Having had enough of much of the mainstream fare we're fed at multiplexes, I tend to use this space to trumpet the offbeat and screwy. Thus, for like-minded vidiots, I want to recommend the best guide for those with off-kilter tastes.

Videohound's Cult Flicks & Trash Picks (Visible Inc., $34.95) features over 500 pages of extremely well-written (and well-chosen) entries on a wide range of movies that are rare or just nutty. Editor Carol Schwartz brings together an excellent team of writers and researchers, and the book also has bio entries on various pop culture figures, from Divine to Stanley Kubrick to Gene Roddenberry. The book is exhaustively cross-referenced and indexed in an additional 200 pages, making it a trivia buff's wet dream. As well, Schwartz & co. let us know what medium titles are available in (VHS and/or DVD). The next time you're shopping about for a top-notch vid guidebook, my advice would be to skip Leonard Maltin and opt instead for Videohound's Cult Flicks & Trash Picks. It's a refreshingly different take amid an ocean of often downright dull guidebooks.

» Matthew Hays