A catalogue of imagined knowledge
112 entries, each one traced back to the real page where it was first imagined. Wander the shelves, follow the connections between worlds, and find out which of these books escaped into ours.
Chronicle · Dream of the Red Chamber
A stone, copied by a Taoist; Cao Xueqin as editor — imagined by Cao Xueqin, 1791
The history of a sentient stone, left over from the repairing of the sky, that begged to see the world of red dust — copied off its own surface and read, in our world, as the great novel of a declining house.
Published in our world Open the entry
Imagined first, printed later. These you can actually hold — and every other volume is ranked by how much of it exists.
A standard Hogwarts textbook classifying the magical creatures of the world, and one of the few fictional books you can order tonight and have on your desk tomorrow.
An Arabic history of a knight, found in the Alcana of Toledo, translated by a Morisco for a few raisins and wheat, from which — so the frame insists — Don Quixote was put into Spanish.
A Sanskrit epic as long as the Ramayana, written by the woman who grew a city from seeds, whispered its citizens their lives, and at two hundred and forty-seven sealed the poem in a pot for whoever came after.
The poems of a shepherd who does not believe in hidden meanings — written by a Lisbon clerk who needed a master that was not himself.
A copper-coloured book bound in silk, with two snakes swallowing each other on the cover, in which a lonely boy reads of a world that is dying for want of a name — and then writes one in.
A Florinese romance of true love and high adventure, abridged by a screenwriter who claims his father read it to him, leaving out the pages about packing and the history of Guilder.
A history of the game from the marshes of Queerditch to the modern professional leagues, borrowed from the Hogwarts library and never quite returned on time.
A red-leather manuscript of hobbit memoirs and translated Elvish lore, from which — so the frame insists — The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings were translated into English.
The history of a sentient stone, left over from the repairing of the sky, that begged to see the world of red dust — copied off its own surface and read, in our world, as the great novel of a declining house.
A book of wizarding fairy tales left to Hermione Granger in Dumbledore's will. One of the five stories in it turns out to be the plot of the novel.
A picture book about a lost cow, read to a baby by the most dangerous man in Ankh-Morpork, at six o'clock, every single day, no matter what.
Volumes that harm the people who open them. Read the label first.
33 volumesBooks without a last page, and books that contain every other book.
13 volumesImagined first, printed later. These are the ones you can actually take down off a shelf.
17 volumesScripture for religions that were never practised.
9 volumesInstructions for things that should not be attempted.
11 volumesDestroyed, hidden, or never quite finished. Known only by their absence.
59 volumesThe library that fiction keeps inside itself.
91 volumesEncyclopaedias, bestiaries, atlases and manuals for worlds that need them.
28 volumesBooks someone was made to study, whether or not they wanted to.
7 volumesOr wander by who imagined them and by kind of object.