"Underground Guide to Las Vegas" covers a lot of ground.

This Las Vegas guidebook is not into gourmet food or posh pleasures.

Its editor, Las Vegan Jarret Keene, describes it as a concerted effort to get below the neon veneer, to "dredge ... up some of the wonderfully seedy aspects" of Las Vegas, many of which are available for free or on a shoestring.

The book, "The Underground Guide to Las Vegas" (Manic D Press, $15.95), is the latest in the San Francisco publisher's series of what Keene calls "outlaw travel books."

Let the prissy be warned that some of the language in "Underground Guide" can be classified as vulgar. The guide "shows the dirtiest, cheapest ways to get fed, drunk, laid -- and (get) a little arts and culture at the same time," Keene, 32, explains in a brief telephone interview.

Keene occasionally teaches English at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, holds a doctorate in English from Florida State University and is the author of "Monster Fashion." He also contributes to Las Vegas CityLife, a free alternative weekly owned by the media company that owns the Review-Journal.

Local writers who contributed to the "Underground Guide" include Seth Barkan, Gregory Crosby, Joshua Ellis, Izzy Fizler, Anne Davis Mulford and Jennifer Prosser. Scott Dickensheets did the book's cartoons.

The guide is intended as a "counternarrative" to the travel writing about Las Vegas that celebrates the "mainstream history, the mainstream terrain," according to Keene.

The book covers everything from wild weddings -- people planning a Gothic theme or "Star Trek" theme, take note -- to weird conventions in Las Vegas. Ventriloquists and celebrity impersonators, don't take offense.

Keene says the guide's release times nicely with the city's centennial, which was celebrated May 15. In a sense, its section on lodging -- "Selecting Your Very Own Sin Bunker" -- pays homage to the city's history. The current metropolis began in what is now downtown Las Vegas, and that's where most of the book's best hotel buys are found. Downtown's El Cortez, Gold Strike, Golden Gate, Lady Luck and Western hotels are highlighted.

For Strip accommodations, the book recommends the Sahara or the Laughing Jackalope Motel Bar & Grill near Mandalay Bay. The motel, 3969 Las Vegas Blvd. South, may be cheap and picturesque, but the employee who took a reporter's phone query on May 11 said she knew nothing of the $15 room rate touted in the "Underground Guide."

But mostly the book thumbs its nose at the establishment by barely mentioning the Las Vegas Strip or the big corporate casinos that occupy it. Rather, it coaxes visitors to other ends of town, including UNLV's university district. On the other end of the valley, Durango Drive between roughly Tropicana Avenue and Spring Mountain Road is dubbed "Bar Row."

Las Vegans probably agree with many of the book's picks for cheap eats or fun bars, although they may quibble with how some of the spots are grouped.

For instance, Omelet House (2160 W. Charleston Blvd.), The Egg and I (4533 W. Sahara Ave.) and the Original Pancake House (4833 W. Charleston Blvd.) are described as being on the Westside. To insiders, the geographic term does not denote the west side of the Las Vegas Valley.

The guidebook veers from the norm with its section "Techno Vegas," which covers where to find free wireless Internet access, hotels that offer complimentary Internet access, stores to supply computer needs when equipment breaks down, as well as a motley list of Web sites by Las Vegans for Las Vegans.

Want to view local buildings and traffic? Try the webcam of the Las Vegas Area Computer Traffic System, provided by KLAS-TV, Channel 8, at www.klastv.com/. "So postmodern it's almost revolting," the guidebook says of the site. "The whole idea of living under constant surveillance is more than a bit creepy."

"The Underground Guide to Las Vegas" also tells where to find poetry slams, what businesses can help you book or promote a music act, where to find a rehearsal or recording studio, and, even, where to make money.

No, the book doesn't mean profits from gambling, although it does give a brief etiquette lesson for gambling at "cool dive bars in the Inferno." One of its tips: "Nothing says 'clueless rube' like hollering, 'I won, I won, Yeaahhh!!!!' after you hit your first three-of-a-kind for $3. Save all acts of vocal public rejoicing for wins that net you $200 or better."

The certain way to obtain money in town, according to the guide, is either at pawnshops or commercial blood-donation outfits. Sperm donation? "Sorry, not in Las Vegas. The nearest sperm bank is in L.A.," is the book's parting shot.

The "Underground Guide" is selling well not only to tourists, but to new residents of Las Vegas, says Chris Cheely, manager of sales at Borders, 1445 W. Sunset Road in Henderson. "It's for people who want an edgier experience."