A fictional book is a non-existent book (or one created specifically for a work of fiction) that sometimes provides the basis of the plot of a story, or a common thread in a series of books or the works of a particular writer or canon of work.

Prominent fictional books

• The Necronomicon in H. P. Lovecraft's books serves as a repository of recondite and evil knowledge in many of his works and the work of others. Despite the evident tongue-in-cheek origin of the book, supposedly written by the "Mad Arab Abdul al-Hazred," who was supposed to have died by being torn apart by an invisible being in an Arab marketplace in broad daylight, many have been led to believe that the book is real.

• A large portion of George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four is a reproduction of portions of the samizdat publication allegedly written by Emmanuel Goldstein and known simply as "The Book", although its actual title is The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism.

• The story of Phillip K. Dick's The Man in the High Castle revolves around another mysterious and forbidden book, written by the title character (Hawthorne Abendsen), named The Grasshopper Lies Heavy. Dick's book describes an alternate history where the Axis Powers were victorious in World War II and the United States has been divided between Japan and Nazi Germany. The book-within-a-book is an alternate history itself, depicting a world in which the Allies won the war but which is nonetheless different to our own world in several important respects. Towards the end of the story, Abendsen admits to writing The Grasshopper Lies Heavy under the direction of the I Ching.

• Guillaume Apollinaire's short fiction "L'Hérésiarque" ("The Heresiarch" or "The Heretic") describes two heretical Christian gospels written by the excommunicated Catholic cardinal Benedetto Orfei. Orfei's heresy is that the three figures of the Trinity -- the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit -- were incarnate in Jesus' time, and were crucified alongside him. Orfei's first work is The True Gospel, describing the human life of God the Father, an embodiment of virtue about whom little is known. Orfei's second work describes the human life of God the Holy Spirit; the title of this work is not mentioned, but is referred to only as his 'second gospel.' In this 'gospel,' the Holy Spirit is a thief who willfully indulges in all manner of vice, including violating a sleeping virgin who then gives birth to Jesus Christ, or God the Son. Later, both the Holy Spirit and the Father are arrested as thieves and crucified, the latter unjustly. Orfei's heresy is intended to illustrate man's contradictory but coexistent aspects of sinner and martyr.

• Fictional books and authors figure prominently in several short stories by the Argentine author Jorge Luis Borges. A few of Borges's fictional creations include The Book of Sand, Herbert Quain (author of April March, The Secret Mirror, etc.), Ts'ui Pen (author of The Garden of Forking Paths), Mir Bahadur Ali (author of The Approach to Al-Mu'tasim), as well as the imaginary Encyclopædia Britannica of the story "Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius." Borges's most famous and beloved fictional book, however, is Don Quixote! This Don Quixote is written by the fictional symbolist poet Pierre Menard in Borges's "Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote." In this story, Menard undertakes an independent word-by-word and line-by-line recreation of Cervantes's classic novel. The story itself takes the form of a review of Menard's work for a literary journal; though Menard's Quixote is still unfinished, the imaginary reviewer concludes that Menard's circumstances and the intervening history between Cervantes's 16th century Spain and Menard's fictional present produce a Quixote that is more pleasurable to read and deeply richer in meaning: though Menard's Quixote is identical on a word-for-word basis to Cervantes's original, Menard's is superior! This ironic conclusion is often read as a commentary on the nature of accurate translation, but more significantly as an illustration of the manner in which the meaning of a text is determined as much if not more by the reader than the author.

• In Chuck Palahniuk's Lullaby, the characters are searching for all the remaining copies of the book Poems and Rhymes Around the World, which contains a poem that can kill anyone that it is hears it spoken or thought in their direction.

• Bill Watterson placed fictional children's books in his comic strip Calvin and Hobbes, saying that he could never reveal their contents for they were surely more outrageous in the reader's imagination. For several years, Calvin (perpetually six years old) demands that his father read him Hamster Huey and the Gooey Kablooie as a bedtime story. Occasionally, his father's patience snaps and he introduces new variations, which at least reveal what the original story is not: "Do you think the townsfolk will ever find Hamster Huey's head?" In the strip's last year, Calvin announces that the author, Mabel Syrup, has produced a sequel, Commander Coriander Salamander and 'er Singlehander Bellylander. An actual Hamster Huey book was written by Mabel Barr in 2004, years after the strip's conclusion, although it was only eight pages long.

• The comedic courtroom drama My Cousin Vinny features a brief appearance by The Cologne Handbook.

• The innersleeve notes to the album Secret Treaties by the band Blue Öyster Cult mention "Rossignol's curious, albeit simply titled book, the Origins of a World War, spoke in terms of secret treaties, drawn up between the Ambassadors from Plutonia and Desdinova the foreign minister. These treaties founded a secret science from the stars. Astronomy. The career of evil." This was probably written by producer Sandy Pearlman.

• "Travels With My Cats," a Hugo-nominated short story by Mike Resnick first appearing in Asimov's Science Fiction magazine, features a fictional travelogue of the same name.

• The Encyclopedia Galactica in Isaac Asimov's Foundation Series was created in Terminus at the beginning of the Foundation Era. It serves primarily as an introduction to a character, a place or a circumstance to be developed in each chapter. Each quotation contains a copyright disclaimer and cites Terminus as the place of publication.

The Necronomicon is the title of a fictional book created by H.P. Lovecraft and often featured in stories based on the Cthulhu mythos inspired by his works. ... H. P. Lovecraft Howard Phillips Lovecraft (August 20, 1890 – March 15, 1937) was an American author of fantasy and horror fiction, noted for giving horror stories a science fiction framework. ... George Orwell on Time Magazine cover from 1983. ... Nineteen Eighty-Four is a satirical political novel by George Orwell. ... Samizdat, book published by Pathfinder Press containing a collection of forbidden Trotskyist Samizdat texts. ... Emmanuel Goldstein is a key character in George Orwells novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. ... Goldsteins book is a fictional book which is an important element in both the plot and the overall theme of George Orwells dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. ... Philip Kindred Dick (December 16, 1928 – March 2, 1982), often known by his initials PKD, or by the pen name Richard Phillips, was an American science fiction writer and novelist who changed the genre profoundly. ... 1981 Berkley cover of The Man in the High Castle The Man in the High Castle is a 1962 alternative history novel by science fiction writer Philip K. Dick. ... Alternate history (fiction) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia /**/ @import /skins-1. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Combatants Allies: Poland, British Commonwealth, France/Free France, Soviet Union, United States, China, and others. ... Nazi Germany, or the Third Reich, commonly refers to Germany in the years 1933–1945, when it was under the firm control of the totalitarian and fascist ideology of the Nazi Party, with the Führer Adolf Hitler as dictator. ... Alternative meaning: I Ching (monk) The I Ching (Traditional Chinese: 易經, pinyin y jīng; Cantonese IPA: jɪk6gɪŋ1; Cantonese Jyutping: jik6ging1; alternative romanizations include I Jing, Yi Ching, Yi King) is the oldest of the Chinese classic texts. ... Guillaume Apollinaire Guillaume Apollinaire (August 26, 1880 – November 9, 1918) was a poet, writer, and art critic. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... A cardinal is a senior ecclesiastical official in the Roman Catholic Church, ranking just below the Pope and appointed by him as a member of the College of Cardinals during a consistory. ... Heresy, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, is a theological or religious opinion or doctrine maintained in opposition, or held to be contrary, to the Catholic or Orthodox doctrine of the Christian Church, or, by extension, to that of any church, creed, or religious system, considered as orthodox. ... For other uses, see Trinity (disambiguation). ... Jesus (8-2 BC/BCE – 29-36 AD/CE),[1] also known as Jesus of Nazareth or Jesus the Nazarene, is the central figure of Christianity, in which context he is known as Jesus Christ, where Christ is a Greek title meaning Anointed, corresponding to the Hebrew term Messiah. The... SINNER is a German Heavy Melodic Metal Band. ... Historically, a martyr is a person who dies for their convictions or religious faith, such as during the persecution of early Christians in the Roman Empire. ... Jorge Luis Borges () (August 24, 1899 – June 14, 1986) was an Argentine writer who is considered to be one of the foremost writers of the 20th century. ... The Book of Sand (El libro de arena) is a short story by Jorge Luis Borges. ... The Garden of Forking Paths (Spanish: El Jardín de senderos que se bifurcan) is a short story by Argentine writer and poet Jorge Luis Borges. ... Mir Bahadur Ali was an Indian lawyer and author, best known for the books he wrote while living in Bombay. ... 1913 advertisement for the 11th edition, with the slogan When in doubt — look it up in the Encyclopædia Britannica The Encyclopædia Britannica (properly spelled with æ, the ae-ligature) was first published in 1768–1771 as The Britannica was an important early English-language general encyclopedia and is still... Jorge Luis Borges short story has been widely translated. ... Don Quixote de la Mancha (now usually spelled Don Quijote by Spanish-speakers; Don Quixote is an archaic spelling) (IPA: ) is a novel by the Spanish author Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra. ... La mort du fossoyeur (The death of the gravedigger) by Carlos Schwabe is a visual compendium of Symbolist motifs. ... Pierre Menard is a fictional 20th century writer, created by Jorge Luis Borges. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Charles Michael Chuck Palahniuk (IPA: ) (born February 21, 1962) is an American satirical novelist and freelance journalist living in Portland, Oregon. ... Lullaby is a horror-satire novel by American author Chuck Palahniuk, published in 2002. ... William B. Bill Watterson II (born July 5, 1958) is the author of the comic strip Calvin and Hobbes. ... Calvin and Hobbes took many wagon rides over the years—this one showed up on the cover of the first collection of comic strips. ... A fictional book is a non-existent book that sometimes provides the basis of the plot of a story, or a common thread in a series of books or the works of a particular writer or canon of work. ... Calvin and Hobbes is a comic strip written and illustrated by Bill Watterson, following the humorous antics of Calvin, an imaginative six-year-old boy, and Hobbes, his energetic and sardonic—albeit stuffed—tiger. ... Calvin and Hobbes is a comic strip written and illustrated by Bill Watterson, following the humorous antics of Calvin, an imaginative six-year-old boy, and Hobbes, his energetic and sardonic—albeit stuffed—tiger. ... It has been designated the: International Year of Rice (by the United Nations) International Year to Commemorate the Struggle against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO) 2004 World Health Day topic was Road Safety (by World Health Organization) Year of the Monkey (by the Chinese calendar) See the world in... My Cousin Vinny is a 1992 American movie, released on Friday, March 13, starring Joe Pesci and Marisa Tomei. ... Secret Treaties is Blue Öyster Cults third studio album, released in 1974. ... Blue Öyster Cult is a psychedelic/heavy metal band probably best known for two songs: their 1976 single (Dont Fear) The Reaper from the album Agents of Fortune (also featured in the cult movie Halloween, and in Stephen Kings novel The Stand), and their 1981 single Burnin for... Sandy Pearlman was the original producer, manager and a songwriter for the Blue Öyster Cult. ... The Hugo Award is given every year for the best science fiction or fantasy stories of the previous year, and for related areas in fandom, art and dramatic presentation. ... Mike Resnick (born March 5, 1942) is a popular and prolific science fiction author. ... Cover for an issue of Asimovs Science Fiction. ... The Encyclopedia Galactica is a fictional or hypothetical encyclopedia of a future galaxy-spanning civilization, containing all the knowledge accumulated by a society with trillions of people and thousands of years of history. ... Isaac Asimov, photographed by Jay Kay Klein Dr. Isaac Asimov (c. ... Hari Seldons holographic image, pictured on a paperback edition of Foundation, appears at various times in the First Foundations history, to guide it through the social and economic crises that befall it. ... The word terminus is used in several different contexts including various topics: In transport a terminus is commonly used to describe a bus station/rail station acting as an end destination. ...

See also

• List of fictional books
• Fictional guidebook
• List of fictional books within the Harry Potter series
• List of fictional books within the Discworld series
• List of fictional diaries

. ... Some fictional universes feature useful guidebooks which assist the hero and friends through difficult situations. ... This is a list of fictional books mentioned in the Harry Potter series, along with their names in other languages. ... This is a list of fictional books within the Discworld series. ... This is a list of works of fiction written in diary format: Bridget Joness Diary by Helen Fielding Diary of a Madman by Nikolai Gogol Diary of a Nobody by George and Weedon Grossmith For Love or Money by Michael J. Ritchie From the Files of Madison Finn series...

External links

• The Invisible Library - an extensive collection of fictional books, founded and curated by Brian Quinette
• The Invisible Library, Malibu Lake Branch, curated by Fayaway & Hermester Barrington