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Weird or Wonderful? Books in the ISU Library Collection


This guide is meant to be a starting point for learning more about and exploring some of the more unusual resources in our library collection. The books highlighted here are a mix of new and old, and were discovered by library staff. The intent is to spark curiosity and hopefully encourage reading things that you might not otherwise have stumbled across.

Weird & Wonderful: Selected Books

Cover art for Breath
Cover art for Killing Commendatore
Cover art for The Emily Dickinson Reader
Cover art for Flattened Fauna
Cover art for The Manly Art of Knitting
Cover art for The Anatomy of Disgust
Cover art for The Goblin Emperor
Cover art for Undefeated
Cover art for Bomb
Cover art for Ghosts
Cover art for Why Does Asparagus Make Your Pee Smell?
Cover art for Rick Baker
Cover art for The Stray Shopping Carts of Eastern North America
Cover art for Honor Thy Label
Cover art for Infrastructure
Cover art for Toxic Legacy
Cover art for NeuroScience Fiction
Cover art for How Buildings Learn
Cover art for Our First Book
Cover art for Touch the Universe
Cover art for The Book of Hope
Cover art for English As She Is Spoke
Cover art for This Book Really Sucks!
Cover art for You Look Like a Thing and I Love You
Cover art for Generation Occupy
Cover art for The End of Everything
Cover art for Heidegger and a Hippo Walk Through Those Pearly Gates
Cover art for The Icepick Surgeon
Cover art for Crap Taxidermy
Cover art for Hummingbirds
Cover art for How to Do Nothing
Cover art for The Sound of Things to Come

Are you interested in finding more books similar to the ones showcased on this guide? Here are some ideas for finding more:

Search for the subject of "trivia" in Quick Search.

Pick a topic of interest and add the word "miscellanea" to your search - e.g., Physics miscellanea, China miscellanea, Beer miscellanea, God miscellanea.

Other possible keywords to try: Controversies, questions, "popular works."

This guide was made to accompany the 2022 book display:
Weird -or- Wonderful?

We hope you discover something new and interesting!

Please direct any questions to:
Lorrie Pellack & Erin Thomas

 

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