program." Today thousand of people exist as mind-controlled slaves whose "programs" for various activities, such as performance in pornography films, prostitution, message carrying, and drug "muling," can be "accessed" by their "controllers" by cryptic keywords.

A reader curious about O'Brien's book should be forewarned of the exceptionally bizarre nature of its revelations. In fact, at least in my view, the revelations are so bizarre, it would probably be a bad move to read this book without first reading something that "builds" up to it. A good primer on the subject would be John Decamp's _The Franklin Cover-Up_.

Those who do read the book and are of sufficient independent thought to see through the haze of disinformation put forward every day by the state-influenced newspapers and magazines and see the truth in O'Brien's book are placed in a difficult position. They're in possession of extremely rare knowledge, and, futhermore, extremely bleak knowledge. For the picture painted by O'Brien, unfortunately, is nearly without hope. (from Amazon review)

Anal Intruders from Uranus

Description: Women are anally violated by space aliens, super villains, monsters, and more. These girls may not like it at first, but once they try green, they become juiced-up sex-machines. (Available from LastGasp.com.)

H. R. Giger's Necronomicon

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Whales on Stilts

"Lily Gefelty's father works for a mad scientist. When she overhears him say that he wants to take over the world, her oblivious father assures her, 'Honey, sometimes adults use irony. They don't really mean what they say.' Nonetheless, the 12-year-old calls on her two best friends to investigate. The trio soon learns that Larry does indeed plan to conquer the world using mind-controlled whales on stilts with laser-beam eyes. No adult will believe them, so it's up to the kids to save the Earth" (School Library Journal). (more...)

The RE/Search Guide to Bodily Fluids

Description: Mucus, saliva, sweat, vomit, urine, farts, feces, earwax and more are humorously (and seriously) described in this anthropological/historical investigation. (more...)

Zen of Farting

Description: In 1993, a Taiwanese fisherman opened a chest that had been in his family for centuries. Inside, he found a manuscript which may be as significant as the Dead Sea scrolls—a manuscript which will revolutionize our thinking about the origins of Zen. Written on a rice paper scroll, the manuscript records the teachings of the founder of Zen, the Master Reepah Gud Wan. It makes it quite clear that Reepah, a legitimate teacher of Buddhism, was frustrated by the inability of his students to grasp the abstract concepts of the Buddha. In desperation, he decided to play a joke on them. He invented the Zen of Farting, confident that even the densest pupil would realize that he was making a joke and laugh at his excessive seriousness-—not to mention his farts.

The joke went over like a stale air biscuit. Soon, the Master had thousands of students eager to learn this brave new spiritual teaching, the Zen of Farting. Thus was Zen born. (more...)

The Museum of Bad Art: Masterworks

Located in the basement of a theater, the Museum of Bad Art (MOBA) is a unique institution dedicated to the celebration of artistic effort, however misguided. The Museum of Bad Art: Masterworks presents a pulsating collection of more than seventy never-before-published pieces of artwork from MOBA's permanent collection. Comprised largely of canvases found discarded on curbside trash piles or obtained for a pittance at thrift stores, this innovative compilation occupies a niche previously ignored in the international community of art collection, preservation, and interpretation. If the subjectivity of art appreciation were ever in doubt, this astonishing assortment of artistic commentaries will fan the flames of controversy. It is clear that many of these artists suffered for their art; now it's your turn. (more...)

Aesthetic Surgery

From liposuction to lip implants, this book explores all the ins and outs of body sculpting, focusing on the artistry of aesthetic surgery and the extremes to which people go to "improve" their looks. Topics include: History of aesthetic surgery (with unpublished medical photos!); Ethnicity and aesthetic surgery; Surgery in movies; Spotlight on Ivo Pitanguy, the "Michelangelo of the scalpel"; Interviews with the world's most famous aesthetic surgeons; Before and after photos of transformed body parts, from the top of the head to the tips of the toes; Caricatures and jokes about aesthetic surgery; Bibliography including links to plastic surgery websites. (more...)

Deathtripping: Underground Trash Cinema

This exhaustive study focuses on the New York filmmakers that coalesced around the radical manifesto espoused by downtown filmmaker Nick Zedd: "none shall emerge unscathed." Placing their work within the wider alternative film and downtown post-punk scenes, Deathtripping offers detailed analyses of the movement’s films alongside interviews with the filmmakers and their collaborators, including Richard Kern, Nick Zedd, Tommy Turner, Beth B, Joe Coleman, and Lydia Lunch. (more...)

Facebuilder for Men

Description: Just as strength training exercises build and define body muscles, Facebuilder defines, builds, and tones facial muscles. Carole Maggio's program offers quick and remarkable results-visible in less than a week. (more...)

The Art of Pole Dancing: A Spin-by-Spin Guide

Description: This sizzling guide features 50 of the best basic moves, from hip swivels, knee drops, and thigh wraps to booty shakes and splits. Attractive photographs open every chapter, and each choreographic morsel is illustrated with line drawings (more than 200 in all) as well as easy-to-follow instructions that will soon entice anyone to move boldly to the music! (more...)

The Black Man's Guide on How to Cheat on Your Woman

Description: Women on the side hold the same complicated value as a complicated video game. It s fun to play and it may involve some time but when it is all said and done, you can always turn the damn thing off and get back to real life. This book will teach you how to maintain your home life and how to play the streets. Women know we cheat! This is not some new profound thing. It's how you do it! There are rules to this game. After reading this book you will be a better cheater, well informed or a committed man! (more...)

In Praise of The Backside

Description: "An ethnological and sociological reflection is lead by Professor Döpp in this fascinating matter that brings to the most incongruous revelations. Beyond our cultural and religious upbringings, women and men pursue their fantasies, which the author tries to unravel with the rigour of a scientist for the pleasure of our eyes." (more...)

Elephants on Acid: And Other Bizarre Experiments

Author Boese (Hippo Eats Dwarf, The Museum of Hoaxes) returns with another look at scientific oddities, this time focusing on unlikely but actual experiments. Included are notorious examples such as the Stanford Prison Experiment and Stanley Milgram's infamous shock treatment obedience experiment, but it's the lesser-known studies that will generate the most interest. Disembodied heads, animal resurrection ("Zombie Kitten," "Franken-Monkey") and the direct stimulation of a subject's emotions (via electric brain prod) are some of the more grim activities Boese describes (though, thankfully, he steers clear of examples from Nazi Germany). (more...)