Half the fun of scouring old bookstores is finding things one doesn’t need, let alone even knew existed. Whenever I am out looking for additions to my various collections, I always make a point of buying something that simply makes me laugh out loud. Sometimes this is a book with a campy cover, or a bizarre illustration inside. But most often, it’s an old tome with a deliciously absurd title, many of them double entendres, whether intentionally or not. Over the years, I’ve amassed quite a few.

I think the first one I ever found that made me chuckle was a book of jokes by Dr. Seuss entitled Boners. I’m old enough to know that the word “boner” had a different meaning, or let’s say, a separate meaning, back in the day. Any kid watching a Superman episode with George Reeves would recognize the term. Lois Lane or Clark Kent often used the term “boner” to describe a gaffe or faux pas. I think Dr. Seuss, who started out writing more risque fare, thought of them in a more ribald light. Imagine my surprise when a few years later I stumbled upon More Boners and its sequel Bigger and Better Boners!

Another campy title that I often come across are those employing the term “gay.” The debates over the use of this word to denote homosexuality are legion. Back in the 19th-century and in the early 1900s, the word had a more benign meaning, signifying cheerfulness and glee. For many, it still does. Later in the 20s and 30s, it began to take on another connotation, having to do with the demimonde, and some scholars insist that it was a euphemism for prostitute. The homosexual underworld adopted it, or it was applied to it. In any case, there are scores of old books with “gay” in the title, including a few from Hollywood where they should have known better.

Some of my favorites include Gay, the Story of a Boy, by Laddie; The Gay Family; The Gay Ones; Teeny Gay; Princess Polly’s Gay Winter; Gay Courage, etc. Perhaps my all time favorite is The Gay Mortician. That’ll be the death of me yet.

Queer is a funny word, even without its sexual connotations. My father used to snap at me whenever I used the word. For a man of my father’s generation, being called “queer” was hardly a compliment. Later, of course, the gay world embraced the term and it is now commonly used without malice or shame. I can’t imagine what my father would have made of the hit TV series, Queer as Folk.

Some of the funnier “queer” books I’ve found include Queer Street; The Queer Island; A Queer Little Man; Queer People; Queer Janet (a popular collectible among the lesbian set) and a strange children’s book about a mysterious fairy called Query Queer.

Not all the campy tomes have “gay” and “queer” titles. A few are more subtle: Hunky, Muscling In; How To Hustle; Anthony in the Nude; The Glory Hole; Hunting the Fairies (which sounds like a book about “fag-bashing”); Young Men in Love (by Michael Arlen!); The Perennial Bachelor; A Touch of Lavender (subtitled “The Gayest Stories of Our Time”); and an odd novel I found called Men & Boys, A Story of Yale. We used to have a joke when I was in college: “How do you separate the men from the boys up at Harvard?” Answer: “With a crowbar.” I guess the same holds true for Old Blue.

I recently uncovered a fun girl’s book entitled Gay Enterprises.

Come to think of it, that would make a great name for this blog!