Humor / Essays

New York, New York, U.S.A.: E P Dutton, 2003. First Edition. Hard Cover. New/New. Photographs. Everyone knows about the Nobel Prizes, those prestigious awards that recognize the world's most talented and innovative minds. Unfortunately, not all of the hopeful thinkers and academics areound the globe can become Nobel Laureates, but some are lucky enough to win the esteemed Ig Nobel Prize instead. Their unbelievable accomplishments are now documented in glorious detail, in this book. Drawn from the world's wackiest actual achievements in science, economics, and peace, The Ig Nobel Prizes demonstrates the extreme measures people will take in the quest for knowledge. Read about the professor who proved that toast falls butter-side-down more often than not, and the Southern Baptist Church of Alabama, which devised a formula to determine how many Alabamans will go to Hell. This hilarious book features these endeavors and many more, along with photographs from the annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremonies at Harvard University. An Ig Nobel Prize is ideal for anyone who first wants to laugh and then wants to think. 240 pages including appendices and an index. 12mo - over 6¾" - 7¾" tall. more information

Offered by Nan's Book Shop (United States)

New York, New York, U.S.A.: Gramercy, 1999. 8th Printing. Hard Cover. Near Fine/Fine. Geyer, Jackie. Does your cat express his love for you by lying on the book you're trying to read? Does your cat fight with your houseplants, play 'clear the shelf', and refuse to come when called? Does your cat insist on plenty of space - like the entire living room?? Chances are that your beloved pet, like millions of other cats, is neurotic! In this hilarious cat's-eye-view of the world, Steven Baker, who gave perfect advice in How to Live With a Neurotic Dog, tells you everything you need to live happily ever after with your feline friend. Unpaginated. Illustrated in black & white. Small red dot on page tops. Bottom corners are lightly bumped. Yellow cloth cover has a tiny depression on the front cover. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. more information

Offered by Nan's Book Shop (United States)

Gordonsville, Virginia, U.S.A.: St Martins Press, 1994. Second Printing. Soft Cover. Near Fine/No Jacket. Witt, Dick; fletcher, Lawrence. Party with the people of power! Cut 'em out, dress 'em up, and let 'em preside! This paper doll book features Bill, Hillary, and Chelsea Clinton, along with Al and Tipper Gore. Oh, and Socks is included with a few cool outfits! Even if you don't want to cut them out, it's a great book to page through - full of humor and costumes for all parties involved. 26 pages, outfits and punch-out dolls are in full color. The head of the spine is a bit torn. Dolls have not been punched out, clothing not cut out - all intact. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. more information

Offered by Nan's Book Shop (United States)

New York: Broadway Books, 2000. Third Printing. Soft Cover. As New. Reid, Ken. After living in Britain for two decades, Bill Bryson moved back to the United States with his English wife and four children. They were greeted by a new and improved America that boasts microwave pancakes, twenty-four-hour dental-floss hotlines, and the staunch conviction that ice is not a luxury item. Delivering the brilliaant comic musings that are a Bryson hallmark, he recounts his sometimes disconcerting reunion with the land of his birth. The result is a book filed with hysterical scenes of one man's attempt to reacquaint himself with his own country, but it is also an extended if at times bemused love letter to his homeland. 288 pages. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. more information

Offered by Nan's Book Shop (United States)

New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 2002. First Edition. Hard Cover. Fine/Fine. Do you remember the urban legends that you heard as a teenager, and later on? I remember one about the couple on a date, when they get a flat tire on a dark and lonely road, and the young man gets out to change it; he doesn't come back for the longest time, and when she gets out to investigate, he's been murdered (guess they shouldn't have been there!). Finally, a great collection of urban legends are gathered into one book. Despite their outrageousness, or maybe because of it, urban legends get told and retold countless times. Friends pass them on, thus a story becomes a legend. And even if it doesn't sound entirely plausible, a legend always satisfies some basic human emotion - fear, embarrassment, hope, or revenge, to name but a few. And whether you believe them or not, you'll find yourself compulsively reading every one of these urban legends just to see what could possibly happen next! These stories do leave an impression, and you may find yourself telling them over and over again. 687 pages including an index. 12mo - over 6¾" - 7¾" tall. more information

Offered by Nan's Book Shop (United States)

San Antonio, TX: The Naylor Company, 1968. First Edition. Hard Cover. Fine/Good. What would you do if the andirons suddenly bounded out from under the burning logs in your fireplace, stopped on the hearth, shook the sparks from their backs and began trotting around the room? In this collection of tales, you will learn not only how to cope with runaway andirons but other such extraordinary information as how to grow a whiskey patch, how to nail with a fish, and how giant, restless, underground turtles provide Texas with its vast supply of oil. The author has refined the art of tall storytelling and, with the true storyteller's ability to make the impossible seem not only possible, but logical and even commonplace, he takes the read on an hilarious journey through his beloved Trinity River Bottomlands in East Texas. 158 pages. The jacket, in a protective cover, is price-clipped with a 1" tear at the spine head and a tiny tear at the spine tail. The corners are worn, one with a 1/4" tear. There is a 1/2" tear at the back bottom, and both the edge sand spine appear sunned. There is some paper missing on the spine at the word 'bottom'. Above the author's inscription is a gift inscription for a prior owner. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. more information

Offered by Nan's Book Shop (United States)

Boston, MA: Little, Brown and Company, 2006. First Edition. Soft Bound. Near Fine/No Jacket. This is an uncorrected proof. The original title was To Hell With All That, Loving and Loathing Our Inner Housewife. Written by Caitlin Flanagan, the hilarious and provocative social critic, compares the rituals and experiences that shaped the fifties housewife with those that have forged the modern woman and arrives at some surprising conclusions. In her signature prose - brightly funny and brutally honest - Flanagan examines everything from the white-wedding craze to the epidemic of undersexed marriages. Whether she is reporting on the mommy wars, the anticlutter movement, or America's new nanny culture, her book reveals both the high cost women pay for devoting themselves to the people they love and also the matchless rewards that come from such a sacrifice. 196 pages, the top back cover has a small chipped area. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. more information

Offered by Nan's Book Shop (United States)

Milwaukee, Wisconsin: Bashford & O'Neill, 1998. First Edition. Hard Cover. New/New. Fred Gosman had an old-fashioned marriage. His wife cooked, and he ate. But when his 22 year marriage ended. he was forced to fend for himself. He made a life changing decision - he would learn to cook! Astonishing things happened along the way. He destroyed a blender and a towel rack. Prepared Minute Rice for Asians. But this book is more than a funny book about cooking. It's downright helpful, even for experienced cooks. Fred shares cooking tips, provides instructions for 18 simple delicious dishes, and reveals the common sense strategies and healthy recipes that allowed him to lose 50 pounds. He even chronicles his attempts to link cooking with romance. You will marvel at his perseverence and delight in his success in the cooking realm. 210 pages, one corner bumped. 64mo - up to 3" tall. more information

Offered by Nan's Book Shop (United States)

Emmaus, Pennsylvania, U.S.A.: Rodale Pr, 2003. 2nd Printing. Soft Cover. New/No Jacket. Hey Graduate, ready to take on the Real World? You will be after absorbing the wisdom and wit of this comprehensive field guide to life after college. Learn everything you need to transition smoothly from carefree co-ed to a grad with a plan. Learn to: land a job - a good job - and an enviable apartment; Live large no matter how small your salary; make freinds and influence bosses; retire early (that sounds good!). All your most pressing questions answered - New car or used? Debit or credit? Paper or plastic? - especially those you've so skillfully managed to avoid until now. Gain valuable perspective on doing it your way from professionals who remember their own first years out. Each chapter also links you to the most helpful sites on the Web so you can personalize your search for the very latest data on, say, the career of your choice or the city of your dreams. 334 pages including an index. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. more information

Offered by Nan's Book Shop (United States)

Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A.: Chicago Review Press, 2003. First Edition. Hard Cover. Fine/Near Fine. Drawings. You mean those clothes of hers are intentional?" - Dorothy Parker, American Writer (1893-1967). Includes 20 peelable stickers with wonderful insults and curses printed on them! This book is a celebration of the creative language of abuse, insinuation, defamation and damnation. It includes colorful and complicated insults and curses from around the world and through many ages. Even the endpapers are covered with these great words. George Bernard Shaw, Shakespeare, Lewis Carroll, Horace, Lord Byron, and many, many others quoted! 80 pages on heavy paper. The jacket has a very small dent on the front near the spine. 12mo - over 6¾" - 7¾" tall. more information

Offered by Nan's Book Shop (United States)

White River Jct, Vermont, U.S.A.: Chelsea Green Pub Co, 2000. First Edition. Hard Cover. New/New. Our narrator, Tim Matson, assaulted by middle-aged existential doubt and morbid preoccupation, sets out to confront the demons of death and the denizens of the funeral trade. His oddysey begins when he stares down a photograph of Ginseng Willard, a flinty old Vermonter who built his own coffin from a piano case, then used it as a bed for the rest of his natural days. Matson ups the ante by deciding to build a coffin. He heads out on the road to learn how to go about it. Along the way he meets an unforgettable cabal of characters who populate the funeral underground - among them the Undertaker and the Crusader, the Anatomist and the Astrologer, the Organist and the Gravedigger. Sometimes you'll feel like Buster Keaton has slipped through the back door into a funeral parlor in backcountry Vermont. Other times you'll be at the wheel, with Hitchcock and Sartre riding shotgun. This book offers thrills, chills, and laughter, but also a face-to-face encounter with some of life's Big Questions. 147 pages. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. more information

Offered by Nan's Book Shop (United States)

Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1968. First Edition. Hard Cover. Very Good/Fine. Osborn, Robert. Women of America, you cannot afford to be without this book. Knowledge is power, and the knowledge imported here will give you power not only over husbands and children, but also over friends, neighbors, inanimate objects and a malignant fate. And by the way, men, better take a look at it yourself, if only in self-defense. C. Northcote Parkinson now considers such domestic topics as romance, marriage, the family and household management. A very amusing book! The binding looks like it took in a bit of water at the bottom, and has some stains at the bottom edges. None of this affects the pages. There is also a spot at the top from which looks like a drip down to the middle of the book; no damage, just a bit of discoloration on the grey cloth binding. 208 pages, a few library marks and a card envelope at the front. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. more information

Offered by Nan's Book Shop (United States)

Ballantine Books, 1987. First Edition. Soft Bound. Near Fine/No Jacket. First Ballantine Books edition. The cover is near fine; slight chips around the sides, a corner bent. The book takes satire to a new level, going after New York's social elite, and declaring that there are really three major issues of our time: sex, hair, and the telephone. 202 pages, 5.25 x 8. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. more information

Offered by Nan's Book Shop (United States)