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You Can't Win is the most american book I've ever read.
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Nov 30, 2017 19:52
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Memoirs of a Sword Swallower and Freaks: We Who Are Not As Others by Daniel P. Mannix  These copies were both republished by the magnificent San Francisco-based RE/Search run by pioneering punk writer V. Vale. They specialize in well-researched books about strange subcultures. I cannot recommend their entire catalog highly enough. Please support them!! https://www.researchpubs.com/ Born on the Circus by Fred Powledge  A book about growing up in the circus. I dug it out of a recycling bin. Who would throw this away?! You Can't Win by Jack Black  This is a reprint from a tiny imprint called NABAT books (published by AK Press) that specializes in weird old memoirs by outsiders and criminals. All of them are worth reading, but You Can't Win is the easily the best one. Life and Adventures of A-No. 1, America's Most Celebrated Tramp  A-No. 1 (aka Leon Ray Livingston) was a turn or the century tramp who published a bunch of popular paperback books about being a hobo. This is the first one, published in 1910. It's the only one I have, although I hope to track down the rest of them some day. Unfortunately, since they are a century old and were published as paperbacks, they are fragile, and seem to be getting increasingly hard to find. I kick myself my not buying the whole set about ten years ago. I think it was $100 or so, but I didn't have the money to spare at the time. Oh well. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leon_Ray_Livingston Pimp by Iceberg Slim  This is a legitimately good biography by Iceberg Slim (aka Robert Beck) about being a pimp in Chicago during the first half of the twentieth century. These are two different printings from Holloway House, which specialized in printing paperbacks by black authors for a black audience, which most publishers refused to touch. A lot of their books are sleazy and border on exploitation, but so were a lot of the paperbacks aimed at white audiences during the heyday of cheap books. I find them fascinating because they are a window into a world very different from anything I've ever experienced. The slang varies wildly depending on the age and regions of the authors too, so that's a rare treat. Gentleman Pimp (which I posted yesterday) has a ton of 1940s pimp slang I have never heard before or since. Pimpology: The 48 Laws of the Game by Pimpin' Ken  This is a recent book about pimping. I only recently picked it up and haven't had a chance to read it yet. Soiled Doves: Prostitution in the Early West by Anne Seagraves  I read this years ago, and just recently found an autographed copy in the clearance section of a Half Price Books in Fremont, CA. Same place I found the autographed Jay J. Armes book a year earlier! Dildoides by Samuel Butler  This is a small press printing of the infamous 17th-century poem about a British dildo embargo. Oddly, there are actually several epic 17th-century poems about dildos, although this one is the best. I wrote a short article on that topic in a zine I put out about a decade ago, and reprinted the full text of three of the poems, including Dildoides. Maybe I'll post it here if I can find the ancient Word file I typed it in. 1984 by George Orwell  This is the first U.S. paperback printing of 1984, and features a cover like many of the racy pulp novels of the time. The Iron Dream by Norman Spinrad and The Little People by John Christopher   I bought both of these after seeing the covers here in various threads that I've since forgotten. I haven't read either yet, but I am looking forward to doing so. Some other gold I mined from the recycling bin: The Hovercraft Story by Garry Hogg  This is Israel (1962)  Sky Lab by William J. Cromie  Cosmonauts in Orbit by Gene and Clare Gurney  The Man in the Box: A Story From Vietnam by Mary Lois Dunn  The World of the Prairie Dog by David F. Costello  The World of the Opossum by James F. Keefe  I remember finding a first edition copy of Anne Rand's Atlas Shrugged in the school district recycling bin too. I forced myself to read the whole thing for some masochistic reason, and joyfully hurled that stupid, pointless, repetitive, humorless piece of poo poo back into the bin as soon as I was done. I know that the first edition hardcover is actually valuable (to idiots) and I could have sold it for a bunch of money, but gently caress it. That is the worst loving book I have ever read. Ten years later I still get angry I wasted my time reading that thousand-page sub-literate screed.
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Nov 30, 2017 21:08
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Ive got a copy of Microwave Cooking for One at home
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Nov 30, 2017 21:17
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Nov 30, 2017 21:35
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Gutter Phoenix posted: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. I just like how the author describes himself as "a kind of real-life James Bond"
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Nov 30, 2017 22:38
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I still have a couple copies of Law & Order: An Adventure to Color which predated the coloring book craze by a decade or so.
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Nov 30, 2017 23:01
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This is an awesome thread OP. I'm inspired to visit my local goodwill tomorrow. A question for you and the thread: where do you go or what are the best places to look for books?
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Dec 1, 2017 09:48
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Gutter Phoenix posted: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. it's expensive but worth every penny imo. there has never been anything quite like it, and it may the highest point of serafini's career. he's been cranking out weird art for 30+ years but he's never managed to outdo himself: commitment alone sets it apart. lesser men would have stopped at a couple pages, or a dozen pages, but serafini cranked out nearly 400, as if he was making a real fake encyclopedia. and the utter meaninglessness of it all is a magical thing, you open it and suddenly you're a toddler who can't read nor make sense of the world
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Dec 1, 2017 19:53
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my dog died im sad posted:This is an awesome thread OP. I'm inspired to visit my local goodwill tomorrow. A question for you and the thread: where do you go or what are the best places to look for books? I've had some good luck with clearance sections at used book stores. Thrift stores (especially chains like Goodwill) tend to charge too much for used books, but I've found some good stuff at those. Garage, moving, and estate sales can be goldmines. Books are heavy (particularly art books and big, old hardcovers), and a lot of people would rather give them away or sell them cheap rather than go through the hassle of moving them. Those are all hit-and-miss, but can be a great way to find weird things you aren't actually looking for. I usually end up using ebay or Amazon when I'm trying to find specific titles.
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Dec 1, 2017 21:35
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The Yugo: The Rise and Fall of the Worst Car in History by Jason Vuic I really enjoyed this one. In addition to telling the history of the Yugo, it gives a really interesting background of Yugoslavia and the surrounding countries in the years leading up to the collapse of the USSR. The Devil's Butcher Shop by Roger Morris  This one gives a detailed account of an absolutely brutal prison takeover in 1980. Fans of the thrash metal band Exodus might recall the story from the song "Last Act of Defiance." At least 33 inmates were murdered by their fellow prisoners, many in absolutely horrific ways. One unfortunate guy got burned in the face with a blowtorch until his head exploded. It's an interesting book, but also pretty disturbing. Killer Show by John Barrylick  This is a detailed account of the Station Nightclub fire where 100 people died in mere minutes after glam band Great White set off pyrotechnics during a concert. After reading this, you will never go into a cramped space without making sure you know where the fire exits are. I thought about this book a lot when the Ghost Ship art collective in Oakland burned down last year. On a lighter note... Mindsploitation by Vernon Chatman  This book is hilarious! The author contacts a bunch of companies (mostly overseas) that offer to write college essays on any topic for a fee. He gives them ludicrous topics and publishes the results. Vernon Chatman is probably best known for being one of the creators of Wonder Showzen, or possibly as the voice of Towelie on South Park. Will Not Attend by Adam Resnick  Adam Resnick was the co-creator of the bizarre Chris Elliott sitcom Get a Life!. This book is just a series of stories from his life, but they are really, really funny. I laughed to the point of tears at least three times while reading this! The Glory Hole Murders by Tony Fennelly  I just got this and haven't read it yet, but it was highly recommended in the "Read Hard or Die" section of an old issue of the classic zine Murder Can Be Fun, so I assume it will be great. How can it not be with a title like that?! Speaking of great titles: There's a Snake in the Toilet!  Here are a handful of old books warning about the scourge of global communism:    The Ugly American by Eugene Burdick and William Lederer  The term "Ugly American" has become a term for people from the U.S. behaving badly, especially when traveling abroad. As such, I was really surprised when I read this 1958 novel that the title character (Homer Atkins) is called an ugly American because he is physically ugly. He's actually a good person trying to help poor people in Vietnam build water pumps from old bicycles. Beyond that, the novel is a really interesting look at the failed French attempts to maintain their colony, and warns against increasing U.S. involvement in Vietnam years before the war started.  Eugene Burdick also wrote the classic novel Fail Safe about an accidental nuclear launch. I don't want to spoil the ending of that one, but it's a doozy. Here are a couple of old books about JFK:   (Note: the first one isn't by the drunken 50's Senator Joseph McCarthy, just a guy with the same name.) Here are a couple of gross cookbooks:   Unrelated to anything, I am fascinated by the existence of Mitchell, South Dakota's Corn Palace. 
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Dec 1, 2017 23:01
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Gutter Phoenix posted:On a lighter note... not a book, but anyone interested in this should check out Chatman's* film Final Flesh
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Dec 1, 2017 23:54
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Dec 2, 2017 00:36
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 This one had me cracking up
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Dec 3, 2017 03:38
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 this book is filled with corny hippie-dad jokes about a fairly dangerous hobby. it rules.
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Dec 3, 2017 03:51
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Fail-Safe and Killer Show are both fantastic. Also Killer Show is sort of multimedia since you can stream the video footage which the book painstakingly breaks down.
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Dec 3, 2017 03:52
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WatermelonGun posted:
lemme tell you my morel hunting tips...
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Dec 3, 2017 03:52
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Gutter Phoenix, you have an awesome book collection, you're a cool dude or dudette.
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Dec 3, 2017 17:46
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WatermelonGun posted:
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Dec 3, 2017 17:49
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china bot posted:greetings fellow codexican you're extremely cute china bot, good work
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Dec 3, 2017 18:57
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Pick posted:you're extremely cute china bot, good work 
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Dec 3, 2017 21:20
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Awesome thread, OP. Love these old books.
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Dec 3, 2017 22:07
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It's not old by any means, but Jeff Noon's "Automated Alice" (1996) is really something. It's Alice in Wonderland tripping balls in future Manchester. Highly recommended by yours truly. drat, I'm gonna have to read it again now.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automated_Alice
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Dec 3, 2017 22:52
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Gutter Phoenix posted:The Yugo: The Rise and Fall of the Worst Car in History by Jason Vuic I have that on the Kindle. Very good it is too. Will have to dig out some of my weirder books - I have a pro Khmer Rouge book on
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Dec 3, 2017 22:54
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Yeti or Not, Here We Come! by Robert Leiterman This self-published Bigfoot novel was written by a park ranger. My favorite part is on the acknowledgments page where he apologizes to his kids for spending so much time writing Bigfoot novels. Here are some more miscellaneous books:         Many, many more to come. Thanks to everybody else who has posted books. Please post more!!
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Dec 4, 2017 05:55
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This morning I went to a nearby Salvation Army that I'd never been to before. They had a whole room full of books and they were pretty cheap ($1 for paperback; $2 for hardcover), but the selection was pretty lackluster. Oh well, if I ever need a James Patterson novel or several sets of the Twilight series in a hurry, I'll know where to go. I did pick up a couple of things: This is a book from the crazy Christian group Focus on the Family, so it ought to be good for a few laughs:  Bart Ehrman is a world-renowned scholar of ancient Christianity, and also writes a lot of great books on the subject aimed at the general public. I wasn't sure if I had this one, but for a mere dollar I was willing to take the risk. Turns out I do have it. Oh well, it's a good book. I'll give it to a friend.  This is a compilation of all of the 1971 New York Times articles on the Pentagon papers. I have to go on a stupid 12-day work trip to North Carolina in a few days, and will probably take this one with me to read on the plane.  Not a book, but I bought this hideous clown painting for $6:  I recently bought this book about Leon Czolgosz off of Amazon and it arrived without a dust jacket despite costing an outrageous $3.26 (plus $3.99 shipping) and being listed as in "Very Good" condition. gently caress you worldofbooksusa!! Oh well, I want to read it, so I'll be keeping this copy. 
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Dec 5, 2017 23:25
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I enjoy watching Bonanza every once in awhile, so I figured I'd enjoy these silly novels from the early 60's. I haven't read them yet, but the covers are great.    On the topic of books based on old TV westerns, I picked this one up in a Gladstone, Oregon junk store back in 2009.  I've wanted the stupid Mysteries of the Unknown Time-Life book series ever since I saw the commercials as a kid. Sadly, this is the only one I have:  Before you start feeling too sorry for me, I finally found the full 33 volume set for a mere $60 the other day, and it should arrive sometime before Christmas. Hooray! Here are a couple of recent books about excellent movies:   Here is a book about the late, great Divine, written by his mother. Sorry about the crappy picture. 
Gutter Phoenix fucked around with this message at 00:16 on Dec 6, 2017 |
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Dec 5, 2017 23:53
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i also have this weird limited edition release of Baudelaire's Flowers of Evil from the 40s: interspersed amongst the poems are drawings like these:  (one of the only ones without nudity)
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Dec 6, 2017 01:12
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this is an actual book and it sure does look funny but you kinda suck for posting the kirk cameron edit cover instead of the real deal you're better than this, Say Nothing, step up ya game
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Dec 6, 2017 01:21
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A book, published in the 1930s...    While some of these books may have been legitimate attempts to understand "aberrant behavior", most of them were thinly-veiled boner fuel, designed to hide the titillating material under a varnish of science. And a couple of pseudoscientific books from the mid 1800s  I give you Phrenology! This was the "science" that stated we could determine your personality by studying the bumps on your skull.     
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Dec 8, 2017 04:58
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genesplicer posted:thinly-veiled boner fuel That's short enough, right? Please? Gene? I beg of you?
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Dec 8, 2017 05:17
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I only have e books
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Dec 8, 2017 05:34
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Dec 8, 2017 05:55
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Menckeniana: A Schimpflexikon by H.L. Mencken  H.L. Mencken was a fairly famous social critic and journalist during the first half of the twentieth century. I definitely wouldn't call him an elitist, but he didn't have a very high opinion of the common man either: "On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron." "No one ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public." In any case, he attracted a lot of scorn from all sides, especially after a series of satirical articles he wrote during the Scopes monkey trial. He collected his favorite insults that people wrote about him and published them in this book. The Second Oldest Profession: A Study of the Prostitute's "Business Manager" by Ben L. Reitman  Ben Reitman is probably best known for being Emma Goldman's lover, but he also wrote this 1931 book about pimps. Sister of the Road: The Autobiography of Boxcar Bertha By Ben L. Reitman  Ben Reitman also wrote this fictional biography on the life of a hobo woman, although it was supposedly based on real stories from people he knew. This version is another fine reprint from NABAT, who also did You Can't Win.
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Dec 10, 2017 01:25
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food court bailiff posted:this is an actual book and it sure does look funny but you kinda suck for posting the kirk cameron edit cover instead of the real deal That's an edit? 
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Dec 10, 2017 02:58
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Gutter Phoenix posted:The Y2K Survival Guide by Bruce F. Webster I don't remember ostriches being a Y2K problem people were talking about but I sure would want to know how to survive them. I'm sold
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Dec 10, 2017 04:18
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genesplicer posted:A book, published in the 1930s... Wow. Speaking of a varnish of science did I read that correctly: "Eugenics Publishing"?
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Dec 10, 2017 04:28
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Three-Phase posted:Wow. Speaking of a varnish of science did I read that correctly: "Eugenics Publishing"? Absutively, Posolutely!
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Dec 10, 2017 07:27
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I had the ghost dad book in 3rd grade. I don't remember it being particularly good.
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Dec 10, 2017 10:06
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Here's some books from my childhood.   As opposed to the decadent atheist mother goose stories, I guess I'm like the third person to post on here who's trans and was homeschooled lol. I even had a Christian math book. Not sure if I still have it.  Crossover between Sherlock Holmes and the lovecraft mythos. Someone mentioned hobo stuff, somewhere I have a book called vagabonding from the Sixties, also crimethincs book "evasion" which is about a straight edge traveling punk rock kid , not too many of those,if anyone wants to see pics of them or a page of the infamous "Camping on low or no dollars" let me know. That last one is the infamous train hopping Zine that lists when trains stop to switch employees so you can hop on them. I won't Post the entirety of that last one because that is Simply Not Done,but a page or two would be fine, mi as Ragged from wear and use. Also that person in the glasses looks super familiar, do you happen to Volunteer somewhere? Ponies Ist Krieg fucked around with this message at 18:08 on Dec 10, 2017 |
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Dec 10, 2017 18:03
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Dec 12, 2017 01:25
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