"Eccentric America," by Jan Friedman (Bradt/Globe Pequot, 314 pages, $19. 95). This one is truly a travel guide, arranged geographically and focusing on concrete events and attractions. Friedman provides addresses, phone numbers, Web sites, dates, maps and indexes.

You can plan your travels around Frozen Dead Guy Day in Colorado, the Roadkill Cookoff in West Virginia or no less than four testicle festivals in Montana. The author ferrets out castles, futuristic visions, bewildering artworks and museums devoted to, among other things, outhouses, mustard, frogs, the alphabet, drug abuse, nuts, shoes, barbed wire, UFOs, funerals and plumbing. Tours, shopping, cuisine, guest rooms and entire towns provide fodder.

Some entries are quirky only in that they reflect local culture or history; others are genuinely weird (funeral home miniature golf, Stonehenge rendered in 1950s and '60s cars, a chapel for dogs).

The Guidebook Guide appears the first Sunday of the month in Travel. E-mail Deputy Travel Editor Christine Delsol at travel@sfchronicle.com.

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