Slog - Comments on The Invisible Library

Comment by Ziggity

Ziggity — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 10:56:45 -0800

I've always wanted to read Kilgore Trout's pulp sci-fi.

Comment by inkweary

inkweary — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 11:16:40 -0800

Heinlein's character, Jubal Harshaw, from Stanger in a Strange Land, was also an author. Actualy he just thought up the plots and commanded his secretaries to finish the books.

Comment by Gurldoggie

Gurldoggie — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 11:24:52 -0800

Very nice.

Perhaps the ultimate example is the encyclopedia article on Uqbar in the Anglo-American Cyclopedia, described as "a literal if inadequate reprint of the Encyclop�dia Britannica of 1902," which declares that "mirrors and copulation are abominable, since they both multiply the numbers of men." Uqbar exists only in the mind of JL Borges, or course.

Comment by Gurldoggie

Gurldoggie — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 11:25:47 -0800

...of course.

Comment by Pierce M.

Pierce M. — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 12:05:21 -0800

Please tell me you chose the Ks in order to show Kraft.

Comment by Gitai

Gitai — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 12:06:39 -0800

Reminds me of the Library in Sandman. It contains all the books never written.

Comment by Tyler

Tyler — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 13:33:00 -0800

It almost seems like cheating to use Lem. He has a whole volume reviewing books that have never been written, and another of introductions. The fake book was one of his major literary devices.

Comment by Jubilation T. Cornball

Jubilation T. Cornball — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 14:24:01 -0800

I think my favorite book within a book is the unnamed work by Robert Cohn, of which Jake Barnes said, "He wrote a novel, and it was not really such a bad novel as the critics later called it, although it was a very poor novel.�

Comment by Head

Head — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 15:15:52 -0800

Any list like this that doesn't include the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (or the numerous books contained within) is deemed incomplete... lol of course any list like this will be incomplete.

Comment by Greg

Greg — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 17:09:39 -0800

Also the Encyclopaedia Galactica.

Comment by LMSW

LMSW — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 17:40:12 -0800

"The King in Yellow" by Robert W. Chambers, contains references to another book called "the king in yellow", which causes insanity and death to those who read it.

Comment by Levi Stahl

Levi Stahl — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 20:17:29 -0800

As one of the proprietors of the Invisible Library, I'm here to say thanks for the suggestions, several of which we wouldn't have thought of.

We're just getting started, so the collection's a bit hit-or-miss--our Fellowes Kraft entry, for example, includes just what I came across on a quick flip through The Solitudes; a more systematic search awaits. And a friend reminded me about the Douglas Adams titles last night, so they're there now.

More to come, and suggestions are welcome, either in comments at the blog itself on each letter or e-mailed to thedizzies_at_gmail.com

Comment by john crowley

john crowley — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 07:58:25 -0800

Thanks for a great site that will grow huge in time -- you have hardly scratched the surface.

IN Little, Big: The Architecture of Country Houses by John Drinkwater.
Anonymous: Upstate Houses and their Histories.

In the Aegypt cycle:

By Fellowes Kraft:

The Werewolf of Prague
Skin Deep (a piece of pornography, Herm Press)
Scream Bloody Murder
Under Saturn (about Wallenstein)
A Passage at Arms (privateers)
The Court of Silk and Blood (St. Bartholomew's Night)
Ill-met by Moonlight (stories)

(All these are merely titles: maybe you're only including books from which passages are available.)

Dictionary of the Devils, Deities and Daemons of Mankind by Alexis Payne de St.-Phalle

Some others: There's the book in "Books Do Furnish a ROom" that Jenkins complains "came in 25000 words too short and titled 'Than Whom What Other'," but I don;t remember if it had an author. And there are the books by the avant-garde postwar novelist X. Trapnel: "Portraits in String" and "Camel Ride to the Tomb".