:Bill's Book Blog:

We found a book in the discard stack the other day with one of those memorably wacky titles: Top Notch Surgeon, Pregnant Nurse. It’s so bad, it’s funny. But it’s real; the author is Amy Andrews (and you can look it up).  Anyway, it got us to thinking about funny, real book titles. A bit of research turned up some howlers. Here’s my choice of the top 20 funniest book titles I’ve discovered, all real published books, with my very favorite at the end:

Cheese Problems Solved – P.L.H. McSweeney

The Big Book of Lesbian Horse Stories – Alisa Surkis

The Potatoes of Bolivia – J.G. Hawkes

How to Avoid Huge Ships – John W. Trimmer

Reusing Old Graves – Douglas Davies

Walled Up Nuns & Nuns Walled In – Lancelot Holland

Bombproof Your Horse – Jack Pelicano

Harnessing the Earthworm – Thomas J. Barrett

People Who Don’t Know they’re Dead – Gary Leon Hill

How Green Were the Nazis? – Franz-Josef  Bruggemeier

Old Tractors and the Men Who Love Them – Roger Welsch

Weeds in a Changing World – C.H. Stirton

Across Europe by Kangaroo – Joseph Barry

Drilling a Straight Hole – Nancy Janicek

Greek Rural Postmen and their Cancellation Numbers – (author not listed, perhaps for good reason)

How to Read a Book – Mortimer J. Adler

How to Write a How to Write Book – Brian Puddock

The Stray Shopping Carts of Eastern North America – Julian Montague

Conspiracy Theories & Secret Societies for Dummies – Christopher Hodapp

And now – drum roll please — my choice for the funniest title:

Cooking with Pooh.

Think about it for a moment. It’s a Winnie the Pooh cookbook from 1995 whose title suggests something altogether different from what the publisher intended. The cooking results from this might be low-fat, but I’m guessing all the food tastes like …. well, you know what.

Please feel free to add your favorites, but only real book titles, please.

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