I’m going through the Shadow of the Wind series and it makes me want to read more but also it really makes me want to read the non-existent books that he mentions in the books. In The Angel’s Game, the protagonist, David, writes these pulpy vampire novels that are shallow but sell well. I would kill to read those books, mostly because I’d love to see if he’s actually talented or not.
Shadow of the Wind is centered on a these hard to find books that are supposedly life changingly brilliant but only sold like ten copies. I want to read them and see why.
Do you have any books within a book that you think about like that? Or any work of art that plays a central role. Movies, albums, paintings?
by tsh87
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The Life and Opinions of Tomcat Murr by ETA Hoffmann. A cat writes his biography on some waste paper that has the biography of another guy. The stories flip back and forth with gaps, and they’re both interesting. I would have read both of them in their entirety if they actually existed.
First thing that came to my mind are the Misery books. You do get to read some of the new one Paul is being forced to write (which can be kind of distracting), but I’d be kind of interested in checking out the series that Annie was so obsessed with.
The fictional up and under series in middlegame sounds fun. Seanan McGuire uses it as a device and a philosophical opposite to the Oz series. I know she started writing some stories in that “series” I just haven’t gotten around to checking them out
The Murder of Gonzago and The Mousetrap
I read that book years ago. I didn’t realize it was part of a series.
I’d be so interested in reading Kilgore Trout’s books. I know Vonnegut allowed someone to write one but if Vonnegut put out 100 terrible pulp novels under Trout’s name I would’ve read them all
The Necronomicon!
When I worked at a bookstore, many people looked for a book called *The Book of Counted Sorrows*, which is quoted often in Dean Koontz books.
The 1984 chapters where Winston reads “The theory and practice of oligarchical collectivism” by Emmanuel Goldstein is one of my all-timers. I always get something new when I read that chapter and I just want to read the actual book so badly.
…and I’m just finding out in responding to this post that someone published the actual thing in 2014
The made-up book in Rainbow Rowell’s *Fangirl* was so popular it’s become its own series.
The Way of Kings, which is first mentioned in the book of the same name by Brandon Sanderson.
In Dorian Gray, Dorian becomes obsessed by a book, which seems to fascinate him and lead him down a dark path. Wilde never names the book, but it is believed to be a real book, Against Nature by J.K. Huysmans.
The World According to Gary. The protagonist is a writer and one of his short stories is in the novel as part of the story telling.
The Hive Queen and the Hegemon from Ender’s Game