Carny


Joyland
Nightmare Alley
Grindshow: The Selected Writings of William Lindsay Gresham
A Corner of the Universe
Wonder Show
Dracula
The Life of P.T. Barnum
A History of the Devil
The Cement Garden
Dreamland (City of Fire #1)
Eyeing the Flash: The Making of a Carnival Con Artist
The Pianoplayers
The Bad Beginning (A Series of Unfortunate Events, #1)
Life: A User's Manual
Up in the Old Hotel
Madball by Fredric BrownNightmare Alley by William Lindsay GreshamCarny Kill by Robert Edmond AlterJoyland by Stephen  KingInnocent Bystander by Craig Rice
Carny Noir
5 books — 2 voters
1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, A Dictionary of Buckish... by Francis GroseI Love it When You Talk Retro by Ralph KeyesHow to Commit a Murder by Danny AhearnSmaller Slang Dictionary by Eric PartridgeStraight from the Fridge, Dad by Max Décharné
•One Horse Open Slang
120 books — 5 voters

William Lindsay Gresham
The speech fascinated him. His ear caught the rhythm of it and he noted their idioms and worked some of them into his patter. He had found the reason behind the peculiar, drawling language of the old carny hands—it was a composite of all the sprawling regions of the country. A language which sounded Southern to Southerners, Western to Westerners. It was the talk of the soil and its drawl covered the agility of the brains that poured it out. It was a soothing, illiterate, earthy language.
William Lindsay Gresham, Nightmare Alley