The Club of Queer Trades

"The Club of Queer Trades" is a collection of stories by Gilbert Keith Chesterton first published in 1905. Each story in the collection is centred on a person who is making his living by some novel and extraordinary means (a "queer trade", using the word "queer" in the sense of "peculiar"). To gain admittance one must have invented a unique means of earning a living and the subsequent trade being the main source of income. (Excerpt from Wikipedia)