JF Ptak Science Books LLC  Post 540

Sometimes publications have absolutely no pretense, stating exactly what it is that sleeps between their covers. And sometimes these titles seem more like declarative broadsides or posters and not books at all, the “book part”, or any writing furthering the cover’s statement,  being unnecessary.  The first example here (and one which begs the response “yup!”), Saturn Has Rings, written in 1944 by Donald Lee Cyr (of El Centro), should’ve stopped at the end of the title of chapter one, “A Rose has Petals”.  But no, it didn’t, and stretched itself over another fifty thin pages. 

Frederick Blaine Humphrey’s Know Your Groceries (1931) takes an unexpected twist, spiraling into something called “biochesspathy”, “natural dianetics”, and somehow “applying the natural science of the Bible…to the philosophy of youth and health”. 

The Book of Envelope Facts…yes.  This is actually a lovely book, in its very special way, with 55 pages of non-stop facts and semi-useless information on envelopes.  Chapter Two’s “Arousing Interest with Envelopes” competes wildly with Chapter Three “Attracting Attention with Envelopes” and Chapter Four’s “Creating Desire with Envelopes”.  It is completed with eight pages of a glossary of envelope terms.

This last example, Alice Mills’ Notes on Reading Aloud, really doesn’t belong, because it is mainly on acting; but the title is so lovely I just couldn’t resist.