Today’s interesting old-timey find on the site is The Good House-Wife Made a Doctor by Thomas Tryon, 1692. We only have one original copy, priced at just over three grand, so one would have to be very interested indeed to purchase it. But for those chiefly interested in its contents and text, there are several modern print-on-demand copies available for as little as $25.00.

It’s a fascinating book. Its full title is The Good House-Wife Made a Doctor, Or, Health’s Choice and Sure Friend Being a Plain Way of Nature’s Own Prescribing to Prevent and Cure Most Diseases Incident to Men, Women and Children by Diet and Kitchin Physick Only. In short, it sounds like a very early book of herbal remedies and nutrition as preventative medicine. I find it interesting, since so many health professionals seem to be trying to return to similar thinking now.

The preface (pictured above) reads (in part):

THE PREFACE TO THE READER –
Health is the greatest temporal Blessing we can enjoy in this Mortal State: Without it the choicest Beauty vanishes in a Moment, like a withered Flower; the stoutest Strength dwindles into a childish Weakness, scarce able to the Support the tottering Carkass (sic); Riches become insignificant Lumber; Honour an empty Bubble, or extrinsick shadow, yielding no delight; Nay, Wit and Parts grow Useless, and Life it self but an unwelcome load and continual Torture. For how often may we see Lords and Aldermen, the Rich and the…

That does indeed sound dire.

Thomas Tryon was a 17th-century author, primarily of health and self-help books, and a big believer in and advocate of plant-based food as medicine. He touted the benefits of a vegetarian diet long (long!) before it was common or fashionable.

Featuring a stern, turtlenecked librarian named Betty Glover, this is nearly five minutes of surreal, spoof workout advice for librarians, made in 1987 by an Arizona State University student. While disturbingly sizeist and focused on the horror of fatness, the video is also totally delightful, and liberal in its use of Van Halen, Huey Lewis and the News, Tears for Fears, Billy Idol, Devo and other 80s musical greats. The tape claims to offer librarians a way to fight slack muscles and flab while in their element, with such exercises as the vertical drawer pull, and horizontal drawer pull, and rapid-fire stapling.

Weird. I do enjoy that the dictatorial and not-to-be-messed-with Betty Glover comes with her own riding crop. The staff won’t be getting lazy on her watch.

Enjoy this surreal bit of Wednesday library fun.

And for more librarian-themed goodness, check out our list of Literature from Librarians: Great Reads Written by the Experts.

Perhaps the most entertaining thing about the award is that the books themselves are not necessarily wacky, it is often the case the books content is quite serious.  Case in point is the 1992 winner How to Avoid Huge Ships, which describes proper tactics for small water craft captains who wish to learn improved evasive action tactics.

Which brings us to the 2013 Diagram Prize Shortlist

• Was Hitler Ill? by Henrik Eberle and Hans-Joachim Neumann
• How to Sharpen Pencils: A Practical & Theoretical Treatise on the Artisanal Craft of Pencil Sharpening for Writers, Artists, Contractors, Flange Turners, Anglesmiths, & Civil Servants by David Rees
• God’s Doodle: The Life and Times of the Penis by Tom Hickman
• Goblinproofing One’s Chicken Coop by Reginald Bakeley
• How Tea Cosies Changed the World by Loani Prior
• Lofts of North America: Pigeon Lofts by Jerry Gagne

Antikamnia’s analgesic compound, which was never patented, was marketed as a ‘proudly ethical drug’ and used to treat headaches, fever, stomach aches, nervousness, insomnia and ‘the blues’. It was claimed to be a new synthetic coal-tar derivative but in fact contained almost 50% acetanilid, which was sometimes mixed with codeine or quinine. The toxic effects of acetanilid were exposed in a 1907 California State Journal of Medicine article, ‘Poisoning by Antikamnia’, and the company was prosecuted by the government in 1914 for violating the disclosure terms of the Food and Drug Act of 1906. The calendars were issued from 1897 until 1901. Each panel in the Antikamnia calendars depict fantastic and comical skeletons dressed in different styles and occupations.

This particular Antikamnia calendar includes:

January/February, “Extra! All About The [-----]!!!,” as a raggedly-clad newsboy, hawking newspapers;

March/April, “His Fourth of July!”, with March 17 printed in green, the skeleton wearing a top hat with clover leaf, and green sash, smoking a pipe;

May/June, “Ein Stein!”, with beer stein and German pipe;

July/August, “The Doctor’s Enemy,” as patent medicine salesman, with top hat and spectacles, in one hand a bag marked “No Genuine Goods, Substitutes Only,” in the other, a card “Fred. Smith & Co. Manf’g Chemists / Motto / Quantity not Quality”;

September/October, “Practicing – At The Bar,” as a prosperous-looking attorney or business man, with top hat and cigar, leaning against a bar with shot glass in hand;

and (pictured) November/December, “A Rough Rider,” as a cowboy, with appropriate hat, gun and holster/ perched atop a box “From the Antikamnia Chemichal Comp. / St. Louis, Mo.”

Verso of each card with text regarding the various products of the company and the diseases for which they are recommended (a sampling: Chronic Rheumatism, Puerperal and Malarial Fevers, Bronchitis, Pneumonia, Tuberculosis, Typhoid, all Neuroses due to Irregularities of Menstruation, etc.).

I love it. So ghoulish!

The Antikamnia Chemical Company hired local physician-artist Louis Crucius to do the art for the calendars. Crucius was also a pharmacist, and did the “Skeleton Sketches” drawings while working at a pharmacy. Five years worth of the calendars – 1897, 1898, 1899, 1900, and 1901 – were printed.

I wondered what other book-related board games I could find, and whether we had them available on AbeBooks. Here are a few of the gems I discovered:

This Uncle Wiggly board game comes from Howard Garis, author of the Uncle Wiggily Bedtime stories and other Uncle Wiggily books.

Peter Rabbit’s Race Game, based on the adventures of Beatrix Potter’s beloved character, Peter Rabbit.

A Starship Troopers board game based on Robert Heinlein’s classic Starship Troopers (one of our 50 essential science fiction books!)

This is an Alice in Wonderland card game, not a board game, but still wonderful – “The New and Diverting Game of Alice in Wonderland, consisting of forty-eight pictorial cards…” one copy from 1905, one from 1920. Based on Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

This is a Walking Dead board game (zombies!). It’s based on the TV show, but the TV show is based on The Walking Dead graphic novels by Robert Kirkman.

And of course a Game of Thrones board game… which I can only imagine should never be played by children. Ever. And by children, I mean anyone under 25.

…ever.

Happy reading, happy gaming!

The students estimated the size of the peach, described by Dahl as being tall and wide like a small house, and derived that it would take 4,890,579 Newton’s of force to lift the massive fruit into the air. They then sorted out the carrying capacity of a seagull (based on its wingspan, the density of air around it and the speed it would travel) and derived that James would have required nearly 2.5 million seagulls.

For shame Mr. Dahl, factual inaccuracies in children`s stories is just something I cannot abide. I had better not find out about an Oxford student’s discovery that Foxes are incapable of stealing cider from deranged farmers.

Congratulations, you are terrifying forever.

It’s Hobbit mania! Hobbit fever! Hobbitpalooza! Enjoy these Tolkien tattoos.

We were certainly enchanted by many aspects of Hemingway Home – the beautiful pool with its potted plants and whimsical decorative elephants; the cat-fountain made from a urinal sourced from a bar Hemingway frequented; seeing Hemingway’s writing workshop; the house itself including countless lovely chandeliers and sweet green shutters, and much, much more.

But our favorite part was the cats. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 50 cats, many claimed to be descended from Hemingway’s own polydactyl (six-toed! Think cats with mittens) kitties roam the grounds, seemingly carefree and happy. There are kitty hideaway houses nestled here, there and everywhere on the estate, many with cats inside. But it was also common to find a cat on a railing, a cat snoozing in a patch of sunny hibiscus, or a cat on the stairs. I had to laugh at Hemingway’s bedroom, whose bed and its beautiful chenille bedspread are off-limits to visitors, but which boasted two sleeping cats. I liked very much the casual approach to the furry felines. They are clearly well fed, well-cared for having their needs met, but otherwise they are largely left to their own devices. Which is where someone took umbrage, according to an article on csmonitor.com:

At some point several years ago, a museum visitor expressed concern about the cats’ care. The visitor took that concern all the way to the US Department of Agriculture and, literally, made a federal case out of it.

Soon USDA inspectors showed up in Key West. They said that if the museum wanted to display cats it needed an exhibitor’s license as required under the federal Animal Welfare Act. (That’s the same law that regulates circuses, zoos, and traveling dog and pony shows.)

Federal officials advised the museum that it also needed to take action to: Confine the cats in individual cages each night, or construct a higher fence around the property, or install an electric wire atop the existing brick wall, or hire a night watchman to keep an eye on the cats.

The museum was ordered to tag each cat for identification, and add additional elevated resting surfaces within the cat’s enclosures.

USDA officials also advised that the museum would face fines for noncompliance.

The case has been appealed and re-appealed and gone back and forth, but as it stands today, it does look as though the people in charge of Hemingway Home will have to make some substantial changes to their approach to the cats there. I very much hope that the story has a happy ending, a mutually satisfactory solution is reached, and the cats can continue going about their cat business while charming visitors to no end.

The whole thing does seem perversely opposite the spirit of Key West, though, where aimless wandering seems encouraged by people and animals alike, and the spirit of be-yourself-and-do-your-thing is alive and well. There are chickens and roosters wandering around the streets haphazardly, and people pay them little mind. There are people sitting in doorways, on street corners, drinking a beer, smoking a cigar, playing an instrument, just enjoying a good sit. It seems ridiculous to the extreme to get one’s knickers in a twist about regulating the cats.

Two of the cats at Ernest Hemingway House. The white one is named Spencer Tracy.

“The smell of a freshly printed book is the best smell in the world.” Karl Lagerfeld

To a real booklover, the smell of books is a glorious and varied thing. New ones smell of ink and laminate and cardboard and sometimes a little like the store you bought them at, if it’s one of those new ones that sells not only books but also meditation candles, chocolates, incense, or coffee.

Old ones smell musty, sometimes a bit warm, autumnal, with occasional notes that can be almost unpleasant, like mildew. Whether new or old, they all have varying strengths of chemical undertones. When you’re an avid reader, it’s enough to make your head swim with delight.

This did not escape the notice of people who make fragrances. Those passionate about books can now wear their adoration on their wrists, their necks, perhaps a little behind the ears. The name is Paper Passion, and it is a unisex scent intended to evoke that smell that wafts to you from the pages of a book, that crisp, clean, new smell that makes your breath hitch in your throat with anticipation.

This tells the story of a passion and a twisting plot to put the particular bouquet of freshly printed books in a bottle. Gerhard Steidl was first alerted to the importance of the smell of a book by Karl Lagerfeld, prompting a passion for paper and the composition of a scent on the pages of a book. To Wallpaper* magazine the pairing of the publisher with the perfumer seemed a natural partnership and so the idea for Paper Passion was born. Wallpaper* magazine commissioned master perfumer Geza Schoen to create a fragrance based on the smell of books to be part of the Wallpaper* magazine Handmade exhibition in Milan.

This is an opportunity to celebrate all the gloriosensuality of books, at a time when many in the industry are turning against them. The idea is that is should relax you, like when you read a book, to a level of meditation and concentration. Paper Passion has evolved into something quite beautiful and unique. To wear the smell of a book is something very chic. Books are players in the intellectual world, but also in the world of luxury.

Hidden inside the pages of a book, Paper Passion is accompanied by texts from Karl Lagerfeld, Günter Grass, Geza Schoen and Tony Chambers.

I was recently in Miami, Florida, and attended the 30th anniversary party of Books and Books, a gorgeous bookstore in Coral Gables. While there, I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to sample the Karl Lagerfeld scent. Forgive the goofy face; my husband was trying to make me laugh.

I wasn’t sure what to make of the fragrance at first. How can you possibly bottle the spicy, clean, enticing, exciting scent of a book? It seemed impossible to me, and I was skeptical. And I think I was right to be.

The perfume was not the smell of books, to me. But it was pleasant, so I dabbed some on and away I went, pausing here and there throughout the day to sniff at my wrists and explore the way the smell was developing with my body chemistry. And while I would feel like a liar claiming that I smelled like a book, I was pleasantly surprised. The smell is light and fresh and clean, with almost no floral notes at all. It is reminiscent of linen, and yes, paper, and even reminded me of certain light dried herbs, like sage or similar. It also brought to mind clean white sheets drying on the clothesline in the sun.

In short, I think they have achieved a beautiful smell, and unusual as well – I’m very fussy about perfume, and don’t like the vast majority, but there was nothing cloying, overpowering or ham-handed about this scent. It was certainly not inexpensive, and not justifiable, within our vacation budget, or I can honestly say I would have bought some. It was a very appealing scent. I would recommend that booklovers and people looking for an unusual scent do give this one a go.

Interested in better understanding the aromas of old books and how they came to be? Watch our video, Why do old books smell?

While we were there, we heard tell of a Gladys Knight cookbook, as well. But why, I wondered, would a singer have a cookbook? Who cares what a musician eats for dinner? Well, as it turns out, a lot of people do. Celebrity has sway.

If you’re wondering what to take to your next potluck, why not ask a likely expert, like Patricia Cornwell, Dolly Parton or Vincent Price? Wait. What?

Yes, it’s true, all of those people have written cookbooks. There are plenty of weird celebrity cookbooks. It seems cookbooks allow for a broad bandwagon, and all kinds of celebrities are jumping aboard to publish their own tasty tomes. And while some might clearly be appealing for the novelty, others sound legitimately delicious. Maya Angelou’s California Green Chile and Cheese Pie, for instance, or Sheryl Crow’s Fried Green Tomato BLT. From Cookin’ With Will Rogers, to Cooking with Kenny Rogers, enjoy this list of cookbooks from the unlikeliest celebrities.