How could I resist a title like this? Especially when the book's illustrated by Edward Gorey! Turns out the book's ostensibly a guide to the young from one Miss Hyacinthe Phypps, in the form of chapters like "Deflowerment on Blind Date", "Deflowerment by Marimba Player", and more, each with little etiquette tips - not on how to avoid deflowerment, nor to encourage it, but how to go about bidding farewell to the one-night stand who didn't give his name. Or, upon learning that your marimba-player lover whom your parents won't allow you to marry already has a wife, Miss Phypps suggests asking him how his wife got her parents to consent to the marriage, presumably for future reference.

Other entries are just... random, as in the one about deflowerment on a cross-country bus. You've been seized by hiccups, and your seatmate suggests a "sure-fire cure" (one guess what that is); it does work, but, alas, now you're getting car-sick. Miss Phypps notes, "Some people are just bad travelers and nothing can be done about it."

[I found this very entertaining review online; among other things, the author wishes that the book included more up-to-date deflowerment styles, including "Deflowerment by Webcam," "Deflowerment by Sparkly Vampire" {snerk!}, "Deflowerment by Gay Friend While Both Drunk"...]

I'm adding this book to the I Hate SF bookbox, which will soon be on its way to BCer grubsneerg in Pennsylvania. Hope everyone enjoys the selection!

***

Update, March 2014: The book's been found - hooray! Thanks so much for journaling it, mchew - and I'm glad you're enjoying it!

I'd worried about it because it was part of a box of books that was lost in the mail some time in late 2012, and I'd feared the worst (I imagined some kind of horrible shredding accident in the USPS sorting machinery), so I'm happy to learn that at least one of those books is safe and happy on your bookshelf. Now I'm just wild with curiosity as to where it's been all this time!

Looked for quite a while to find this book and am glad to finally own a copy. We'll see how long it lasts on my bookcase. I loved every deflower-ment.