# Fakin' again: FAKE BOOKS (list or guess 'em) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 13, 2007, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fakin-again-fake-books-list-or-guess-em/392061 "2007-02-13T19:36:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2007, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fakin-again-fake-books-list-or-guess-em/392061/1 "2007-02-13T19:36:59Z")
In honor (or outright plagiarism) of [this thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=408109), what are some fake books mentioned in other books, TV shows, movies, etc? I’ll include a few with author given but a couple of the more obscure ones I’m interested to see if anybody can guess. They’ll appear with title and genre but you have to tell the author. **A Jew’s Jesus** by Dr. Aaron Jastrow/_The Winds of War_ & _War & Remembrance_ **The Memoirs of General Armin von Roon** [same as above, translated and edited by Victor “Pug” Henry] **Diary of a Working Boy** by Ignatius J. Reilly (unpublished as of the author leaving New Orleans) Guess: **Damn You, Daddy, Sir!** (memoir) **Alls I Know** , **Alls the Other Stuff I Know** , and **Alls I Know About Politics** (essays and memoirs of a failed journalist and politician) ---
**Author:** ![DigitalC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ebca7d/32.png) [@DigitalC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DigitalC)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2007, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fakin-again-fake-books-list-or-guess-em/392061/2 "2007-02-13T20:00:35Z")
The **Necronomicon** is probably the most famous “fake” book out there. ---
**Author:** ![xnylder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/bbce88/32.png) [@xnylder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xnylder)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2007, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fakin-again-fake-books-list-or-guess-em/392061/3 "2007-02-13T20:18:40Z")
My favorite is _Edmund: A Butler’s Tale_ by Gertrude Perkins. “A searing indictment of domestic servitude in the eighteenth century, with some hot gypsies thrown in.” ---
**Author:** ![minlokwat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/minlokwat/32/2844_2.png) [@minlokwat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/minlokwat)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2007, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fakin-again-fake-books-list-or-guess-em/392061/4 "2007-02-13T20:21:18Z")
Calvin’s favorite bed time book was: **Hamster Huey and Gooey Kablooie.** ---
**Author:** ![Birdmonster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/71e660/32.png) [@Birdmonster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Birdmonster)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2007, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fakin-again-fake-books-list-or-guess-em/392061/5 "2007-02-13T20:21:30Z")
Kilgore Trout has a veritable [library](http://www.vonnegutweb.com/vonnegutia/trout/index.html) of non-novels. 2BR02B ‘‘Asleep at the Switch’’ The Barring-gaffner of Bagnialto, or This Year’s Masterpiece The Big Board ‘‘The Dancing Fool’’ The First District Court of Thank-You Gilgongo! The Gospel from Outer Space The Gutless Wonder ‘‘Hail to the Chief’’ How You Doin’? Maniacs in the Fourth Dimension The Money Tree Now It Can Be Told Oh Say Can You Smell? The Pan-Galactic Memory Bank ‘‘Pan-Galactic Straw-Boss’’ became ‘‘Mouth Crazy’’ Pan-Galactic Three-Day Pass Plague on Wheels The Planet Gobblers SF-1, A Selective Bibliography The Smart Bunny The Son of Jimmy Valentine ‘‘This Means You’’ Venus on the Half-Shell ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2007, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fakin-again-fake-books-list-or-guess-em/392061/6 "2007-02-13T20:23:33Z")
How about the **Necrotelicomnicon** , written by Achmed the Mad. ---
**Author:** ![Birdmonster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/71e660/32.png) [@Birdmonster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Birdmonster)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2007, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fakin-again-fake-books-list-or-guess-em/392061/7 "2007-02-13T20:23:45Z")
[QUOTE=minlokwat] Calvin’s favorite bed time book was: **Hamster Huey and Gooey Kablooie.** [/QUOTE] \It was his Dad’s favorite too, IIRC\ ---
**Author:** ![Eleanor\_of\_Aquitaine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a88e4f/32.png) [@Eleanor\_of\_Aquitaine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eleanor_of_Aquitaine)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2007, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fakin-again-fake-books-list-or-guess-em/392061/8 "2007-02-13T20:24:34Z")
The **Orange Catholic Bible** from the \*\*Dune \*\*universe. ---
**Author:** ![Birdmonster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/71e660/32.png) [@Birdmonster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Birdmonster)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2007, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fakin-again-fake-books-list-or-guess-em/392061/9 "2007-02-13T20:34:40Z")
Does **The Murder of Gonzago** count? It’s a play within a play—one of the most well-known too. ---
**Author:** ![JThunder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e95f7d/32.png) [@JThunder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JThunder)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2007, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fakin-again-fake-books-list-or-guess-em/392061/10 "2007-02-13T20:36:51Z")
What about _Tobin’s Spirit Guide_ and _The Junior Woodchuck Manual_? ---
**Author:** ![Sarahfeena](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sarahfeena/32/519_2.png) [@Sarahfeena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sarahfeena)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2007, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fakin-again-fake-books-list-or-guess-em/392061/11 "2007-02-13T20:38:50Z")
Dean Koontz has his **Book of Counted Sorrows,** which he has quotations from in many of his novels. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2007, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fakin-again-fake-books-list-or-guess-em/392061/12 "2007-02-13T20:46:27Z")
**The Book Of Shadows** from _Charmed_. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2007, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fakin-again-fake-books-list-or-guess-em/392061/13 "2007-02-13T20:58:50Z")
**The Bible, Organized to be Read as Literature** from the James Bond books. When Kingsley Amis published his book **The Book of Bond: Or Every Man His Own 007** , the British Edition had a dust jacket that had this title on the reverse. I’ve got a copy. **Stay Alive!** , also from the Bond books. It’s the book Bond himself was writing on self-defence (cited, IIRC, in **Goldfinger** ) Sherlock Holmes’ monographs **On Cigar Ashes** and **On the Polyphonic Motets of Lassus**. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2007, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fakin-again-fake-books-list-or-guess-em/392061/14 "2007-02-13T20:59:28Z")
[QUOTE=DigitalC] The **Necronomicon** is probably the most famous “fake” book out there. [/QUOTE] Also from the Mythos, there’s The King in Yellow. And leaving the Mythos… Spider Jerusalem’s Shot in the Face. (Which I suspect bears a strong resemblance to Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail, personally.) ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2007, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fakin-again-fake-books-list-or-guess-em/392061/15 "2007-02-13T21:00:07Z")
**The Seven Minutes** in Irving Wallace’s **The Seven Minutes**. The novel is about a fictional novel. The greatest fake book in science fiction is **The Encyclopedia Galactica**. **The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy** (not the Douglas Adams novel, but the actual guide in the book.) **How to Put Your Budgie Down**. Jessica Fletcher’s mystery novels. (Odd that she never found time to actually write them.) ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2007, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fakin-again-fake-books-list-or-guess-em/392061/16 "2007-02-13T21:01:09Z")
My all-time favorite, of course, which I dearly wish I had: **The Junior Woodchuck’s Guide** Better than the CRC “Bible” ---
**Author:** ![Lissa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lissa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissa)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2007, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fakin-again-fake-books-list-or-guess-em/392061/17 "2007-02-13T21:03:09Z")
**Philosophy of Time Travel** by Roberta Sparrow, from _Donnie Darko._ ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2007, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fakin-again-fake-books-list-or-guess-em/392061/18 "2007-02-13T21:07:16Z")
Ahh. I missed that **JThunder** beat me to the Woodchucks! ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2007, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fakin-again-fake-books-list-or-guess-em/392061/19 "2007-02-13T21:10:24Z")
**Pale Fire** The iron-bound **Book of Skelos** from Howard’s Conan Stories All those other Cthulhu Mythos books: Von Junzt’s _Unausspechlichen Kulten_\* **De Vermis Mysteriis** and the rest Charles Dicikens’ cited **The Guide to Refreshing Sleep** ---
**Author:** ![Winston\_Bongo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a9adbd/32.png) [@Winston\_Bongo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Winston_Bongo)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2007, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fakin-again-fake-books-list-or-guess-em/392061/20 "2007-02-13T21:16:07Z")
My favorite fake book is **The Grasshopper Lies Heavy** by Hawthorne Abdensen, because apparently it’s not fake at all, and _we_ are. (Those confused may refer to Philip K. Dick’s **The Man in the High Castle**. Although you may be even _more_ confused afterwards.) There was a great panel on the subject of fake books at the World Fantasy Convention in Austin last November. Most of the titles mentioned here were discussed, along with others, like the myriad of nonexistent works cited by Jorge Luis Borges in his short fiction. The most well known of those is probably the **Book of Sand** , which has an infinite number of pages, so that you can flip through it and never see the same page twice. Then there’s the **Encyclopedia of Tlon** , which . . . hell, I can’t even _begin_ to explain that one! [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fakin-again-fake-books-list-or-guess-em/392061.md?page=2)