# Help me stock the ultimate (fictional) library **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** books-writing-myths\ **Created:** [October 16, 2013, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-stock-the-ultimate-fictional-library/671444 "2013-10-16T23:07:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 11
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2024, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-stock-the-ultimate-fictional-library/671444/201 "2024-11-26T23:28:58Z")
Just saw again one of my favorite sf movies, the 1998 _noir_ thriller _Dark City_. For those whose libraries include a selection of nonexistent films, you’ll want to have _The Evil_ and _Book of Dreams_, both advertised on the marquee of the city’s movie theater. There was a 1978 movie called _The Evil_, and _Dark City_ director Alex Proyas actually directed two _Book of Dreams_ short films in 1994-95, but given the mesmerizing Forties feel of _Dark City_, I bet those were different movies entirely. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2024, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-stock-the-ultimate-fictional-library/671444/202 "2024-11-27T01:20:12Z")
The Book of Skulls, after the novel of the same name by Robert Silverberg. It details a set of rites administered by a secret order dating back to pre-Egyptian times, that out of a group of four initiates will bestow immortality on two of them at the cost of sacrificing the other two. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2024, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-stock-the-ultimate-fictional-library/671444/203 "2024-12-03T22:10:36Z")
Eddie’s landlord’s hot young wife in the technothriller movie _Limitless_ is a law student, and has a bio of a (nonexistent) SCOTUS justice in her bookbag: _R.J.L. Phillips: Justice of the Court: His Life and Opinions_ by L. Dixon III. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2024, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-stock-the-ultimate-fictional-library/671444/204 "2024-12-24T04:09:45Z")
In Scott Lynch’s fantasy novel _The Lies of Locke Lamora_, set in a decaying seaport city reminiscent of early Venice, there’s mention of Kimlathin’s _The Korish Romances_, a collection of fairy tales. ---
**Author:** ![Guest-starring\_Id](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guest-starring_id/32/21736_2.png) [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2024, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-stock-the-ultimate-fictional-library/671444/205 "2024-12-25T21:39:14Z")
Charles Bukowski’s short stories compilation “Erections, Ejaculations, Exhibitions, and Other Tales of Ordinary Madness”. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2024, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-stock-the-ultimate-fictional-library/671444/206 "2024-12-31T16:31:14Z")
Ray Bradbury’s 1946 short story “The Million-Year Picnic” is the concluding tale in _The Martian Chronicles_, set in Oct. 2026. In it, a man burns, as a way of turning his back on self-destructive Earth culture, the books and papers _Government Bonds; Business Graph, 1999; Religious Prejudice: An Essay; The Science of Logistics; Problems of the Pan-American Unity; Stock Report for July 3, 1998_ and _The War Digest_. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2025, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-stock-the-ultimate-fictional-library/671444/207 "2025-02-11T20:35:23Z")
In the Wallace & Gromit movies, there are several books shown (often being read by the dog, Gromit), with either canine- or cheese-related pun titles or author’s names. These include _The Republic_ by Pluto, _Paradise Lost_ by John Stilton, _Crime and Punishment_ by Fido Dogstoyevksi and the play _Waiting for Gouda,_ as well as _Fromage to Eternity, Grated Expectations, East of Edam, Swiss Cheese Family Robinson, Brie Encounter, How Green Was My Cheese, Brighton Roquefort, The Hunt for Red Leicester, Men are from Mars, Dogs are from Pluto_ and _Electronics for Dogs._ ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2025, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-stock-the-ultimate-fictional-library/671444/208 "2025-02-12T16:57:18Z")
That reminds me: In _An American Tale_, the American cat asks the Russian mouse what his favorite book is, and he says, “The Brothers Karamouseov” ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2025, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-stock-the-ultimate-fictional-library/671444/209 "2025-05-19T19:56:32Z")
In Ray Bradbury’s short story “The Fire Balloons” in _The Martian Chronicles_ (1951), there’s passing reference to _The Problem of Sin on Other Worlds_, a book by an offbeat Episcopal missionary priest, the Rev. Joseph Daniel Peregrine. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2025, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-stock-the-ultimate-fictional-library/671444/210 "2025-05-19T21:28:10Z")
The comedy book “Science Made Stupid” by Tom Weller, a parody of all the science texts we read in grade school, include the following suggested further reading: > Suggestions for FURTHER READING > > General > The One-Minute Scientist - Franklin Pierce Dong > Zen, Cocaine & Science: An Incoherent Metaphysical Babble - Wolf T. Swedenborg > Thinking on the Wrong Side of the Brain - Tuesday Kurosawa > > The Universe > Let the Stars Guide Your Divorce - Sheherazade O’Feeny > Build Your Own Comet Shelter - Gepetto F.X. Esterhazy > Weight Loss Through Space Travel - Rolf Birdseye, D.D.S. > > Matter and Energy > Special Relativity for Special Children - Zenobia Mintz Bender > General Relativity for Generals - Bomilcar Toth > Sight Without Glasses Through Magnetism - Wolfram Tungsten > “Nuclear power Killed My Poodle,” NoEvolution Quarterly Issue No. 37 - Treemonisha Pancake > > The Earth > Geology - Fact or Fancy? - Tor Rotweiler > Our Friends the Rocks - Emma Firebaugh Treehouse > The Back Yard Volcano - Rex Y. Teabucket > Continental Drifter - Faron “Poker Slim” Kallikak > > Evolution > Dinosaurs from Outer Space - G. Kingsley Firpo > My First Book of Endothermic Therapsids - Maude Dingle Winterhalter > Evolution, A Communist Lie - Col. Tubalcain “Billy” Snowbird, USAF (retired) > Evolution, A Capitalist Lie - Jackov “Beef” Stroganov, PhD. > Evolution, An Infidel Lie - Dr. Achmed Zccvbrcachl > > The Descent of Man > They Walked Sort of Like Men - Rae Dawn Schicklegruber > A Field Guide to Western Girls - Nils Van Der Whoop > Man, the Toolbreaker - Constance d’Annunzio Blight > The Picture Book of Racial Degenerates - Norman and George Lincoln Rockwell > The Bell Curve - “you-know-who” ---
**Author:** ![N9IWP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/n9iwp/32/3154_2.png) [@N9IWP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/N9IWP)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2025, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-stock-the-ultimate-fictional-library/671444/211 "2025-05-20T14:55:56Z")
Apparently the Chicago Sun Times recommends not one, but TEN fictional books: > **[Chicago Sun-Times prints summer reading list full of fake books](https://arstechnica.com/ai/2025/05/chicago-sun-times-prints-summer-reading-list-full-of-fake-books/)** > > Reading list in advertorial supplement contains 75% made up books by real authors. Brian ---
**Author:** ![FlikTheBlue](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fliktheblue/32/10972_2.png) [@FlikTheBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlikTheBlue)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2025, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-stock-the-ultimate-fictional-library/671444/212 "2025-05-20T14:58:52Z")
_Air Chrysalis_ by Eriko Fukada and Tengo Kawana. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2025, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-stock-the-ultimate-fictional-library/671444/213 "2025-05-23T13:54:18Z")
What’s that from, please? ---
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2025, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-stock-the-ultimate-fictional-library/671444/214 "2025-05-23T18:18:39Z")
Flann O’Brien’s novel _The Third Policeman_ includes extensive quotes from the (fictional) eccentric philosopher de Selby, whose books include _Golden Hours_, _The Country Album,_ _A Memoir of Garcia,_ and _Layman’s Atlas_. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2025, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-stock-the-ultimate-fictional-library/671444/215 "2025-05-23T18:46:50Z")
The writings of Princess Irulan (_Dune_) should be an addition, but I don’t think we know the titles. ETA: I’m wrong, we do have titles. From [here](https://dune.fandom.com/wiki/Irulan_Corrino%27s_Attributed_Book_Workings) > [@](#): > > - _A Child’s History of Muad’Dib_ > - _Analysis: The Arakeen Crisis_ > - _Arrakis Awakening_ > - _Collected Legends of Arrakis_ > - _[Collected Sayings of Muad’Dib](https://dune.fandom.com/wiki/Collected_Sayings_of_Muad%27Dib)_ > - _Conversations with Muad’Dib_ > - _Count Fenring: A Profile_ > - _Dictionary of Muad’Dib_ > - _The Humanity of Muad’Dib_ > - _In My Father’s House_ > - _Lecture to the Arrakeen War College_ > - _[Manual of Muad’ Dib](https://dune.fandom.com/wiki/Manual_of_Muad%27_Dib)_ > - _Muad’Dib: Conversations_ > - _Muad’Dib, Family Commentaries_ > - _Muad’Dib, The Man_ > - _Muad’Dib: The Ninety-Nine Wonders of the Universe_ > - _Muad’Dib: The Religious Issues_ > - _Private Reflections on Muad’Dib_ > - _Songs of Muad’Dib_ > - _The Wisdom of Muad’Dib_ > - _Words of Muad’Dib_ ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2025, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-stock-the-ultimate-fictional-library/671444/216 "2025-06-02T19:45:16Z")
Early in the 2016 movie _The Founder_, about Ray Kroc’s takeover of the McDonald’s hamburger chain, Kroc is alone in a motel room, listening to a motivational LP by Dr. Clarence Floyd Nelson, _The Power of the Positive_. I think he has the book of it there, too. Nelson, the album and the book are all made up. ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2025, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-stock-the-ultimate-fictional-library/671444/217 "2025-06-06T13:23:28Z")
_Deep Six: The Continuing Adventures of L.J. Tibbs_ by Thom E. Gemcity (Tim McGee of NCIS) Also, there was a story by Harlan Ellison in the _Weird Heroes_ anthology, Volume 2, about Cordwainer Bird, a sort of literary vigilante and an exaggerated version of Ellison himself. One episode in the story involves him trying to find a copy of his book, _Bad Karma and Other Extravagances_, in a bookstore. It ends tragically. How about the _Book of Bokonon_ from _Cat’s Cradle_? ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2025, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-stock-the-ultimate-fictional-library/671444/218 "2025-06-06T13:52:53Z")
Too bad Kroc wasn’t. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2025, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-stock-the-ultimate-fictional-library/671444/219 "2025-06-08T03:06:05Z")
Several US Government studies are mentioned in Justin Cronin’s 2010 book _The Passage_, about a near-future biowarfare research project gone horribly awry: _CV1-CV13: National and Regional Summary of Select Surveillance Components_, US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; _Civilian Resettlement Protocols for Urban Centers, Zones 6-1_, Federal Emergency Management Agency; and _Efficacy of Post-Exposure Protection Against CV Familial Hemorrhagic Fever in Non-Human Primates_, US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases. I hope they never, ever actually get written! ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2025, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-stock-the-ultimate-fictional-library/671444/220 "2025-06-15T02:36:20Z")
In the same book, a character is said to be a fan of the trashy romances of Jordana Mixon, including _Belle of the Ball, The Lieutenant’s Lover, Daughter of the South, The Hostage Bride_ and _A Lady at Last_. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-stock-the-ultimate-fictional-library/671444.md?page=10) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-stock-the-ultimate-fictional-library/671444.md?page=12)