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.
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.
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.
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.
Charles Bukowski’s short stories compilation “Erections, Ejaculations, Exhibitions, and Other Tales of Ordinary Madness”.
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.
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.
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”
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.
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 KurosawaThe 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 PancakeThe 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” KallikakEvolution
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 ZccvbrcachlThe 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”
Apparently the Chicago Sun Times recommends not one, but TEN fictional books:
Brian
Air Chrysalis by Eriko Fukada and Tengo Kawana.
What’s that from, please?
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.
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
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.
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?
Too bad Kroc wasn’t.
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!
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.