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I love books. I read a lot and my tastes are all over the place, so I pick up anything that looks fun and interesting, especially if it's cheap or free. Also, I used to work for a school district that was always withdrawing old books from their libraries, so I used to go through them before they went into the recycling bin. On top of that, my girlfriend is a professional editor and also loves to read, so she's always bringing books home too. We own thousands of books between the two of us, even though we purge our personal library fairly frequently. Here is the tip of the iceberg of the cream of the crop from my collection: How and When "Heaven's Gate" (The Door to the Physical Kingdon Level Above Human) May Be Entered  I bought this earlier in the year from one of (the only?) living members of the Heaven's Gate cult, who was left behind to manage their publicity. Only By Blood and Suffering: Regaining Lost Freedom by LaVoy Finicum   This gem of a novel was written by Tarpman himself, the sovereign citizen "martyr" of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge takeover who went out in a blaze of hilarious glory last year. He even signed it before he died! Metal Angel by Nancy Springer   This wonderful romance novel is about an angel who leaves heaven in order to come down to Earth to become a heavy metal singer. I highly recommend it to fans of glam metal and sleazy garbage. Cotton Tramps by Kevin North  Convoy by B.W.L. Norton  This is a novelization of the 1978 movie about the 1975 trucker novelty song by C.W. McCall. On the topic of strange 70's pop culture, here are some of the books I have about custom vans: Vans: The Personality Vehicles  Vans: A Book of Rolling Rooms by Baron Wolman  Some Basics About Vans by Ed Radlauer  Customizing Your Van by Allan Girdler  Street Art by Donald J. Davenport  Another pop culture touchstone that strikes my fancy is the Y2K scare, which spawned lots of terrible fiction and survival guides. Here are a few: Y2K: It's Already Too Late a novel by Jason Kelly  The Y2K Survival Guide by Bruce F. Webster  The Y2K Personal Survival Guide by Michael S. Hyatt  OK, that's a good start. I'm sure that other people here have all sorts of crazy crap that I've never seen or read before. Post your best books here, whether it's because they have great covers, odd or interesting subject matter, or are just plain awesome.
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Nov 29, 2017 21:04
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| # ? Apr 27, 2024 00:43 |
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This is very much my poo poo, great OP. When I get off work I will share something of what I have. Weird old books are so cool. I've had thousands over the years, but purged nearly everything in 2006. Why the emphasis on vans--- did you have one? Also OP, this is a cool idea and don't close thread, I may add to it in the coming weeks when I have more time. I am never going to get my work/errands done at home ever again, am I?
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Nov 29, 2017 21:23
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 I'm very jealous of my brother for actually owning a copy of this
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Nov 29, 2017 21:30
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Julius CSAR posted:
Oh man we all are.
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Nov 29, 2017 21:37
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I saw Crispin Glover’s two feature films as part of a roadshow at the Alamo Drafthouse in KC a couple of years ago, and while the films were great, what was even cooler were the presentations he did before each film. He projected these kitschy old books onto the screen (old Boy Scout field guides and stuff like that) which he’d heavily marked up and edited to turn into weird occultish stories which he narrated. There are probably some pictures online.
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Nov 29, 2017 21:42
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How about a video? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4eVdx7u7iY
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Nov 29, 2017 21:44
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These books are all from a fundamentalist Christian named John Benton, and are first-person YA stories about at-risk teenagers (usually girls) who turn to drugs and/ or prostitution before hitting rock bottom and finding Jesus. They are hilarious! I think I have all of them, but I might be missing a few.     These four are about Amy Fisher and Joey Buttafuoco. The top two are different autobiographies by Amy Fisher, the bottom left one is a sleazy true crime book about the shooting, and the last is an autobiography by Mary Jo Buttafuoco with an absolutely fantastic title:   The Peanuts take a sinister turn in this kids' activity book:    Self-published books can be some of the craziest. I found these two in the close-out section of a Half Price Books. They are by an wildly unhinged man named Robert Randolph, who spills the dirt on a festive Hollywood sex conspiracy. He is especially upset about John Travolta's unwillingness to admit his homosexulty. For reasons I can't even begin to speculate upon, the author got plastic surgery to look like John Travolta between the publication of the two. The books are sheer, unadulterated insanity.      I love sleazy paperbacks:       This one is sleazy and racist!   Harlequin publishes an entire series of NASCAR-themed romance novels. Here are a few:  Watergate criminal E. Howard Hunt wrote a sleazy crime novel called House Dick in 1961. The original is rare and prohibitively expensive, but the stellar Hard Case Crime imprint republished it a few years ago:  Speaking of Watergate criminals, Will by G. Gordon Liddy is one of the (somewhat unintentionally) funniest books I have ever read. Highly recommended!  The Texas-Israeli War:1999 by Jake Saunders and Howard Waldrop. The title is reason alone to track this one down, but it's a fun, dumb read on top of that. I see cheap used copies every once in awhile.   Boy Wonder: My Life in Tights by Burt Ward. This is one of the sleaziest autobiographies I've ever read. It's out of print and sort of hard to find, but well worth tracking down.  The Ice Opinion by Ice-T  Bigger is Better by Big Ang  The Miracle of Jimmy Carter by Howard Norton and Bob Slosser  Carcajou by Rutherford G. Montgomery To the best of my knowledge, this is the only novel ever published with a wolverine as a protagonist.   Here are two books about sloths:  
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Nov 29, 2017 23:24
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Scientology textbooks/ propaganda! I bought all of these from a Savers in Dublin, CA for a buck or two a piece. They are loony, even by Scientology standards. The first two are huge and heavy. They easily weigh five or six pounds each.          
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Nov 30, 2017 01:11
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Jay J. Armes, Investigator by Jay J. Armes Jay J. Armes was a private eye who blew off both of his hands playing with blasting caps as a kid. I had never heard of him until I found a beat up copy of his autobiography in a recycling bin about a decade ago. I was positively giddy when I found another copy in the clearance section of a Fremont, CA Half Price Books last year. Not only was it in much better condition than the copy I had, but Jay J. Armes signed it himself with his very own hook hands back in 1976!! This might be the crown jewel in my book collection.   There was actually a toy line based on Jay J. Armes back in the 70's. They are sort of rare and expensive now, but I still hope to eventually find one for a reasonable price some day.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jay_J._Armes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBew90y0U8o
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Nov 30, 2017 01:29
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 I posted a thread with some context.
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Nov 30, 2017 01:30
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Nov 30, 2017 01:50
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This post owns. Requesting a juicy quote from Marji and the Gangland Wars, please.
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Nov 30, 2017 01:54
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Well. It turns out that I really did purge just about everything. I'm afraid I don't have much in the way of rare books, there's one at my mom's I'll post about next week when I'm there. I will post my favorite book though, why not? This is what I would take to a desert island. It doesn't have a cover anymore, just the back, and I've marked it all up noting favorite passages, but its gotten me through many a lonely night. It goes without saying how highly I recommend it.
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Nov 30, 2017 01:57
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Heres some pages to give you an idea
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Nov 30, 2017 01:58
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Nov 30, 2017 01:59
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Nov 30, 2017 01:59
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Lovey Banh was one of my favourite threads.    I think a goon brought one of her books and it was just schizophrenic word salad.
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Nov 30, 2017 02:12
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Spinster posted:This is very much my poo poo, great OP. When I get off work I will share something of what I have. Weird old books are so cool. I've had thousands over the years, but purged nearly everything in 2006. Yeah, I've gotten rid of a lot of books over the years thinking I'd never read them again, and I really regret some of those choices. I've re-purchased more than a few. Never had a van, but I have an odd fascination with short-lived pop culture fads. The 70's CB radio/ trucker craze is another one, although I don't have many books on that subject.  Julius CSAR posted:
That looks neat. I have a copy of The Cocaine Consumer's Handbook in a box somewhere. I'll try to dig it out tomorrow. In the meantime, here's this:  Criminal Minded posted:I saw Crispin Glover’s two feature films as part of a roadshow at the Alamo Drafthouse in KC a couple of years ago, and while the films were great, what was even cooler were the presentations he did before each film. He projected these kitschy old books onto the screen (old Boy Scout field guides and stuff like that) which he’d heavily marked up and edited to turn into weird occultish stories which he narrated. There are probably some pictures online. I almost went to one of those in Portland back in 2007 or 2008, but I was too broke to buy tickets at the time. My ex-wife had a couple of Crispin Glover's weird art books and they were pretty cool. I was actually looking them up a few months ago for some reason, and saw they were still for sale on his website: http://www.crispinglover.com/books.html That guy also wrote an awesome true crime book about the kid who went missing while playing Dungeons & Dragons in some steam tunnels beneath his college. It is well worth reading.  It's be tough to beat this OJ Simpson classic, but I will keep my eyes peeled for the William Dear book!  cda posted:This post owns. Requesting a juicy quote from Marji and the Gangland Wars, please. I'll see what I can do. SEX BURRITO posted:Lovey Banh was one of my favourite threads. These look amazing. I have gotten some great recommendations from the forums, including this one from a funny old thread in the goldmine:  It's where I found my avatar: 
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Nov 30, 2017 04:05
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Gutter Phoenix posted:It's be tough to beat this OJ Simpson classic, but I will keep my eyes peeled for the William Dear book! "With Exclusive Commentary: HE DID IT" lol that's so excellent
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Nov 30, 2017 06:38
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Blind Rasputin fucked around with this message at 07:10 on Nov 30, 2017 |
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Nov 30, 2017 07:08
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I bought a copy of that book after seeing that passage quoted in another thread! I haven't had a chance to read it yet, but it's in my queue. 
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Nov 30, 2017 07:25
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A few more before I go to bed: The Senator's Whore by Cindy Kallmer   Gentleman Pimp by A.S. Jackson  Magnum, P.I. Maui Mystery #1 by William Rotsler  Family Ties: Alex Gets the Business by Joe Claro  Jared, the Subway Guy: Winning Through Losing by Jared Fogle  More tomorrow.
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Nov 30, 2017 07:39
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OP I do not have much to add I just want you to know that you are a goddamn treasure trove and I hope you post forever.
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Nov 30, 2017 07:47
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dang dude, scan that hevans gate so it doesn't get so easily lost to posterity I have a copy of prue that came out before copyright was a thing, i'll post some of it tomorrow
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Nov 30, 2017 07:51
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wanna meet that ravishing hussy
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Nov 30, 2017 09:13
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Nov 30, 2017 10:11
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No actually this is the strangest and best book I own
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Nov 30, 2017 10:13
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I assume everyone knows about this book by now: I knew about the Codex way back in the 90s, from seeing a single page from it reproduced in a magazine. I was instantly hooked. at the time (I was maybe 13 or 14) I already had an interest in secret codes, foreign alphabets and rudimentary cryptography, and a single page from the codex was no less than a shock. its alphabet, illustrations and diagrams weren't just indecipherable: they were beautiful. I think I still have notebooks from way back then with my attempts at a codex-look-alike secret code, that I would have used as the alphabet in the epic sprawling sci-fi setting I would surely (!) become famous for. I can't overstate how important a - I repeat - single page from this book was for me and my choice to get into computer security years passed, and that cryptic page was no longer on my mind - but I hadn't forgotten. one day, slashdot publishes a story on the Voynich Manuscript. intrigued I look it up on wikipedia, and then on google images, and I'm promptly disappointed at how lovely the art is. but the wikipedia article links to a mysterious "Codex Seraphinianus", with a pretty sparse description that nevertheless rings a bell. I search google images and there it is: that page I remembered from almost a decade back was not a one-off, there's a whole book of them, and not a small book either! unfortunately, the codex, back in 2004, had only been printed three times, in 1981, 1983 and 1993, in limited editions rare as hen's teeth (fun fact: the first edition was published on a lark by an italian nobleman's vanity press imprint, until he got bored with publishing and - I poo poo you not - started working on a maze. the maze has since been completed and is open to the public). I was still an unemployed student living on my parents' allowance and there seemed to be no hope of getting my hands on a copy [I hadn't considered libraries] 2006 rolls around and the impossible happens: a big publisher taps Luigi Serafini for an illustrated edition of jules renard's Les Histoires Naturelles, and to drum up attention they release an expanded and  inexpensive edition (€89, or about $150 in 2017 dollars). I immediately grab a copy of both: (not my photo. and yes it's a paper herbarium) ... and I attend the press event for the launch of the new book, where I manage to get my copy of the Codex signed and dedicated by the man himself - in his signature indecipherable fantasy writing last year, they finally reprinted serafini's minor work Pulcinellopedia as well:  ... that I got ASAP, as before the reprint, the only copy I could find was in Denver CO of all places, and an obscenely expensive first edition
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Nov 30, 2017 13:21
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Every one of these books looks like something from liartownusa e: I used to keep my mota in a hollowed out copy of if I did it berth ell pup fucked around with this message at 13:51 on Nov 30, 2017 |
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Nov 30, 2017 13:44
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greetings fellow codexican 
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Nov 30, 2017 15:13
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I don't have a lot of books I would consider weird or wonderful, but my dad did give me this book that he had as a kid, and its atomic punk as gently caress : "Future without fiction : our life in 25 years" (published in 1958)  Atomic Cars! ("fill 'er up enough for a hundred years!")  self driving cars by the year 1975!  modern cities where pedestrians never have to encounter traffic!  modern housewives (yeah it's the far off future of 1980, but women will still be housewives first, come on let's be reasonable)  me going to your bitch's house not pictured : space discovery! automation! vertical farming! people eating algae! atomic planes! space communists vs space capitalists wars! Creamed Cormp fucked around with this message at 15:26 on Nov 30, 2017 |
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Nov 30, 2017 15:23
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 Close thread.
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Nov 30, 2017 16:29
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hackbunny posted:I assume everyone knows about this book by now: I've never heard of that, but it looks super cool. Thanks for the detailed story behind it too, because that's what intrigues me the most. I'll have to look into finding a copy. Creamed Cormp posted:I don't have a lot of books I would consider weird or wonderful, but my dad did give me this book that he had as a kid, and its atomic punk as gently caress : This also looks cool. I love old books, magazines, cartoons, and educational film shorts that show visions of what the future might look like. I find it interesting that they generally overestimate advances in mechanical technology and the general decency of human nature, but tend to vastly underestimate how powerful and ubiquitous computers became. berth ell pup posted:Every one of these books looks like something from liartownusa The Liartown book just came out earlier this month. Everyone should buy a copy! 
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Nov 30, 2017 17:43
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Holy poo poo, I knew a guy years ago that was crazy, talked to himself and what-not but he would go on and on about how he fought in the Texas Israeli war...now I know where he got that idea.
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Nov 30, 2017 18:23
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Found my copy of this! Cocaine Consumer's Handbook  That reminds me of the defunct publisher Loompanics, and also Paladin Press, both of which are/were notorious for printing all sorts of crazy how-to books about borderline legal (sometimes totally illegal) stuff. I have a whole shelf of Loompanics book I bought a year or two ago from a book dealer that was going out of business, but that shelf is currently buried behind a bunch of boxes I was moving around yesterday, so those will have to wait. In the meantime, here are a couple of small books/ pamphlets from Paladin Press:   Novelizations of bad movies are always fun: Spacecamp by Joe Claro (Hey, that's the guy who wrote the Family Ties book I posted last night!)  C.H.O.M.P.S I saw this movie on cable about twenty years ago. It starred Conrad Bain from Diff'rent Strokes and was ever dumber than it looks on the cover of this book.  Ghost Dad Hey, I just noticed that the screenwriters of Ghost Dad are the same guys who wrote and directed the Tremors movies. I love those! I've never seen Ghost Dad but now I'm curious.  I had no idea that Upton Sinclair (yes, the author of The Jungle), wrote The Gnomobile until I find this in a recycling bin years ago:  The Beastmaster by Andre Norton These are not novelizations, and the movie Beastmaster is only loosely based on the text. I actually prefer the movie, but the book is decent too. I have two copies (one abridged) with different covers:   Here are some biographies about popular musical groups written during their peak: Kriss Kross Krazy by Anne M. Raso  New Kids on the Block by Grace Catalano  On the Road With Michael by Mark Bago  Love Letters to the Monkees and The Monkees Go Mod  This one is a little different. It was written by a roadie for GG Allin during his last tour: I Was a Murder Junkie by Evan Cohen  "CHiPs" is my favorite show of all time. It is ridiculous perfection. The DVD box set of all six seasons was finally released a couple months ago and it is every bit as amazing as one would imagine it would be! Here is an unauthorized biography of Erik Estrada from during the show's original run: The Erik Estrada Scrapbook by Susan Katz  A timeless classic: Paul Hogan: A Biography by Carolyn James  Another biography: Harlem Globetrotters by George Vecsey  One more: Some Basics About Skateboarding by Ed Radlauer (Hey, that's the author of one of the books aboout vans I posted yesterday. Talk about a renaissance man!) 
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Nov 30, 2017 18:32
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I want that cocaine book.
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Nov 30, 2017 18:34
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What an astounding collection you obviously have. I'm curious, after all of your years being around unusual books, what do you read for pleasure? (Besides GBS) And do you have a favorite author?
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Nov 30, 2017 18:43
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Makes me want to start hitting flea markets again. I have a dictionary of sex terms from eugenics press sitting on my shelf, I'll take some pictures later.
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Nov 30, 2017 18:53
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  From 1919    Just a rad cover
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Nov 30, 2017 19:43
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| # ? Apr 27, 2024 00:43 |
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Spinster posted:What an astounding collection you obviously have. I'm curious, after all of your years being around unusual books, what do you read for pleasure? (Besides GBS) I actually do like reading the sorts of silly books I've been posting here! As far as actual literature, I'd say that The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov is probably my favorite book. Gargantua and Pantagruel by Francois Rabelais is another personal favorite. I've read just about everything by Gore Vidal. I adore his command of the English language, and think he might have been the greatest American author of the 20th century. His use of sardonic, flowery insults was unparalleled, especially in his essays. Daniel P. Mannix is sort of obscure, but he's another favorite. He wrote books about whatever happened to interest him, whether it be Roman gladiators, training wild animals, the Hellfire Club, or his time as a circus sword swallower in the 1930s. I'll post some of those later. He's probably best known for writing The Fox and the Hound, which was later made into a Disney movie, although I've never read that one. You Can't Win by Jack Black is another one of my favorite books. I love autobiographies by outsiders and oddballs. I've read a lot of books by tramps, hobos, and petty criminals. I have an ever-growing collection of books by people who survived disasters, with a special emphasis on being lost at sea. I'll post some of those later. I read a lot of crime novels. I mentioned the publisher Hard Case Crime yesterday, and everything they've released has been great. They reprint a mix of long out-of-print pulp novels, lost/ unpublished books by famous crime writers, and new books by the best crime writers of today. I've read almost everything by the extradinarily prolific Lawrence Block and Donald E. Westlake (aka Richard Stark). I really like James Crumley and Charles Willeford too. I started re-reading Cockfighter by Charles Willeford the other day and it's even better than I remembered. Gonna finish it later today. His unpublished novel Grimhaven has the bleakest, most nihilist ending of any book I've ever read. Jason Starr is probably my favorite current crime writer. His novels have a really dark sense of humor, and usually have unlikable protagonists who end up getting screwed in the end. They are a lot of fun to read. I read a lot of ancient history and crazy religious texts too. And Chick tracts. I have a massive collection of those, which I've posted about at length in the Chick Tract thread. I'm sure I'm forgetting a bunch of stuff. Like I said in the OP, my interests are all over the place.
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Nov 30, 2017 19:45
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