The Book of Lost Books - An incomplete history of all the great books you will never read

Viking, 2005. Good secondhand condition.

The Book of Lost Books is a book of stories involving kings, heretics, untimely interruptions and back room deals, falling tortoises and fairy princesses, train crashes and war atrocities, bravery, cowardice, rent boys, chamber maids, love, quests, puzzles and another crocodile. Set out like an encyclopaedia, each entry is a narrative in itself, rather than an anecdote, from academic shaggy dog story to swashbuckling historical fable, and from wry irony to imaginative fantasia. There are lipograms and anagrams, centos and cantos that range from the pre-historic to Marvel Comics. Hilarious, insightful, endlessly fascinating, sometimes shocking - The Book of Lost Books is a wonderfully quirky but utterly romanatic saga of our love affair with books. Hilarious, insightful, endlessly fascinating, sometimes shocking...