I’m looking for examples of factual books — preferably how-to books — that some readers read for the fun of imagining themselves using this knowledge. One example, though I don’t know if such a book actually exists, would be a work that explains how someone could reconstruct civilization if stranded on a desert island. It may not be consciously aimed at the fantasizing market, but I imagine that a lot of people who read it would do it in part to imagine themselves as some super-savvy Robinson Crusoe.
Likewise, my sense is that the Hit Man contract murder manual — obviously a much darker and more dangerous work — has also been used mostly as entertainment for people who want to imagine themselves as soldiers of fortune. It apparently sold 13,000 copies, and I doubt that there are 13,000 would-be real contract killers in the country. The same may be true for the Anarchist Cookbook and similar works.
I’m looking for more examples, preferably of real how-to books, that people do use, or are likely to use, as means to imagine themselves as something else — a successful castaway, a contract killer, or something else. If you can give examples of people actually remarking (preferably in the press) that this book is good for that sort of thing, that would be best. But examples where it’s simply plausible that many readers would read the book for that purpose would be fine, too.
This is for a tangent to my Crime-Facilitating Speech, which I’m just finishing up and getting ready to send to the journals, so responses that I get will come in very useful. Many thanks in advance.
[Note: Yes, I know that my first hypothetical is reminiscent of the “what technology could a smart 12-year-old reproduce if hurtled back in time to ancient Rome?” question. I have the 250 messages that I got in response on my desk, and I’ve gone through about 175, looking for what strike me as the best answers — I’ll then try to do a bit more research on them, and post the answers, probably in a month or two. Thanks again to everyone who responded, and sorry for the delay.]
UPDATE: A bunch of people have recommended the Worst Case Scenario guides, and some others have recommended some other items (I’ll blog more about this soon). In the meantime, more, more — I’m still not satisfied!
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