Merged Books

It's two! Two! Two books in one! If either one can be a best seller alone, imagine what they could be together. I found out that the original source for these is the Washington Post feature called Merge-Matic Books. I don't know what year they were first published, but it was a long time ago. The contributors names, if known, are in parentheses. (Thanks, Robert!)



"Machiavelli's The Little Prince" - Antoine de Saint-Exupery's classic children's tale as presented by Machiavelli. The whimsy of human nature is embodied in many delightful and intriguing characters, all of whom are executed. (Erik Anderson, Tempe, Ariz.)

"Green Eggs and Hamlet" - Would you kill him in his bed? Thrust a dagger through his head? I would not, could not, kill the King. I could not do that evil thing. I would not wed this girl, you see. Now get her to a nunnery. (Robin Parry, Arlington)

"Fahrenheit 451 of the Vanities" - An '80s yuppie is denied books. He does not object, or even notice. (Mike Long, Burke)

"Where's Walden?"- Alas, the challenge of locating Henry David Thoreau in each richly-detaile d drawing loses its appeal when it quickly becomes clear that he is always in the woods. (Sandra Hull, Arlington)

"Catch-22 in the Rye" - Holden learns that if you're insane, you'll probably flunk out of prep school, but if you're flunking out of prep school, you're probably not insane. (Brendan Beary, Great Mills)

"2001: A Space Iliad"- The Hal 9000 computer wages an insane 10-year war against the Greeks after fa lling victim to the Y2K bug. (Joseph Romm, Washington)

"Rikki-Kon-Tiki-Tavi"- Thor Heyerdahl recounts his attempt to prove Rudyard Kipling's theory that the mongoose first came to India on a raft from Polynesia. (David Laughton, Washington)

"The Maltese Faulkner" - Is the black bird a tortured symbol of Sam's struggles with race and family? Does it signify his decay of soul along with the soul of the Old South? Is it merely a crow, mocking his attempts to understand? Or is it worth a cool mil? (Thad Humphries, Warrenton)

"Jane Eyre Jordan" - Plucky English orphan girl survives hardships to lead the Chicago Bulls to the NBA championship. (Dave Pickering, Bowie)

"Looking for Mr. Godot"- A young woman waits for Mr. Right to enter her life. She has a loooooong wait. (Jonathan Paul, Garrett Park)

"The Scarlet Pimpernel Letter" - An 18th-century English nobleman leads a double life, freeing comely young adulteresses from the prisons of post-Revolution France.


"Lorna Dune" - An English farmer, Paul Atreides, falls for the daughter of a notorious rival clan, the Harkonnens, and pursues a career as a giant worm jockey in order to impress her.


"The Remains of the Day of the Jackal" - A formal English butler puts his loyalty to his employer above all else, until he is persuaded to join a plot to assassinate Charles deGaulle.


"The Invisible Man of La Mancha"- Don Quixote discovers a mysterious elixir which renders him invisible. He proceeds to go on a mad rampage of corruption and terror, attacking innocent people in the streets and all the while singing "To fight the Invisible Man!" until he is finally stopped by a windmill.


"Singing in the Black Rain"- A gang of vicious Japanese druglords beat the sh*t out of Gene Kelly.


"Fiddlemarch" - Emotionally dessicated medievalist Dr. Casaubon is transformed when everyone in the town reveals that they are Jewish and start to dance and sing a lot.


"Of Three Blind Mice and Men" - Burgess Meredith has his limbs hacked off by a psychopathic farmer's wife. Did you ever see such a sight in your life?


"Planet of the Grapes of Wrath" - Astronaut lands on mysterious planet, only to discover that it is his very own home planet of Earth, which has been taken over by the Joads, a race of dirt-poor corn farmers who miraculously developed rudimentary technology and evolved the ability to speak after exposure to nuclear radiation.


"Paradise Lost in Space"- Satan, Moloch, and Belial are sentenced to spend eternity in a flying saucer with a goofy robot, an evil scientist, and 2 annoying children.


"The Exorstentialist" - Camus psychological thriller about a priest who casts out a demon by convincing it that there's really no purpose to what it's doing.


"A Time To Kill A Mockingbird": The Alabama KKK, outraged at Atticus Finch (Gregory Peck) for defending a black man in an Alabama rape trial, get revenge by abducting and molesting Scout. Jake Brigance (Matthew McConaughey) and his lovely law student assistant Ellen Roark (Sandra Bullock) arrive from Mississippi to take over defending the case for the distraught Finch, and later defend sharpshooter Finch for taking revenge on the KKK members.

"Nicholas and Alexandra Nickleby"-Having narrowly escaped a Bolshevik
firing squad, the former czar and czarina join a troupe of actors only
to find that playing the Palace isn't as grand as living in it. (Sandra
Hull, Arlington)

"Tarzan of the Grapes"-The beleaguered Okies of the dust bowl are saved
by a strong and brave savage who swings from grapevine to grapevine.
(Joseph Romm, Washington)

"Curious Georgefather"-The monkey finally sticks his nose where it don't belong. (Chuck Smith, Woodbridge)

"The Hunchback Also Rises"-Hideously deformed fellow is cloistered in
bell tower by despicable clergymen. And that's the good news ... (John
Verba, Washington)

"The Silence of the Hams"-In this endearing update of the Seuss
classic, young Sam-I-Am presses unconventional foodstuffs on his
friend, Hannibal, who turns the tables. (Mark Eckenwiler, Washington)

"Portnoy's Choice": A man is forced to choose between his right and left hand. (Tom Witte, Gaithersburg)
(Thanks, Ken!)