This Old Book Blog: A day for funny (as in weird) book titles / covers....

Since my schedule took a turn today (in a good way), I got to sit and let my mind wander. As I hadn't had a good idea for a blog post, my mind made one up for me instead.

As a book dealer, I get to handle a large number of books over time. It was a heck of a lot more when I worked in an open shop, but I still go through boxes and boxes of books on a regular basis. Mostly the books are either stodgy run-of the mill types (those are the ones I tend to toss back) or cool, or awe-inspiring -- but occasionally I come across books that just hit my funny bone.

Like this one:

Hetch Hetchy and its Dam Railroad (Ted Wurm)

The author's pun hinges on the dam / damned usage -- though I'm not really sure if he meant it the way it scans. Some railroading buffs have senses of humor. Some don't. The dam in this case is not a curse at the problems that surrounded the making of this railroad line, but the fact that it had to go over the Hetch Hetchy Dam.

Then there are the books that just look goofy -- at least to me. Like this one:

The Super Cops Play it to a Bust (By Dave Greenberg)

I just happen to have picked up this book last week -- this book is so 1970's that I couldn't help myself.

The colors.

The mustaches.

The posing.

They all scream the height of the 1970's. It's actually a true crime story of two cops in Brooklyn who took on crime with a vengeance which was really big at the time (think Joseph Wambaugh, or Clint Eastwood in Dirty Harry, or Angie Dickinson as Police Woman).

Then there are the books that have the goofiest of story lines:

I need to take a new picture of this book, obviously.

Here's my description of it for you:

Carmona, Al: ANDY THE FIRST SWITCH-PITCHER 1982. Al Carmona. Encino, CA. Hardcover. 1st Edition/ 1st Printing. Signed By Author NF / VG+. Self Published "In baseball there are many switch-hitters. But there has never been a switch-PITCHER...until now. Andy begins his development at the age of seven when he helps his Paw build a daily pile of rocks for the local cement company." I found very little about this book except that it is listed in McCue's Baseball by the Book bibliography. There is one small bit about the book elsewhere which I found fascinating....here it is: "The plot is fairly standard. Andy, a hick who's never heard of baseball, can throw rocks around corners with both hands. He leads a team to World Series Victory. It's the style that sets this one apart: the first 45 percent of the book is a fairly poorly written children's book followed by one chapter of near pornography before reverting to a children's book." Take from that what you will.

See - just outright Goofy.

And then, just to round things out, there are the goofy books that I find hysterically funny and wouldn't do without. Here's a trio of books on subjects that... well, kids need to know about, but parents really don't want to talk about.