40 Days and a Mule

Then: The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

Now: Christ Almighty! Why Rome fell, and how we can stop it happening to us.

Then: The Book of Job
Now: “Who Moved This Dungheap?” – How To Adapt To Change

can we play the game in reverse?

Now: Dow 36,000: The New Strategy for Profiting From the Coming Rise in the Stock Market

Then: Gold 47 Oxen, on a Theory of the Wealth of Savages and Her Majesty’s Coin

Then: The Wealth Of Nations
Now: The Pin: The Fastener That Changed The World.

Then: Lyrical Ballads
Now: Strictly 4 My Lakerz

Then: Meditations, by Marcus Aurelius
Now: Stone Soup For The Soul

This is fun.

Then: The City of God against the Pagans

Now: The Exurb of God against the Liberals

Then: The First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous Regiment of Women
Now: Kicking Against the Chicks: How Men Can Reclaim Our Place in the Monarchy, Society, and the Bedroom

Not sure which direction works best for mine, if mine even works at all. Play around with it, as you wish:

Then: A Modest Proposal
Now: 18 Kids and Counting

Now: any damn vampire romance
Then: Him and Haemophagia

Then: Moby Dick
Now: Harpooneer Four Zero

#1 is till the best so far.

Then: Principia Mathematica
Now: Falling Down: What An Apple Can Teach Us About The Stars, Planets, and Cosmos

Ah, I see I was beaten to it in the comments to the original post, and in a strikingly similar fashion:
> then: Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica (Newton)
> now: Why Do Apples Fall Down and Not Up? Answers From The Cutting Edge of Physics

Then: Augustine’s Confessions
Now: Thanks for the Memories: How a Toothache and a Nagging Mother Led Me to Christ

Terry Carr edited the old Ace Double series of paperback originals which specialized in pulp science fiction (some of these books, by P.K. Dick and ohters, are now recognized as classics). Carr once said, “If the Holy Bible were printed as an Ace Double, it would be cut down to two 20,000-word halves with the Old Testament retitled as Master of Chaos and the New Testament as The Thing with Three Souls.’

Then: Oedipus Rex.

Now: Oedipal Sex.

Then: The Bible

Now: 73 Amazing Stories To Read With Your Family

I like the Ludlum Variation:

Then: On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies
Ludlum: The Minkowski Directive

Then: The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman
Ludlum: The Cock and Bull Vector

Then: Ninety-Five Theses on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences
Now: Who Moved My Church?

Then : Oedipus Rex
Now : Oedipus : A story of Feeding, Fleeing, Fighting and Mating

Then: Candide: or, Optimism
Now: Chicken Soup for the Soul

“Terry Carr edited the old Ace Double series of paperback originals which specialized in pulp science fiction (some of these books, by P.K. Dick and ohters, are now recognized as classics). Carr once said, “If the Holy Bible were printed as an Ace Double, it would be cut down to two 20,000-word halves with the Old Testament retitled as Master of Chaos and the New Testament as The Thing with Three Souls.’”

That’s great! thanks Jeet Heer! (And I really really enjoyed “Arguing Comics”, by the by.)

Then: Richard III
Now: Hunchback: How a Serial Killer Married His Victim’s Wife, Murdered His Nephews, and Became King of England.

Then: Henry IV Part II and Henry V
Now: Drunken Hero: How a Dissolute Alcoholic Became King of England And Conquered France

Not Yet Written: Charles IV
Now: Big Ears: How the Dullest Man In The World Became King of England and Abolished the Monarchy.

Then and Now, Platonis Opera edition

Then: Phaedo
Now: What to Expect When You’re Expecting To Be Executed

Then: Meno
Now: Math Tips to Re-Live By: Ace the SAT, the ACT, and the GRE by remembering your past lives

Then: Critias
Now: Secrets of Atlantis REVEALED!

Then: Ion
Now: Rhappin’ and Keepin’ it Real

Then: Symposium
Now: Greek Love: Seven friends, ten handles, a party that no one will ever forget

In post #23 Chris Bertram said:

“Then: The Declaration of Independence
Now: Exposed! The Liberal Conspiracy for a Godless Nation”

So, you are saying that if published today the Declaration of Independence would be ridiculed as a product of the irrational radical right? Sadly, I agree with you, although I believe Jefferson would find both the modern right and left deplorable

You could add: Then: The US Constitution and Bill of Rights
Now: Quaint Ideas Proposed by the Socially Naive

Then: Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus

Now: Creative Recycling: What to Do With Relatives Who Don’t Prepay Their Funerals

Then: The Impending Crisis of the South: How To Meet It
Now: White Like Me

Then: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Now: Huck Honey

Then: Die Verwaendlung
Now: Buggin: When Your Family Is Just Too Much and Work Just Won’t Work

then: The Great Gatsby
now: Lost Secrets of Success from a Roaring Decade!

then: The Bible
now: My Heavens! How to Reach Eternal Bliss After You Die (And Maybe Right Now, Too!)

then: The Republic
now: Discover Your Inner Philosopher: Secrets of Justice That You Already Know!

then: The Gospel of Thomas
now: The Jesus “They” Don’t Want You to Know About!

then: A Modest Proposal
now: Lose Weight Fast with the Irish Diet!

I believe Salman Rushdie is credited with this Ludlum variation on Hamlet: The Elsinore Vacillation…

Then: Faust
Now: How to Pay for Higher Education

Then: The Power and the Glory
Now: Twelve Steps to Sobriety and Avoiding Revolutionary Police

Then: The Ramayana
Now: 101 Uses for a Talking Monkey

Not Yet Written: Charles IV
Now: Big Ears: How the Dullest Man In The World Became King of England and Abolished the Monarchy.

Not yet born, you mean.

Then: Das Kapital
Now: Create Your Own Economy

Then: Ten Days That Shook the World
Now: Blink

Then: The Mass Strike: The Political Party and the Trade Unions
Now: The Wisdom of Crowds

Your classics are not my classics.

Not Yet Written: Charles IV
Now: Big Ears: How the Dullest Man In The World Became King of England and Abolished the Monarchy.

And, per 58, Charles would of course be Charles III, not Charles IV; and in any case it’s my understanding that he plans to take the throne as George VII.

Then: Psychopathia Sexualis
Now: The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Monkeys

Then: On the Origin of Species
Now: “chuckd.blogspot.com”, a typical example of the loony, hateful, religion-bashing left-wing blogosphere

Then: Finnegans Wake

Now: Havvah-ban-Annah Under the Pudendascope: The Sowiveall of the Prettiest when they were Yung and Easily Freudened

A strong title and a non-ending tagline: how the cover of this book will try to convince you that buying it will make your life better and make you a happier and more successful person.

Accountable government, a dependable legal system, and a complete ban on torture?

I was thinking lack of a central government, oligarchy, Puritanism, and state-sponsored religion.

Off topic: was King George accountable, and was there a ban on torture? Torture and slavery go together, and I thought there was public execution and torture for convicts.

Then: Guilty Men
Now: The Hutton Inquiry

As for slavery, there is copious evidence from the British Atlantic empire, pre and post 1776, that the very few slaveoweners who were disciplined for maltreating their slaves were a tiny minority of the far larger group who got away with it. There was a lot of unpunished torture going on, much of which was really imaginatively horrible.

Whether there was a universal ban on torture is a separate question from whether there was an effective universal ban on torture, however.

My Favourite so far is The Dangerous Book for Adults – inspired!

Then: The Odyssey
Now: Rosy-fingered Dawn: Turn Any Business Trip into the Journey of a Lifetime (in Ten Years or Less)!

Or: He’s Leaving – She’s Weaving: How today’s long-distance relationships are redefining love and commitment.

Then: The Iliad
Now: Feel the Flaw and do it Anyway: Anger Management and the New Art of Making a Killing.

Then: The Anabasis (Xenophon)
Now: Never Turn Back: Wisdom on a Tough Road, by History’s Most Daring Leader (with a new introduction by Ben Bernanke).

Then: Thorstein Veblen (1899) The Theory of the Leisure Class
Now: Timothy Ferriss (2007) The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich
…just goes to show you can’t beat the real thing.

Except that someone has snagged Dow 36,000 already. Apologies b9n10nt!