Guy Wann (72 results)

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware - Mastering the Art of Sales: Proven Strategies for Selling Your ArtMost artists would rather create than sell. But what if selling your art didn't feel pushy, awkward, or desperate - and actually became one of the most fulfilling parts of your creative life In Mastering the Art of Sales, you'll discover a complete, artist-friendly system for turning your passion into consistent income. Whether you're just starting to sell your work or looking to scale your career, this book gives you practical, proven strategies that respect your creative soul while building real business results.You'll learn how to: - Price your art with confidence and command premium prices- Attract the right collectors who truly value your work- Master both online and in-person selling without feeling salesy- Build a loyal following and repeat buyers- Create powerful artist statements and stories that connect emotionally- Navigate galleries, art fairs, commissions, and online platforms with easeWritten by someone who understands the heart of an artist, this is more than just a sales book - it's a transformative guide that helps you bridge the gap between studio and success.Stop leaving money on the table. Your art deserves to be seen, valued, and sold.The creative life you want is also a profitable one - and it starts here.…

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware - Strange But True: The Weird History of Boards takes readers on a wild ride through the surprising history of surfboards, skateboards, snowboards, wakeboards, paddleboards, sandboards, mountainboards, hydrofoils, and more.Long before fiberglass, skate parks, ski resorts, and electric motors, people were already standing on wooden boards and asking one simple question: Can I ride this The answer kept getting stranger.Discover how ancient Hawaiians rode massive wooden surfboards, how California surfers created 'sidewalk surfing' with homemade skateboards, how snowboarders were once banned from ski resorts, how wakeboarders turned boat wakes into launch ramps, and how modern riders now skim across sand dunes, volcanic slopes, mountain trails, and even above the surface of the water on hydrofoils.Inside you'll find bizarre inventions, dangerous early equipment, rebellious athletes, strange competitions, technological breakthroughs, and the stubborn people who kept riding even when everyone else thought the idea was ridiculous.From roller-skate wheels nailed to boards to battery-powered boards that practically fly, this funny and fascinating history proves that humans will ride almost anything if you make it flat enough.Perfect for surfers, skaters, snowboarders, outdoor adventurers, sports fans, history lovers, and anyone who enjoys strange but true stories.…

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware - Zermatt may be car-free, but it is definitely not normal.Beneath the Matterhorn's famous silhouette is a Swiss mountain village filled with electric taxis, rescue helicopters, mouse-proof barns, traffic-stopping goats, GPS-tracked sheep, underground funiculars, tiny trams, glacier tunnels, Victorian climbing rivalries, and a cable-car route that lets travelers eat lunch in Italy and return to Switzerland for dinner.Weird Zermatt Travel goes far beyond the usual postcard views. Discover the broken rope that helped create the Matterhorn legend, the women who raced toward the summit in heavy flannel skirts, the abandoned plan to build a railway and restaurant near the top of the mountain, and the frozen traveler whose belongings emerged from the Theodul Glacier centuries after his final journey.Ride the Gornergrat cogwheel railway, walk to Riffelsee for the famous Matterhorn reflection, search for marmots near Sunnegga, explore the old hamlets of Zmutt and Zum See, cross the Furi suspension bridge, descend by elevator into the Glacier Palace, and travel over the Alps by gondola for pasta and coffee in Cervinia.This humorous, story-rich guide also includes practical advice for navigating Zermatt's trains, funiculars, gondolas, e-buses, and mountain stations without crying into a pastry. Learn how to handle changing weather, choose the right mountain route, avoid missing the final cable car, and save money with grocery-store sandwiches, picnic lunches, free village walks, and smarter ticket planning.Perfect for train travelers, curious tourists, Switzerland fans, Matterhorn dreamers, and anyone who prefers strange history with their mountain scenery.Welcome to Zermatt, where the sheep have GPS, the goats control traffic, and even lunch can become an international expedition. …

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware - Wild horses galloping beside beach houses. A lighthouse moved nearly half a mile. A vanished colony, a headless pirate, ghost lights, shipwrecks rising from the sand, and a highway that occasionally wakes up in the Atlantic Ocean.Welcome to the Outer Banks, where North Carolina packed several centuries of strange history onto a ribbon of sand and trusted the weather not to rearrange it before lunch.Weird Outer Banks and the North Carolina Coast takes readers on a funny, story-driven journey from Corolla and Kitty Hawk to Hatteras, Ocracoke, Beaufort, Cape Lookout, Wilmington, and Bald Head Island. Along the way, you will discover the legends, mysteries, odd traditions, historic landmarks, wild animals, and coastal mishaps that make this one of America's most unforgettable road-trip regions.Explore the mystery of the Lost Colony, Blackbeard's final battle, the wild Banker horses, the moving Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, the abandoned village of Portsmouth, the shipwrecked Carroll A. Deering, Ocracoke's British Cemetery, Topsail Island's secret missile-testing towers, Beaufort's rum-barrel grave, and Wilmington's long career pretending to be somewhere else.This is more than a collection of strange facts. It is a practical and entertaining travel companion filled with ferry advice, lighthouse stops, wildlife safety, road-trip planning, beach-driving tips, storm-season realities, local food traditions, and helpful ways to avoid spending half your vacation reversing direction on Highway 12.Inside, you will also find a north-to-south itinerary, ferry and beach-road guidance, coastal food stories, and a final collection of Outer Banks facts that sound completely fake.Perfect for road-trippers, beach lovers, history fans, lighthouse climbers, pirate enthusiasts, and travelers who believe every vacation improves when wild horses, ghost stories, secret rockets, and hush puppies become involved. …

Paperback. Condition: new. Paperback. Mastering the Art of Sales: Proven Strategies for Selling Your ArtMost artists would rather create than sell. But what if selling your art didn't feel pushy, awkward, or desperate - and actually became one of the most fulfilling parts of your creative life?In Mastering the Art of Sales, you'll discover a complete, artist-friendly system for turning your passion into consistent income. Whether you're just starting to sell your work or looking to scale your career, this book gives you practical, proven strategies that respect your creative soul while building real business results.You'll learn how to: Price your art with confidence and command premium pricesAttract the right collectors who truly value your workMaster both online and in-person selling without feeling salesyBuild a loyal following and repeat buyersCreate powerful artist statements and stories that connect emotionallyNavigate galleries, art fairs, commissions, and online platforms with easeWritten by someone who understands the heart of an artist, this is more than just a sales book - it's a transformative guide that helps you bridge the gap between studio and success.Stop leaving money on the table. Your art deserves to be seen, valued, and sold.The creative life you want is also a profitable one - and it starts here. This item is printed on demand. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.…

Condition: New. Print on Demand.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware - Step into the wildly complicated world of the Tudors-where marriages could change a country, family arguments could become religious revolutions, and getting too close to the throne was occasionally hazardous to your neck.STRANGE BUT TRUE: THE WEIRD HISTORY OF THE TUDORS explores the outrageous, dramatic, and often unbelievable true stories behind one of England's most famous royal dynasties.From Henry VII's shaky claim to the crown to Henry VIII's six marriages, Anne Boleyn's spectacular rise and fall, Edward VI's short reign, Lady Jane Grey's disastrous nine days, Mary I's phantom pregnancies, and Elizabeth I's lifelong refusal to marry, the Tudor era rarely behaved itself.Along the way, discover royal toilets with political importance, terrible medical treatments, extravagant feasts, bizarre fashions, religious chaos, dangerous court gossip, botched executions, haunted palaces, secret plots, spies, disputed heirs, and the strange truth behind some of the biggest Tudor myths.Written in a lively, cheeky style, this is history for readers who enjoy the facts but would rather not feel as though they are trapped in a classroom.Inside you'll discover: - How Henry Tudor won England despite having a surprisingly questionable claim to it- Why Henry VIII's search for a son helped tear England away from Rome- What really happened to Henry's six wives- How Anne of Cleves managed to turn royal rejection into an excellent retirement plan- Why Lady Jane Grey became queen for roughly the length of a bad vacation- The truth behind Mary I's phantom pregnancies and 'Bloody Mary' reputation- How Elizabeth I survived plots, foreign enemies, religious conflict, and decades of people asking when she planned to get married- Tudor executions, ghosts, myths, strange medicine, extravagant food, and much moreExecutions, Rotten Marriages, Royal Tantrums, Religious Chaos, Phantom Pregnancies, and Other Completely Normal Family Problems.If you like strange history, royal scandals, bizarre true stories, and historical facts that sound completely made up but aren't, The Weird History of the Tudors belongs on your shelf.…

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware - Two national parks. One desert town. Several roads that appear to have been designed by a mountain goat with a grudge.WEIRD ARCHES & CANYONLANDS NATIONAL PARKS takes readers deep into the spectacular, sunbaked, wonderfully strange country surrounding Moab, Utah. This is where sandstone arches balance against common sense, canyon roads test both machinery and confidence, and every harmless-looking trail seems to have hidden another mile behind a rock.Explore Delicate Arch, Landscape Arch, the Fiery Furnace, Devils Garden, Island in the Sky, The Needles, The Maze, Horseshoe Canyon, Mesa Arch, Upheaval Dome, and the wild backcountry beyond the pavement. Then venture outside the parks for mountain biking on Slickrock, four-wheel-drive excitement on Hell's Revenge, the cinematic scenery of Highway 128, and the strange history of the uranium boom that transformed Moab.Along the way, discover ancient rock art, geological mysteries, legendary movie locations, river corridors, remote trails, desert wildlife, and roads where turning around may require courage, planning, and a vehicle that did not come with complimentary floor mats.This funny and practical travel adventure also helps readers choose suitable hikes, understand permit requirements, prepare for desert weather, avoid dangerous mistakes, plan a realistic seven-day visit, and decide whether a backcountry road is an exciting challenge or an excellent opportunity to remain at the hotel pool.Inside you'll discover: - The strangest stories behind Arches and Canyonlands- Famous landmarks and overlooked corners worth exploring- Hiking, biking, scenic-driving, and four-wheel-drive adventures- Moab's movie history and uranium-boom past- Practical guidance for heat, water, crowds, roads, permits, and safety- A complete seven-day itinerary for exploring the region- Plenty of cheeky observations about tourists, trail maps, red dust, and desert overconfidenceWhether you are planning your first trip to Moab, returning for another round of red-rock trouble, or exploring from a comfortable chair with absolutely no intention of driving down Elephant Hill, this book reveals a landscape that is beautiful, bizarre, thrilling, and far stranger than it first appears.Pack extra water, protect the rental car, and never underestimate a road described as 'passable when dry.' The desert has been waiting. …

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware - Ancient Rome gave the world magnificent roads, powerful laws, soaring aqueducts-and emperors who argued with the sea, gladiators who became celebrities, sacred chickens employed as military advisers, and public toilets where privacy apparently went to die.In Strange But True: The Weird History of Ancient Rome, the polished marble is pushed aside to reveal the noisy, crowded, funny, brutal, and frequently ridiculous civilization underneath. Meet abandoned twins raised by a she-wolf, rulers who turned government into personal theater, chariot racers who earned fortunes, doctors who prescribed cabbage and gladiator blood, soldiers who wrote home asking for socks, and ordinary Romans who filled their walls with campaign slogans, gossip, insults, and remarkably familiar complaints.Travel from Rome's legendary founding and unruly Republic to the Colosseum, Pompeii, Hadrian's Wall, and the empire's famously complicated ending. Along the way, discover why Romans put fish sauce on almost everything, how bathhouses became noisy social clubs, what happened when sacred chickens refused breakfast, and why the 'fall of Rome' took much longer than the history books usually admit.Funny, cheeky, surprising, and packed with unforgettable true stories, this book brings ancient history to life without turning it into a dusty lecture. It is perfect for history lovers, curious travelers, trivia fans, reluctant students, and anyone who suspects the ancient world was much stranger than the statues let on.Rome conquered much of the known world-but it never managed to become normal.…

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware - America has thousands of rivers, which means there are thousands of opportunities to relax peacefully beside the water, admire the scenery, and make a series of decisions that seemed much smarter back in the parking lot.Weird River Adventures is a funny, practical, story-packed journey down some of America's most memorable waterways, from easygoing floats where the biggest challenge is remembering where you parked to legendary whitewater where the river has considerably stronger opinions about your vacation plans.Along the way, you'll float through clear Florida springs, plunge into famous Western rapids, explore spectacular canyons, discover waterfalls hiding in Nebraska, travel through historic river country, and visit the strange towns and communities that grew up beside America's moving water. The journey reaches rivers including the Buffalo, Rio Grande, Chattooga, Salmon, Gauley, Green, Niobrara, and the mighty Colorado through the Grand Canyon, with plenty of unexpected history along the way.But this isn't a dry river encyclopedia written by someone who thinks 'watershed characteristics' sounds like a thrilling Saturday night.It's a travel book for people who want to actually go somewhere.You'll discover gentle floats for beginners, famous whitewater adventures, strange river history, forgotten stories, unusual landscapes, practical trip-planning advice, and the small disasters that make river travel memorable long after your shoes have finally dried. There are outfitters, shuttles, paddles, dry bags, questionable parking strategies, wildly optimistic tourists, and enough moving water to demonstrate that rivers are considerably better at navigation than humans.Whether you're looking for a peaceful afternoon float, your first rafting trip, a multi-day wilderness adventure, or simply a great American road trip with water running through the middle of it, Weird River Adventures will help you find a river worth following.Pack the sunscreen. Secure the car keys. Wear the life jacket.And remember one important rule of river travel: The river knows exactly where it's going. You are the one who should probably check the map. …

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware - What if the greatest inventions in history had a much stranger family tree than anyone remembers STRANGE BUT TRUE: THE WEIRD HISTORY OF FAILED INVENTIONS dives into the wonderfully bizarre world of machines, gadgets, vehicles, weapons, household devices, and futuristic ideas that promised to change everything-and then absolutely did not.Inside, you'll meet steam-powered mechanical men, giant monowheels, propeller cars, amphibious automobiles, flying tanks, rocket-delivered mail, horse-drawn vacuum cleaners, radioactive health products, electric miracle belts, pigeon-guided weapons, ice aircraft carriers, early smart homes, nuclear cars, personal helicopters, and flying cars that have somehow remained 'just a few years away' for more than a century.But these inventions were not always foolish. Many were serious attempts to solve real problems, created by talented engineers working at the edge of what technology could do. Some failed because they were too expensive. Others arrived decades too early. A few worked perfectly well but solved problems nobody actually cared about. And some were so spectacularly impractical that history could only stand back and admire the confidence.Written in the funny, cheeky style of the Strange But True series, this book explores the forgotten side of technological progress-the prototypes that sank, exploded, rattled, overheated, frightened investors, confused customers, and occasionally helped inspire the inventions we use today.Because history is not just made by the brilliant ideas that worked.Sometimes it is made by the brilliant ideas that probably should have stayed on paper.…

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware - Tea looks harmless enough. A few leaves, some hot water, maybe a biscuit nearby minding its own business. But behind that polite little cup is a history packed with smugglers, emperors, samurai, spies, wars, taxes, stolen plants, fortune-tellers, bizarre rituals, and people who became dangerously emotional about when to add the milk.STRANGE BUT TRUE: THE WEIRD HISTORY OF TEA follows one remarkable leaf from ancient China to monasteries, royal courts, colonial plantations, Boston Harbor, Victorian drawing rooms, Tibetan mountains, Moroccan tea tables, Russian samovars, Japanese ceremonies, and modern bubble tea shops.Along the way, discover how tea was once used as medicine and money, why British taxes created a massive smuggling underworld, how the Boston Tea Party turned a beverage into a revolutionary weapon, why a Scottish botanist traveled through China in disguise stealing tea plants and knowledge, and how Britain's appetite for tea became tangled with opium, empire, and war.You'll also meet tea-drinking monks trying not to fall asleep, samurai turning tea into a competitive sport, emperors obsessing over foam, fortune-tellers staring suspiciously into soggy leaves, and generations of perfectly reasonable adults arguing over milk as though national security depended on it.Funny, cheeky, surprising, and packed with strange true stories, this is not a book about how to make tea.It is the story of how tea helped make history.Put the kettle on. Things are about to get weird.…

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware - Coffee has started revolutions, fueled wars, inspired smugglers, terrified rulers, powered armies, created fortunes, destroyed sleep schedules, and convinced otherwise reasonable people to spend fifteen minutes preparing one cup before sunrise.STRANGE BUT TRUE: THE WEIRD HISTORY OF COFFEE follows the world's favorite caffeine delivery system from legendary dancing goats in Ethiopia to the coffeehouses of the Ottoman Empire, Europe's suspicious first encounters with the 'devil's drink,' colonial plantations, cowboy campfires, wartime instant coffee, espresso machines, decaf experiments, and today's wonderfully overcomplicated coffee culture.Along the way, you'll meet sultans who tried to ban coffee, smugglers who stole precious plants, governments nervous about what people were discussing over their cups, soldiers who considered coffee nearly as important as ammunition, and inventors determined to build increasingly complicated machines just to make hot brown water taste better.You'll also discover why Mocha was a place before it was a flavor, how coffee became tangled up with politics and revolution, why some of the world's most expensive beans have taken a rather unfortunate trip through an animal, and how humanity went from boiling beans over a fire to arguing about grind size, water temperature, extraction time, and whether your latte foam has sufficient artistic merit.Funny, fascinating, and packed with bizarre true stories, The Weird History of Coffee is for coffee lovers, history lovers, trivia addicts, and anyone who has ever said, 'Don't talk to me until I've had my coffee.'Pour yourself a cup.Human civilization has made many questionable decisions.Coffee was not one of them. …

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware - Humanity has been stealing honey for thousands of years, and somehow the bees have remained in charge.From prehistoric honey hunters dangling from cliffs to ancient Egyptians floating beehives down the Nile, the history of beekeeping is far stranger than the tidy jars of honey on a grocery-store shelf suggest. Along the way, people worshipped bees, whispered family news to their hives, believed bees could predict the future, prescribed honey and venom as medicine, stole entire colonies, marched hives into battle, and occasionally covered themselves with thousands of bees for entertainment.In Strange But True: The Weird History of Beekeeping, discover the bizarre, funny, and surprisingly fascinating stories behind one of humanity's oldest relationships with the natural world.Inside you'll discover: - Ancient honey hunters risking their necks for something sweet- Egyptian beekeepers moving hives along the Nile- The strange belief that bees could be created from dead cattle- Sacred bees, royal bees, and the tradition of 'telling the bees'- Medieval straw skeps and honey harvests that could end badly for the colony- Honey thieves and surprisingly serious laws about stolen swarms- How scientists finally discovered the 'king bee' was actually a queen- The inventions that transformed modern beekeeping- Soldiers discovering that angry bees make memorable weapons- Poisonous 'mad honey' that made armies regret dessert- Doctors experimenting with honey, wax, propolis, and bee venom- Performers deliberately growing enormous bee beards- Bees traveling by truck and even through the mail- The strange story of Buckfast bees and Africanized honey beesFunny, quirky, and packed with real history, this is not a beekeeping instruction manual. It is the story of what happened when humans spent thousands of years trying to manage an insect that never seemed particularly interested in being managed.Perfect for history lovers, beekeepers, gardeners, honey fans, trivia addicts, and anyone who enjoys discovering the wonderfully strange decisions people made in the past.Because humans may own the hive, but the bees have clearly been running the operation all along.…

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware - Birdwatching looks peaceful.A pair of binoculars. A quiet trail. A little bird singing in a tree.That is the modern version.The history is much stranger.For thousands of years, people watched birds because they thought the creatures could predict weather, reveal the will of the gods, guide travelers, signal the seasons, or deliver supernatural messages. Later, naturalists became so determined to understand birds that they routinely shot them first and identified them afterward.Then things got really weird.Victorian collectors scrambled up cliffs to steal rare eggs. Fashion nearly wiped out entire bird colonies because feathers looked good on hats. Wealthy collectors filled cabinets with specimens. Conservationists fought back. Better binoculars changed the hobby forever, and field guides taught ordinary people how to identify birds without turning them into museum exhibits.And once people started keeping lists, birdwatching became wonderfully obsessive.Inside STRANGE BUT TRUE: THE WEIRD HISTORY OF BIRDWATCHING, you'll discover: - why ancient Romans let sacred chickens influence important decisions- how medieval bird books confidently reported some truly ridiculous biology- why the first serious birdwatchers often carried shotguns- how Victorian egg collecting became an obsession- how feathered hats helped launch the modern conservation movement- why Roger Tory Peterson changed birdwatching forever- how life lists, twitching, and Big Years turned a quiet hobby into an international chase- why the ivory-billed woodpecker refuses to stay comfortably extinct- how the passenger pigeon went from billions of birds to none- why Arctic terns make human travelers look lazy- how some birds can sleep while flying- why crows may remember your face- how radar accidentally became one of the greatest birdwatching tools ever invented- why millions of ordinary birders now contribute useful scientific data- and how one tiny rare bird can cause hundreds of perfectly reasonable adults to abandon their plans and stare into the same bushFunny, surprising, occasionally ridiculous, and packed with strange true stories, this is not a guide to identifying birds.It is the story of what happened when humans started looking up.and became completely obsessed with what they saw.Perfect for birdwatchers, nature lovers, history fans, travelers, trivia addicts, and anyone who has ever wondered why a group of adults with expensive binoculars is staring very seriously at one completely ordinary-looking tree. …

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware - The Vikings were not just horned-helmeted raiders charging out of the fog. In fact, the horned helmets are mostly nonsense-and the real story is far stranger.STRANGE BUT TRUE: THE WEIRD HISTORY OF THE VIKINGS dives into the bizarre, brutal, funny, and often unbelievable world of the Norse. From runic graffiti scratched into ancient buildings and warriors who filed grooves into their teeth to berserkers, funeral ships, strange gods, seeresses, slave markets, royal feuds, and voyages that reached North America centuries before Columbus, this book uncovers the Viking Age beyond the usual legends.Discover how Vikings really lived, what they ate, how often they bathed, why combs show up everywhere in Viking archaeology, how longships changed Europe, what happened inside smoky longhouses, why insults could start blood feuds, and how Scandinavian traders ended up carrying Arabic silver, serving Byzantine emperors, and leaving their names carved into famous monuments.Along the way, you'll meet Odin, Thor, Loki, shieldmaidens, ambitious kings, unlucky monks, hard-drinking warriors, stubborn farmers, clever merchants, and enough questionable decisions to keep historians busy for another thousand years.Written in the funny, cheeky style of the Strange But True series, this is history without the dry textbook treatment.Perfect for readers who enjoy weird history, Viking history, Norse mythology, ancient mysteries, bizarre historical facts, archaeology, and true stories that sound completely made up.Because the Vikings were dangerous, complicated, surprisingly well groomed-and much weirder than the movies.…

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware - Horses carried emperors into battle, kings into portraits, mail across the frontier, firefighters through crowded streets, and gamblers straight toward financial ruin. They pulled plows, dragged artillery, worked underground, starred in movies, became international celebrities, and occasionally received better funerals than the people riding them.In Strange But True: The Weird History of Horses, you will gallop through thousands of years of remarkable, hilarious, heroic, and sometimes completely unbelievable horse history. Discover how early humans went from hunting horses for dinner to climbing onto their backs, why ancient chariots became the superweapons of their age, and how the stirrup helped transform mounted warfare. Meet royal stallions, armored warhorses, tough Mongol ponies, escaped mustangs, pit ponies, fire horses, police horses, and strange breeds that look as though nature became unusually creative after lunch.Along the way, you will encounter Caligula's politically ambitious horse, Alexander the Great's legendary Bucephalus, Napoleon's carefully managed equestrian image, and Sergeant Reckless, the heroic mare who became a United States Marine. You will follow the short, frantic life of the Pony Express, enter the dangerous world of stagecoaches and horse thieves, and discover how cities nearly disappeared beneath mountains of horse manure before automobiles arrived to save civilization's shoes.The racing chapters charge straight into the Sport of Kings, the strange origins of the Thoroughbred, horses that finished races without riders, and the unforgettable careers of Seabiscuit and Secretariat. You will also explore movie horses, miniature horses, curly horses, horse superstitions, lucky horseshoes, cloning, DNA, and the surprising reasons horses remain valuable in a machine-filled world.…

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware - What if the real history of magic is stranger than the tricks themselves Long before rabbits popped out of hats and assistants started disappearing into suspiciously small boxes, magicians were fooling kings, terrifying crowds, exposing fake ghosts, escaping impossible traps, and occasionally making decisions that were spectacularly bad for their health.STRANGE BUT TRUE: THE WEIRD HISTORY OF MAGICIANS takes you behind the curtain for a hilarious journey through centuries of illusion, deception, showmanship, rivalry, and outright weirdness.Meet ancient tricksters, Victorian superstars, escape artists, fake mediums, skeptical magicians, dangerous daredevils, and performers who built entire careers around convincing audiences that the impossible had just happened right in front of them.Discover how Robert-Houdin helped transform magic into elegant theater, how Harry Houdini turned handcuffs and jail cells into worldwide publicity, why spiritualists claimed they could talk to the dead, how magicians fought back against fraudulent psychics, and why some performers risked everything for one unforgettable trick.There are secret devices, spectacular hoaxes, disastrous stunts, famous feuds, strange patents, disappearing landmarks, talking ghosts, broken illusions, and more than a few moments when somebody really should have reconsidered the plan.Funny, fascinating, and packed with bizarre true stories, this is not a book that teaches you how to perform magic. It tells the incredible story of the people who made generations of audiences gasp, laugh, argue, and ask the same question: How did they do that Perfect for magic lovers, history fans, curious kids, aspiring magicians, and anyone who has ever stared at a magic trick and refused to believe what they just saw.And if somebody is getting a magic set for Christmas or a birthday, this might be the perfect book to slip in beside it.…

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware - Golf looks like a quiet game played on pleasant grass. Its history is anything but quiet.STRANGE BUT TRUE: THE WEIRD HISTORY OF GOLF takes readers on an entertaining journey from ancient club-and-ball games and windswept Scottish links to modern tournaments, high-tech equipment, impossible courses, and golf on the Moon.Discover why kings played golf after governments tried to ban it, how craftsmen made expensive balls from leather and boiled feathers, and why Dutch players once swung clubs across frozen canals crowded with skaters. Meet colorful champions, overlooked caddies, ingenious equipment makers, daring course designers, determined women, shameless cheats, and golfers who turned terrible decisions into permanent rules.Along the way, explore the strange origins of familiar words such as birdie, bogey, mulligan, stymie, and caddie. Learn how golf spread around the world, why eighteen holes became standard, how fashion committed several crimes against eyesight, and why centuries of technological progress still cannot prevent a perfectly good ball from disappearing into ordinary grass.Informative, funny, and delightfully cheeky, this book reveals the remarkable history hiding behind every tee, bunker, club, and suspiciously optimistic scorecard.Perfect for golfers, sports-history enthusiasts, trivia lovers, and anyone searching for a memorable gift for the person who would rather be on the course.Golf has changed enormously over the centuries. The arguments, excuses, and lost balls remain in excellent condition. …

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware - Rest in peace History apparently missed the memo. Coffins have floated out of cemeteries. Grave robbers have treated burial grounds like business opportunities. Inventors have fitted coffins with bells so the occupants could ring for help. And one English king spent centuries beneath a parking lot, waiting for somebody to investigate more than the parking situation.STRANGE BUT TRUE: THE WEIRD HISTORY OF GRAVES, CATACOMBS & CEMETERIES opens the gates to a world where the final resting place was frequently neither final nor particularly restful. Step inside Rome's rooms decorated with human bones, descend into the Paris Catacombs, and meet the Victorians who gave the dead their own railway service. Discover why some graves needed iron cages, how thieves tried to steal Abraham Lincoln's body, and what happened when floodwater decided to rearrange an entire cemetery. Eternal rest, it turns out, has involved a surprising amount of engineering, security, and transportation.Along the way, explore skulls painted with flowers, lost tombs that still frustrate searchers, and a little cemetery where beloved pets received remarkably grand farewells. Visit a graveyard famous for its ghost stories, with documented history kept distinct from the legends that grew around it. Then meet the people who used their epitaphs to get the last laugh, permanently. These are stories of human ingenuity, affection, fear, ambition, and occasionally spectacularly bad judgment, all hiding behind the cemetery gate.Packed with strange history and cheeky humor, this SparkTrail Press book is for curious readers who love unusual places, bizarre inventions, historical mysteries, and facts worth interrupting someone to share. You do not need to believe in ghosts to discover that cemeteries have extraordinary stories. You just need to look beyond the headstones. Open the book and find out why six feet under was so often the beginning of the trouble.…

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware - Britain helped power an industrial revolution with boats that could be overtaken by a determined pensioner.Welcome to the wonderfully peculiar world of narrowboats, where the engine once ate hay, express delivery involved cheese, and getting through a tunnel could mean lying down and walking along the walls. Apparently, somebody considered this a perfectly reasonable working arrangement.Today, narrowboats promise peaceful countryside, pretty bridges, and the pleasure of taking your kitchen somewhere else. Behind that gentle image lies a much stranger history of crowded cabins, fierce rivalries, ingenious engineering, stubborn families, and cargo that absolutely needed to arrive before anyone could stop for a nice cup of tea.STRANGE BUT TRUE: THE WEIRD HISTORY OF NARROWBOATS takes you aboard for a funny, fascinating journey through Britain's floating world. Meet the horses that supplied the horsepower, the tunnel leggers who supplied their feet, and the families who fitted entire lives into cabins with less room than many people reserve for unwanted exercise equipment.Discover overnight cheese boats, extravagantly painted castles on very modest homes, wartime women doing anything but idle work, and volunteers who refused to let the canals disappear. Along the way, encounter a boat crossing high above a Welsh valley, an orchestra whose floating platform had travel plans of its own, and the celebrated tale of a cow that took a tunnel swim nobody had booked.Then follow the narrowboat into its extraordinary second life as a holiday escape, a floating bookshop, a theatre company's travelling home, and accommodation with the unusual advantage of being able to leave the neighborhood.Packed with curious history, memorable characters, and affectionate mischief, this is a book for canal enthusiasts, armchair travelers, lovers of British oddities.Step aboard. Mind your head. The scenery is lovely, and the past is considerably less well behaved.…

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware - Step right up and discover the strange, outrageous, sometimes troubling, and frequently hilarious history hiding behind the painted banners of the carnival midway.Before television, social media, and suspicious online advertisements, carnival sideshows promised audiences sword swallowers, fire eaters, tattooed performers, human cannonballs, flea circuses, mysterious giants, impossible creatures, and mermaids whose fishy origins had very little to do with the ocean. Some attractions displayed extraordinary skill. Others relied on clever machinery, shameless exaggeration, creative taxidermy, and the public's willingness to pay for something it already suspected was complete nonsense.Strange But True: The Weird History of Carnival Sideshows explores the rise of dime museums, traveling circuses, ten-in-one shows, midway talkers, famous hoaxes, dangerous performances, and the remarkable people who made their living beneath the canvas. Meet P. T. Barnum and his celebrated frauds, learn the secret language of carnival workers, examine the tricks used to manufacture monsters, and discover why skeptical customers kept buying tickets anyway.Funny, cheeky, surprising, and carefully researched, this book also looks beyond the outrageous advertising to reveal the real lives of performers-people who found fame, independence, exploitation, community, opportunity, and hardship in a business built around human curiosity.The banners may be gone, but the sales pitch still works: You have never seen anything like this before.…

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware - What if your dentist was also your barber What if your dentures came from a battlefield And what if the treatment for a toothache involved arsenic, cocaine, a foot-powered drill, or an instrument that looked suspiciously like it belonged in a torture chamber Welcome to STRANGE BUT TRUE: THE WEIRD HISTORY OF DENTISTRY, where the history of the dentist's chair turns out to be much stranger, funnier, and more horrifying than anyone probably wanted.Long before painless injections, digital X-rays, and polite little cups of mouthwash, toothache sufferers faced a very different world. Ancient healers blamed tooth worms. Barber surgeons pulled teeth between haircuts. Traveling tooth pullers worked crowds like carnival performers. Denture makers used ivory, animal teeth, and sometimes actual human teeth collected from battlefields.And that was only the beginning.Inside, you'll discover the bizarre true stories behind: Tooth worms that survived in medical belief for centuries.Barber dentists who offered shaving, bloodletting, and tooth extraction under one convenient roof.The infamous dental key, a device built around the comforting idea that if a tooth would not come out, more leverage was probably the answer.Waterloo teeth and the unsettling trade in human teeth for dentures.George Washington's very real and very strange false teeth.Laughing gas, ether, cocaine, and the chaotic race to make dentistry painless.Arsenic deliberately placed inside painful teeth.The Great Amalgam War, when dentists nearly tore their own profession apart over filling material.Painless Parker, the dentist who used brass bands, public extractions, outrageous advertising, and a full-blown dental circus to attract patients.Foot-powered drills that required the dentist to operate the machinery with one leg while working inside your mouth.The dangerous early days of dental X-rays, when pioneers learned about radiation exposure the hard way.And the many strange treatments, materials, machines, myths, and dental ideas that eventually disappeared into museums where they could no longer hurt anyone.Funny, surprising, occasionally gruesome, and packed with stories that sound invented but absolutely are not, The Weird History of Dentistry explores how humanity went from tooth worms and battlefield dentures to the modern dental office.After reading it, you may still dislike going to the dentist.But you will probably feel much better when nobody walks in carrying a dental key.…

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware - Fishing has never been just a quiet afternoon by the water. It has involved ancient bone hooks, medieval fish thieves, bizarre homemade bait, monster catches, heated feuds, government fish trains, questionable records, and enough magnificent lies to fill the world's largest tackle box.STRANGE BUT TRUE: THE WEIRD HISTORY OF FISHING takes readers on an entertaining journey through thousands of years of angling history-from the first people who fashioned hooks out of bone and shell to modern fishermen armed with sonar, specialized boats, and lures that cost more than an old pickup truck.Discover how medieval communities protected their fishing grounds, how bass fishing became an American obsession, and how Florida-strain largemouth bass were planted across the United States and around the world. Learn why the government once transported live fish by rail, how trout reached remote mountain lakes, why carp were introduced into Utah, and how early hatcheries collected and fertilized salmon eggs by hand.The book also explores fishing presidents, legendary sport fishermen, record-breaking catches, strange contests, dangerous adventures, ice fishing, noodling, unusual laws, ridiculous baits, and the sea lamprey invasion that nearly devastated the Great Lakes fishery. Along the way, you will meet bold innovators, determined conservationists, colorful characters-and a few fishermen whose stories grew considerably faster than the fish they supposedly caught.Informative, funny, and just cheeky enough to smell suspiciously like a fishing camp, this book is written for anglers who appreciate the history behind their favorite pastime-and for anyone who enjoys strange but completely true stories.Whether you fish from a bass boat, a riverbank, a frozen lake, or a lawn chair beside a questionable farm pond, there is something here that will make you say: 'You're not going to believe this-but it's true.'.…