Two years before the debut of Pac-Man, we had this cover of the Biology Teachers' Handbook (1978).

Core values.  "Remember to wash your hands before you read this book."  From Short Stories for Little Folks by Catherine Bryce, 1910.

We did a search for a story with multifaceted characters, lots of background, and dramatic turns that truly capture the human experience ... and we found The Autobiography of a Crystal [multifaceted, to a flaw!] in the Formation of the Solar System [now there's some background!] From the Incremation of the Sphere of Equity in the Heavens [too few authors make an effort with the incremation of the sphere of equity in the heavens, if you ask us]—the Fall of Lucifer [sensationalist, yes, but always fun]—Dissolving of Chaos and Beginning of This Resurrection, Commonly Called the Creation of Heaven and Earth, To the Expulsion of Adam From Eden by Cyrus George Dunn, 1876.

From The Mummy of Birchen Bower by Harry Ludlum, 1966.

From The Bow-Legged Ghost and Other Stories by Leon Mead, 1899.

From History of Cinderella, or the Little Glass Slipper by Joseph Crawhall, 1852

Eight years before the opening of Disneyland's Pirates of the Caribbean ride, there was The Singing Cave by Eilîs Dillon, 1959 (apparently rare -- the softcover is listed at $800 on Amazon!).

We visited the land of frozen suns, and the locals all thought it was a gorgeous day and were getting ice cream cones, and we were like, "But it's effing freezing!"

From The Divine Plan of the Ages as Shown in the Great Pyramid by Charles Taze Russell, 1886.

Last we checked, softcovers of this were going for nearly a thousand dollars: Curses, Hexes, & Spells by Daniel Cohen.

Cocktails: How to Mix Them. From 1922.  See Of Drinking in Remembrance of the Dead.

Last we checked, the hardcover of this one was approaching a thousand dollars: A Queer Kind of Death by George Baxt, 1966.

Last we checked, the hardcover of this book was nearly $900 on Amazon: Letters From the Dead by Campbell Black (our restoration of a poor scan).

From Full of Fun by Dean Rivers, George Thatcher, and Henry Firth Wood, 1921.

What a concise way to communicate a title, year, edition number, publisher, city, editor's name, and ten major contributors.  That's sixteen units of information!  From Wheels by Edith Sitwell, 1916.

Last we checked, this book is going for over a thousand dollars on Amazon.  From In City and Country by Nila Banton Smith, 1938.

From Psychic Light by Maud Lord-Drake, 1904.

We concur: the most direct way to see the wizard is to mount a carousel horse.  Our own favorite antique carousel is on the Santa Monica pier.

From Off to See the Wizard by Daniel Ort, 1975.

Those still wondering which came first, the chicken or the egg, aren't reading the right books.