The fantastic cover of the 2006 book, ‘Knitting With Balls.’
I have to give it to the dynamic duo of Mary Kelly and Holly Hibner—a pair of public librarians in Michigan who run the fantastic site Awful Library Books. For about a decade Kelly and Hibner have been posting images of what they describe as “amusing and questionable” library books they have found, as well as submissions from their fans. To date, the site has posted 634 pages full of bizarre books covering topics on the dangers of ritual satanic abuse to the riveting sounding Wonders of Dust—a 79-page book published in 1980 about fucking DUST.
Before I knew it, I had dug through 100 pages on Awful Library Books before I forced myself to walk away from my desk because I couldn’t stop clicking to see what literary horrors were on the next page. Kelly and Hibner are pretty much the greatest people alive, and their prolific work has been featured in TIME, and on Jimmy Kimmel Live! I’ve posted a ton of images from Awful Library Books below, all of which defy logical explanation.
The cover of the 1977 book, ‘Looking Forward To Being Attacked.’
A page from inside of ‘Looking Forward To Being Attacked.’
Another page from ‘Looking Forward To Being Attacked.’
The cover of the 1988 book, ‘Bad Trips Encyclopedia of Psychoactive Drugs.’
A strange page from ‘Bad Trips Encyclopedia of Psychoactive Drugs.’
Another photo from ‘Bad Trips Encyclopedia of Psychoactive Drugs’ featuring the lifeless body of a man who overdosed on heroin.
More fun from ‘Bad Trips Encyclopedia of Psychoactive Drugs.’
The cover of the 1944 book ‘Church Members Who Make God Sick.’
The cover of the 1980 children’s book ‘You’re Either One or the Other: A Children’s Book About Human Sexuality.’
A page from ‘You’re Either One or the Other: A Children’s Book About Human Sexuality.’
The cover of the 1954 book, ‘How to Recognize and Handle Abnormal People: A Manual for the Police Officer.
A page from ‘How to Recognize and Handle Abnormal People: A Manual for the Police Officer.’
The cover of ‘Wonders of Dust’ 1980.
The cover of the groovy 1976 book ‘How to Make Love to a Single Man: How to meet him, understand him, and love him.’
A sexy page from ‘How to Make Love to a Single Man: How to meet him, understand him, and love him.’
The amusing cover for the 1986 book ‘Clowning for Christ.’
A page from ‘Clowning for Christ’ (continued below).
The colorful cover of the 1972 book ‘How to make your Marriage Exciting.’
MARRIAGE IS EXCITING!
The cover of the 1968 book, ‘The Petting Generation.’
A page from ‘The Petting Generation.’
‘How to have Freedom from Fear, Worry and Your Case of Nerves’ 1954.
The cover of the 1950 book ‘Will Jesus Come…This Year: Positive Proof that the End is Near.
The cover of the 1964 book, ‘Crafts for Retarded: Through their hands they shall learn.’
A perplexing page from ‘Crafts for Retarded: Through their hands they shall learn’ that for some reason involves painting swastikas on a drum.
The cover of the 1990 book ‘Don’t Make Me Go Back, Mommy: A child’s book about satanic ritual abuse.’
A page from Don’t Make Me Go Back, Mommy: A child’s book about satanic ritual abuse.’
Another page from ‘Don’t Make Me Go Back, Mommy: A child’s book about satanic ritual abuse.’ Yikes!
Previously on Dangerous Minds:
Blood and Guts in High School: Beautiful and surreal illustrations for science text books
David Pelham’s iconic cover designs for J G Ballard’s books
The master of Moorcock: The psychedelic sci-fi book covers and art of Bob Haberfield
This is where it’s f*ckin’ at: Classic Penguin book covers get subversive makeovers