'Weird Book Room' Invites You to Sit Down and Freak Out

AbeBooks (UK), an online bookseller, brings us the fabulous Weird Books Room, which features all things odd in the literary world. You may be familiar with the equally wonderful Rare Books Room, but the Weird Books Room is decidedly different. Showcasing books like Summer with the Leprechauns: A True Story, Spaghetti Art Ware: Poodles and Other Collectible Ceramics, and Ductigami: The Art of the Tape, the list is full of little unknown treasures, however strange they may be.

But the whole idea of categorizing a group of books as 'weird' raises a number of issues. What exactly makes a book 'weird'? Are the compilers of the Weird Book Room and those who suggest books judging them by their covers? Has the publishing industry's preference for catchy titles created a cottage industry for 'weird' books?

Despite making a genius marketing move by repackaging unknown or unpopular books, AbeBooks has given us a great platform for discussing the whole idea of 'weirdness' in literature. And you can't put the words 'odd' and 'book' in a sentence without talking about the granddaddy of literary oddities, Tristram Shandy.

The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman is an 18th century fake memoir full of digressions and tangents that stretch it to nine volumes published over ten years. One of the earliest comic novels, it's so chock-full of the strange that it becomes difficult to read. Despite its weirdness, the book has won a place in the literary canon where it's remembered as weird and wonderful, silly and scholarly. As such it's not something that would ever wind up in the Weird Books Room. Or is it?