Thursday, October 14, 2010

Something for everyone



Just because you can write a book, doesn't mean you should.

Who publishes this crap?

19 comments:

Nick said...

Soldier Bear is a true story, and a dang good one at that:
http://www.badassoftheweek.com/voytek.html

(I'm just assuming the book is about Voytek. I've never actually read that specific book.)

Unknown said...

I believe they just unveiled a sculpture of Voytek in Edinburgh recently. Quite a story.

Dominique said...

In defense and condemnation of some of the books -

The Devil's Cloth is a reasonably interesting little book about historical fashion.

A Stress Analysis of a Strapless Evening Gown sounds like it would be a fun read, as it's supposed to be humorous scientific essays.

And... Sodomy and the Pirate Tradition: English Sea Rovers in the Seventeenth-Century Caribbean was written by B.R. Burg - the very same freaking B.R. Burg who taught one of my history classes in college. The class was *worse* than you'd expect, actually. In a class that was ostensibly about piracy in the 1700s, we kept getting essay questions about the morality of Bush, and the moral horror that was Guantanamo Bay. Yes. Really.

Nancy R. said...

Oh, goodness. I think I own at least four of those books, and I see at least two more that I need for my reference library.

The Duck said...

The Gun book was really pretty good for kids, I still have my copy from like 1965

John A said...

Oh my. OK, lots of "Huh? Why?" books are published. Often for small demographics - well, relatively small, like the one about knitting portraits of historical figures, which I would be happy to encounter in the library but would not pay for my own copy. In other words, "crap" does not really seem to apply to most of the books shown.

Interesting site, actually. Tempting too add it to my list of links to open once a month or so.

Anonymous said...

Well, some of those appear to be self-published, some of those appear to be small press books targeted at very specific market segments, and some of those books...I frankly don't understand why they're on that list.

ABE's "Weird Books" frankly grates on my nerves, but I've written about that on my own blog and won't repeat the rant here.

Joanna said...

I'm surprised no one's linked this yet.

bluesun said...

"Jewish Chess Masters on Stamps." Oddly specific.

Sigivald said...

Yeah, I think most of those are not so much "crap" as "limited interest".

(And I've seen excerpts from "The Recently Deflowered Girl" one. It's humor, after all.)

I wouldn't be surprised if someone I know owns "Soap Through the Ages", since I know a lot of historical re-creators.

I suspect that "Lizard Social Behavior" is academic, and clicking on it proves my guess correct. It's just science!

fast richard said...

How to Teach Physics to Your Dog, I saw a talk by the author. I want the book.

Anything by Robert Conquest is worth reading.

The Social History of the Machine Gun looks like a very interesting book.

There are half a dozen more that I would check out if I found them at the library. Over all, that list has a higher percentage of worthwhile books than my local library.

Ed Rasimus said...

Everyone seems to want to write a book. A few have the talent to do so. My rule from day one was that I would only write if a publisher would pay me money to publish the book, not the other way around. Unfortunately an entire industry has grown up around the concept of "publish-on-demand" and the demand being referenced is that of the author's ego.

Publishers occasionally overlook talent, but as a general standard they are pretty reliable.

When some tell you they've written a book, ask them who published it. Weird titles aren't disqualifying but backyard/basement printers are.

Wally said...

Heck, I followed the link and tried their search feature on my particularly off beat topic. Holy cow did it yield well ! 5 books are in transit to support my project - which should be avialable at the next NEbloggersooht. (it stands at 0.92 Smoots)

Heath J said...

Without the prior knowledge of Voytek, One would think that book was some strange work of Furry-fic

Bubblehead Les. said...

It's a big planet with lots of people. The question is not who writes these things, nor who publishes them, but who reads them. Must be a market for them somewhere. Also, keep in mind that most people who read Comics, Sci-Fi and Fantasy were Social Outcasts until Star Wars hit the screen, and most of the Fiction was tossed into the trash, which is why there are few mint editions of such things as The Shadow, early Spiderman, Superman, et.al. Yet how many Billions are spent nowadays on electronic video games that are variations of The Lord of the Rings, plus movies such as Batman, X-men, etc?

Actually, I might order a copy of "The Manga Guide to Calculus" myself. Might be able to finally understand the damn math crap!

ASM826 said...

So, Smokey the Bear served in an artillery unit.

Jeanne S said...

The Recently Deflowered Girl is hilarious! Also, another book on that site, Raising Witches, is one of the best books on raising Wiccan children.

I saw a couple other books there that looked interesting...

s4e4 said...

Sergeant Kodiak was a good soldier, but was completely unreliable when downwind of the chow hall.

Don M said...

So, is this about the right to Bear Arms, or the right to Arm Bears?