ABEBooks sent me another spam email about their “Weird Book Room” and, like an idiot, I clicked through to take a look at the titles. Now that they’ve made me cranky and irritable, you get to benefit from my rant.
It seems to me that there’s quite a bit of condescension in the whole idea of the Weird Book Room. But worse yet, there doesn’t seem to be any logic or reason to what they consider weird. It appears to be based on reader suggestions, but it doesn’t look like anyone made any attempt to impose any kind of filter or sense on the whole affair. Some examples:
- What’s Wrong With My Snake? A User-Friendly Home Medical Reference Manual
. I’m sure this seems “weird” to ABEBooks patrons, but here’s a hot news flash; some people keep snakes as pets. Perhaps they could use a quick reference health guide as much as dog and cat owners.
- The Social History of the Machine Gun
. I own this and have read it. Ellis’s book is a highly regarded and well-written work of history, and one I frequently see referenced in footnotes for other books I own.
- Taming a Liger: Unexpected Spiritual Lessons from Napoleon Dynamite
. Not really interested in this book, but how is it any weirder than other books about the science and/or philosophy of “The Simpsons”, “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”, “Star Trek”, etc.?
- Nuclear War: What’s in it for You?
. It’s easy to laugh at this now, but I remember when this book came out. I didn’t agree with the message, or the movement, but it was at least a serious attempt to advance a point of view on a subject that many people were concerned about.
- Impeccable Birdfeeding
. I haven’t read this, but I have read some of Adler’s other books, like Outwitting Squirrels
and Outwitting Deer
(the latter of which contains the classic quote, “Deer are just very large squirrels.”); he’s a talented author, and a book about birdfeeding and birdfeeder maintenance doesn’t trip my weird button.
- The History of Torture
. Have it, have read the first couple of chapters. A popular work of history by a well-respected author.
- The How and Why Wonder Book of Guns
. This is the one that really set me off. I owned a whole crapload of the “How and Why Wonder Books” when I was a kid, and this was probably my favorite of the lot. As a matter of fact, I think I’ll order a replacement copy for myself after Christmas. I can’t see anything wrong with a book for the intelligent child that discusses the various kinds of firearms, the history of firearms development, how guns work, and gun safety. Unless, of course, you’re the kind of yuppie East Cost liberal who thinks kids shouldn’t even know that guns exist.
- Then there’s actual bestsellers like How To Survive a Robot Uprising
and The Pop-Up Book of Phobias
.
There are some legitimately weird books in the list, to be sure. Of course, some of those “weird” books are esoteric works intended for a limited audience (I’m not really interested in Jewish Chess Masters on Stamps
, but it doesn’t take a lot of imagination to see that there’s probably considerable overlap in the Venn diagram of stamp collectors, chess players, and Jews.) and some of them are by people who are clearly batshit crazy (which gives me the uncomfortable sensation of “Hey, let’s go poke the crazy person with sticks!”).
It just grates on my nerves.
(In case you didn’t notice, all but the first link go to Amazon, because why should I give ABEBooks any more traffic?)