Off-putting Titles
Mention on another thread of a book called Life After Doom - not a title that would tempt me, at any rate, to take it off the shelf.
What title - real or invented - would have you leaving a book unread/TV programme or film unwatched?
I've always thought Admonitionary Sermons would be an effective turn-off.
An actual instance was a documentary on the history of Lino manufacture in Kirkcaldy. Haud me doon, as they say hereabouts.
What title - real or invented - would have you leaving a book unread/TV programme or film unwatched?
I've always thought Admonitionary Sermons would be an effective turn-off.
An actual instance was a documentary on the history of Lino manufacture in Kirkcaldy. Haud me doon, as they say hereabouts.
Comments
MMM
Fascinating! I don't think I can see a central barrier?
I can barely contain myself ...
Nope - no central barriers on motorways in those days. They came later. The first pictures of the M1 show the same.
My dad used to have a book called "Repair of the small electric motor". I did look at it once, and I have no idea what was in it because it bored me so much.
It may even be true!
"Many of you will be familiar with the passage in the Greek Testament ...." followed by a quotation in Greek.
However, I don't totally believe that story.
Sounds good to me - I would probably be up all night reading it. Not so sure about the Minks, though.
There's one on "Siphons" as well!
Sadly.
The Bulwark of Christendom: the Turkish Sieges of Vienna 1529 & 1683 (consisting of The Sieges of Vienna by the Turks by Karl August Schimmer & The Great Siege of Vienna,1683 by Henry Elliot Malden, with an extract from The Life of King John Sobieski by Count John Sobieski).
Or, of course, there is Congreve's The Details of the Rocket System Employed by the British Army During the Napoleonic Wars.
What about the hugely entertaining "Diary of a Nobody" by the Grossmiths?
I would quite happily sit down and read all of those!
Then you would absolutely adore Leonaur Books....
Except it's not what you think it is...
https://www.darkhorse.com/Books/14-703/Trump-The-Complete-Collection-Essential-Kurtzman-Volume-Two-HC
I read a history of Playboy magazine a few months back. Not sure if they mentioned Trump, probably just in passing.
The thumbnails at the bottom of that link show you some articles from Trump. Harvey Kurtzman was later a mentor to Terry Gilliam and Gloria Steinem.
Auscultation (based on the Latin verb auscultare "to listen") is listening to the internal sounds of the body, usually using a stethoscope. Auscultation is performed for the purposes of examining the circulatory and respiratory systems (heart and breath sounds), as well as the alimentary canal. The term was introduced by René Laennec.
"Missed it by THAT much!" --Maxwell Smart.
Just te-checked the Playboy history. Apparently, the financial loss from Trump was so bad, Hefner had to forego his salary for a short while.
Thanks. It's a lovely city.
Alan
Ship of Fools Admin
I wouldn't have been unhappy with this.
...the whimpering you can hear is my credit card realising I've got somewhere else to consider buying books from
That car shown in the middle photo looks like a late 50's/early60's Hillman or Singer, names which had vanished in the UK by the mid-70's, and a decade earlier here.
I know in this modern age it is presumptuous of me to take this for granted, but I've assumed that the writers of all three of these works are male. I'd be very, very surprised if I were to discover I was wrong.
I'm not letting women off on this one though. There must be off-putting titles a plenty along the lines of 'Find your soul's inner aroma - a step by step guide on crafting the scented candle that is truly you'.
I sometimes buy books just because I like the title. This is a high-risk strategy that doesn't usually pay off, but 'A Game of Scones' was worth every penny.
Sounds a bid Discworld-ish!
However, the prize for Best Wacky Depiction of Baking Contests in a Fantasy Novel must go to Witches Inc. by K. E. Mills, despite the boring title.
Making a strenuous effort to get back on topic, I've always thought the Worst Case Scenario handbooks were rather off-putting, although that didn't stop me buying them as gifts for various pessimists of my acquaintance.
Murder! or Death! in their titles, he goes for The Pit Prop Syndicate or The Affair at Little Wokeham or - quite racy this - The Crime at Guildford.
Two men asked to see it. One had a bet on with the other that no-one would either write or read such a book. He thought it must be a fake cover for porn.
I handed it over and they confirmed that it was, indeed, about the Women's Co-operative Movement in Kirkcaldy 1918-1930.
I have yet to buy it. I have resisted that particular temptation.
Would anything perilous happen to a patient if he did a john peel and accidentally played it at the wrong speed?
If you really want a cumbersome title, try The Strata of Derbyshire by White Watson, which in full is titled: A Delineation of the Strata of Derbyshire forming the surface from Bolsover in the East to Buxton in the West, by a Plate, designed from a Tablet, composed of the specimens of each stratum within the above line, with an Explanatory Account of the same; together with A Description of the Fossils found in these Strata; and also Of the Nature and Quality of the respective Soils .