Mental Floss, a magazine and website that shares little-known facts, history, and humor, published its list of “23 Weird Books That Really Exist”. Among the titles was Marketing Consultant Philipp Lomboy’s book Bodybuilders in Tutus and 35 Other Obscure Business Boosting Observations.
Mental Floss introduced the book as “This is, unfortunately, not an illustrated coffee table book, but a cleverly titled collection of marketing advice essays. Well done, Philipp Lomboy: you sold us.” The list was initially released by Mental Floss in May 2014 but had been shared by other sites since then.
When asked about how he heard about the list Lomboy replies, “Actually a friend sent it me the link on Facebook with the caption ‘You made it!’. He said that he had gotten it from a friend and was surprised to see my name and book on the list.”
The list includes a number of humorous, if not odd, titles such as the following:
- Dating for Under a Dollar, with 301 ideas for frugal singles
- How to Survive a Garden Gnome Attack
- Bombproof Your Horse, for the horse owner living in a war zone
- How Green Were the Nazis?
In Bodybuilders in Tutus, Lomboy uses stories, parables, and metaphors to share marketing advice with businesses. Some of the chapters even include homework assignments. Last September the book hit #1 in the “Direct Marketing” category on Amazon.com bestseller lists and #11 in the “Entrepreneurship” category.
When asked about the title of his book, Lomboy says, “It was meant to be a fun way to stand out and kind of shock people, even though I knew it would most likely cause some confusion.”
Lomboy explains that his book’s title comes from a chapter where he talks about Arnold Schwarzenegger and his friend Franco Columbu preparing for an upcoming bodybuilding contest by getting advice from a ballet instructor.
In fact, this story appears in the 1977 docudrama Pumping Iron, documenting Arnold’s last run for the 1975 Mr. Universe and Mr. Olympia competitions.
As to his feelings about his inclusion on the list, Lomboy replies, “It’s actually really funny and I’m telling everyone about it! I never thought in a million years that anything I wrote would end up on the same list as Liberace: Your Personal Fashion Consultant. It’s not a Pulitzer, but I’ll take it.”
For more information on Philipp Lomboy visit http://automatedmarketingstrategies.com. Bodybuilders in Tutus is available in paperback or Kindle format.
