Welcome to The Arty Bees Cabinet of Curious Bibliophilia
or Our Tribute to the World of Bizarre Books
The Inspirational
Present Flow Chart
Several years ago we came upon a book that changed our lives.
Entitled "Frog Raising for Pleasure and Profit and other Bizarre Books" by Russell Ash and Brian Lake, it detailed the delights and eccentricities of the book publishing trade.
It encompassed all fields of bibliophilic silliness from strange titles, double-entendres, toilet humour, "how-to"s for peculiar hobbies and pastimes, and specialized subjects that make you wonder who the intended audience was meant to be.
This book made us laugh.
It also made us realize, we were not alone.
For some time we had been ferreting away books that were simply too fabulous to sell.
As you can imagine, this is not actually a very productive thing for a bookshop to do.
In order to hide this embarrassing flaw in our characters, books were hidden, put on permanent hold by fictional customers, then paid for and taken home by the staff, lest we should not see their like again!
But sometimes we found ourselves reluctantly giving in to infatuated customers who insisted that they had to have it. It's frightening the reactions these books can arouse in otherwise rational people
— sometimes there were tears, tantrums, even threats. (You know who you are…)
But, here was this book.
An ode to all that was ridiculous and bound in paper.
A legitimate reason, in fact, to hoard the books that we couldn't bear to part with.
And so began The Arty Bees Cabinet of Curious Bibliophilia.
And now, in an effort to record them for posterity and to share the joy, you too can peruse the weird and wacky books which we have kindly, and with much sweat and toil, arranged and displayed here for your delight.
But first, please take note:
Some of these titles wouldn't actually make the cut for the Most Distinguished Messrs. Ash and Lake's "Bizarre Books". Some are merely products of their time and the fact that we find them funny dates us as surely as the contents date the book in question.
Others represent views and beliefs that some of the staff find inherently funny (and sometimes more than a little worrying) and we realize that many others may not agree. These have been included in the spirit of "everyone is entitled to their opinion" and these are ours.
Please do not send us hate mail, or ask us to change the contents of the site, but if you feel very strongly, tell us about it.
And lastly, a caution and an apology of sorts.
Firstly, some of these books are a little X-rated.
We have not included anything explicit from them, but if you are easily offended or little Susie or Frank Junior are around please be warned.
Secondly, we are not trying to make fun of any of the books, subjects, authors, or publishers displayed within.
Well, actually we are.
But none of it is meant maliciously.
These books gave us genuine joy. Sometimes the joy was mixed with disbelief, shock, and an abiding sense of fear, it's true, but joy nonetheless.
In fact we thoroughly encourage everyone to track down copies of these books and buy them.
(No, you can't have ours.)
(No, really, I mean it.)
By entering this site, you are agreeing that we have no responsibility for offended sensibilities.
Forewarned is forearmed!
Enter the Bizarre Books Gallery
See also
The Inspirational Christmas Present Flow Chart
for finding presents for people you don't actually like that much.