The Madman's Library: The Strangest Books, Manuscripts and Other Literary Curiosities from History

by Edward Brooke-Hitching

This fascinating and bizarre collection compiles the most unusual, obscure books from the far reaches of the human imagination throughout history.

From the author of the critically acclaimed bestsellers The Phantom Atlas and The Sky Atlas comes a unique and beautifully illustrated journey through the history of literature. The Madman's Library delves into its darkest territories to hunt down the oddest books and manuscripts ever written, uncovering the intriguing stories behind their creation.

From the Qur'an written in the blood of Saddam Hussein, to the gorgeously decorated fifteenth-century lawsuit filed by the Devil against Jesus, to the most enormous book ever created, The Madman's Library features many long forgotten, eccentric, and extraordinary volumes gathered from around the world.

Books written in blood and books that kill, books of the insane and books that hoaxed the globe, books invisible to the naked eye and books so long they could destroy the Universe, books worn into battle and books of code and cypher whose secrets remain undiscovered. Spell books, alchemist scrolls, wearable books, edible books, books to summon demons, books written by ghosts, and more all come together in the most curiously strange library imaginable.

Featuring hundreds of remarkable images and packed with entertaining facts and stories to discover, The Madman's Library is a captivating compendium perfect for bibliophiles, literature enthusiasts, and collectors intrigued by bizarre oddities, obscure history, and the macabre.

• MUST-HAVE FOR BOOKLOVERS: Anyone who appreciates a good read will love delving into this weird world of books and adding this collection to their own bookshelf.
• DISCOVER SOMETHING TRULY UNIQUE: The Madman's Library will let you in on the secret and obscure histories of the strangest books ever made.
• EXPERT AUTHOR: Edward Brooke-Hitching is the son of an antiquarian book dealer, a lifelong rare book collector, and a master of taking visual deep dives into unusual historical subjects, such as the maps of imaginary geography in The Phantom Atlas or ancient pathways through the stars in The Sky Atlas.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Books About Books, Art, Reference, Historical, Literature

256 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 2020

About the author

Edward Brooke-Hitching is a writer and award-winning documentary filmmaker. The son of an antiquarian book dealer, he read English and Film at the University of Exeter before entering independent film production. ‘Fox Tossing, Octopus Wrestling and Other Forgotten Sports’ is his first book. He lives in London.

Reviews

[Jill H. · Rating 5 out of 5]

You know those books that make you return for a reread between heftier tomes? This is one of them!

A simply a beautiful book with full page color photos of some of the most unusual and extremely rare books, scrolls, etc. in the world. In 2002, a group named Project Ocean began their attempt to collect the titles of every book in existence until they reached a billion plus figure. So many more are known (such as Shakespeare's First Folio) but were forever destroyed in natural disasters, the Great Fire of London, and deliberate destruction such as book burning.

In this book, the author has searched out the most amazing extant books in the world with pictures and their histories. He divides the book into interesting categories. such as: books made of flesh and blood, works of the supernatural, books of spectacular size, literary hoaxes, and many more. His narrative flows easily and often is written with humor. He also provides a list of strange titles which made me chuckle. Would you like to read "Old Age - the Cause and Prevention", or maybe "A Handbook on Hanging"?

A lovely book for the lover of books and their history. Highly recommended.

[Claudia · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a wonderful reading this has been! My last in this year and the most appropriate one, for what better choice for a booklover than to read about some book oddities?

It's a marvelous collection of fascinating things and facts, divided into thematic chapters: books that aren’t books, books made of flesh and blood, cryptic books, literary hoaxes, curious collections, works of the supernatural, religious oddities, curiosities of science, books of spectacular sizes and strange titles.

Some I knew about; some were new to me. Some were completely hilarious, most of them made me gawk – humans are a gullible and wacky species.

One of the most amusing parts was from the Portuguese – English dictionary produced by the Portuguese writer Pedro Carolino, in the mid-nineteenth century. Why? Because Carolino didn’t know English at all, so he translated all words into French, based on Portuguese-to-French phrasebook, and then from French to English, based on a dictionary. According to Edward Brooke-Hitching, “Jettisoning all idiomatic nuances, Carolino succeeded in birthing the world’s worst language guide, a mad bag of nonsense […], published in Paris in 1855.” Indeed.

Not to mention the books wrote by dead writers, through a medium. “As luck would have it, the psychic connection seems to be strongest with the great titans of literature, but their skills invariably prove to have rusted somehow post mortem. ‘Strange perversions of style occur,’ the book historian Walter Hart Blumenthal noted dryly in 1955, ‘and lapses into the commonplace, even the maudlin, give rise to the suspicion that the afterlife is not especially stimulating to the literary spirit.’”

An honorable mention gets the one who sued god because her house was struck by a lightning due to the negligence from its part; that’s how I found out there has been also in Romania a similar lawsuit. The craziness in people...

The author has a keen sense of humor and his observations are witty and hilarious. The book also features lots of coloured illustrations, making the whole experience of reading it a delight.

All in all, the perfect reading to end the year in high spirit and with lots of laughs.

>>> ARC received thanks to Chronicle Books via NetGalley <<<

Note: even if this edition is an ARC and will be published next year in April, there is also another from Simon & Schuster UK, already available.

[Pam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mad, absolutely mad crazy. How many zany ways can writing be done? And of course it shows there are a lot of crazy readers out there. The book goes a long way to prove the power and magic of book arts and says quite a bit about how credulous and wonderful readers can be.

This is a collection of obscure, forgotten and sometimes lost (one literal gem of a book went down with the Titanic) and not always truly books. How about copies of Mein Kampf bound in skunk? Then there is the book that literally contains a potty chair, Saddam Hussein’s Quran done in his own blood, rare and not so rare forgeries, grimoirs, and last but certainly not least the world’s heaviest book created over 23 years by a Brazilian tax lawyer to demonstrate the obscure and ridiculous tax laws in his country. You’ll find it weighs 7.5 tons. Groan.

The illustrations are glorious, vivid and mind blowing. Included is a helpful bibliography but darn, I cannot find many of these titles miniaturized, maximized or as e-books. The mentioned Diagram Prize winners are somewhat more available. Look under Goodreads Listopia Diagram Prize. That prize has been awarded in Britain (naturally) since 1978 for the year’s book with the weirdest title. The latest, the 2022 winner is missing—“Is Superman Circumcised?” A number are actually available, such as “Classical Antiquity in Heavy Metal Music”…$35. I’ll have to wait for that to be discounted. Sadly not available, “Fancy Coffins to Make Yourself” and “Knitting With Dog Hair.”

Wow, what an entertaining book for book geeks!

[fleurette · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love trivia, and what could be better than book trivia! This book is full of them, and full of pictures of fascinating books! Believe it or not, I read it whole, along with every photo description.

This is such a fascinating book. The passion of an author who loves the topic he writes about is clearly visible. He has done a tremendous amount of research and has put together the most interesting examples to include in this book. It mainly describes well-documented examples. This is not just a collection of rumors, gossips and anecdotes. We can see everything the author writes about in the numerous amazing pictures. So, we know exactly what he is talking about, it allows us to understand everything much better.

It is a very easy book to read. The author clearly wrote it for people who do not know all the secrets of book binding and history. All of the more difficult concepts are well explained. The author was able to choose the material very well and writes about things that may interest everyone. I also really like the humor with which he does it. This is a book for everyone.

Well, maybe not everyone, because there are some rather dark topics here that can be difficult if you are very sensitive. I mean books bound in human skin and written with human blood. These are definitely topics for people with the strong nerves, but the author writes about them in a way that makes it more fascinating than scary. In general, the topics are very varied, there are even a few photos of unusual writing machines.

This is a beautiful and fascinating book, richly illustrated with wonderful photos. A must-read for every book lover.

Thanks to NetGalley and Chronicle Books for providing me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

[K.J. Charles]

A delightful and beautifully illustrated compendium of weird books--bound in human skin, written in blood, larger than people, smaller than fingernails, bizarrely titled, or full of weirdness. Stuffed with good stories and intriguing facts. An excellent gift for a bibliophile.

[Schizanthus Nerd · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve always loved books about books. As someone with a bit of an eclectic taste in books, who’s more likely to pick up a book from a shelf if it has a weird title, this is basically my idea of the perfect coffee table book.

There are so many fun facts and strange bits and pieces I want to remember about this book. So rather than writing a normal review, I’m going to share some of the oddities and curiosities that stood out to me in each chapter.

Books that aren’t books

* Oracle bones - “animal bones and shells, often from oxen and turtles, upon which questions were written and anointed with blood by fortune-tellers. A heated poker was then pressed against the bone until it cracked, and in these patterns of splits and marks the client’s future was divined.”
* Quipu - “As far as we can tell, the primary function of these knotted strings, which could consist of anything from four cords to more than 2000, was storing and communicating numerical information in a decimal system used for documenting census and calendrical data, tax obligations, and managing accounts and trades.”

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Image found here.

* Francesco Morosini’s custom-made Italian prayer-book pistol. “The gun, likely for personal protection, can only fire when the book is closed. The trigger is a pin concealed in silk thread to look like a bookmark.”

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* A secret poison cabinet disguised as a book, made in 1692. Sold at auction in 2008, you can find the details here.

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Books made of flesh and blood

* The practice of binding books with human skin is called ‘anthropodermic bibliopegy’.
* Chief surgeon of the British Royal Infirmary, Richard Smith, bound a book of papers relating to the murder of Eliza Balsom in the skin of the murderer. Never mind that John Horwood, the convicted murderer, threw a pebble at her temple and it was likely Smith’s “trepanation, an ancient practice that involved drilling a hole into the skull to relieve pressure” that killed her.
* A practice known as xieshu in Chinese Buddhism, where scribes wrote holy text using their blood, was considered “an ascetic form of sacrifice to prove one’s piety and earn merit to be transferred to one’s relatives after death.” The lighter the blood’s colour was, the more pure the writer was deemed to be.

Cryptic books

* In order to pass on messages to his friends who were imprisoned by the Spanish Inquisition, Giambattista della Porta wrote secret messages on eggs. “He concocted an ink from one ounce of alum (a colourless compound using in dying and tanning) and a pint of vinegar. Written directly onto the shell, the chemical mixture soaked through the porous shell to the egg albumen beneath. Boiling the egg caused the chemical to react, and when the shell was peeled away the message was revealed on the hardened egg white.”

Literary hoaxes

* George Shepard Chappell’s exotic travel journal hoax, The Cruise of the Kawa: Wanderings in the South Seas by ‘Walter E. Traprock’, included a photo of the eggs of the native Fatu-liva bird.

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Curious collections

* Pedro Carolino’s The New Guide to Conversation in Portuguese and English was published in 1855. The problem was that Pedro didn’t know how to speak English so he used a Portuguese-to-French phrasebook and then a French-to-English dictionary. Obviously this led to some interesting phrases. My favourite of those listed is ‘You make grins’.
* The first commercially produced typewriter, the Hansen Writing Ball, was invented in Denmark in 1865. “The distinctive design features fifty-two keys on a large brass hemisphere, with the vowels to the left and consonants to the right.”

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Image found here.

Works of the supernatural

* The Egyptian Book of the Dead was originally called ‘Book of Emerging Forth into the Light’.
* The earliest record of crop circles is from a pamphlet published in 1678, ‘The Mowing-Devil: Or, Strange News out of Hartford-Shire’.

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Image found here.

Religious oddities

* In the mid 1600’s, a Sephardic ordained rabbi called Sabbatai Zevi married the Torah. There was even a wedding ceremony, although the rabbis of Salonica then banished the groom from the city. Zevi also claimed to be able to fly but refused to do so in public because apparently his followers “weren’t worthy of witnessing it”.

Curiosities of science

* Galen, a Greek physician (AD C. 129-216), believed hair was made when the “skin’s pores became blocked with sooty smoke particles generated by warm blood, until so much pressure built up that the soot erupted out of the skin in a solid string”. Darker hair indicates a higher soot level and higher temperature.

Books of spectacular size

* Miniature books are called ‘Lilliputiana’ and huge books are called ‘Brobdingnagiana’.

Strange titles

* “Bill Hillman, the American author of the 2014 guide Fiesta: How to Survive the Bulls of Pamplona, was gored by the bulls of Pamplona that same year - and again the next year.”
* A literary award called the Bookseller/Diagram Prize for Oddest Title of the Year began in 1978.

Blog - https://schizanthusnerd.com

[Janelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

This wonderful book is a book about books, not everyday books but the weird, the unique and the crazy. From books written in blood, or bound in skin (including human), large and tiny, beautifully illustrated and filled with all sorts of information. The chapters cover everything from science and religion, alchemy, bestiaries, codes and ciphers,grimoires, literary hoaxes and dictionaries of the vulgar tongue.
Some of my favourite bits include the fake travel books. Walter E Traprock made up a trip to south seas including a bird that laid cube shaped eggs, the picture is clearly of dice in a nest! There’s some wonderful trivia here, from Jonathan Swift and Daniel Defoe’s pseudonyms to weird medical treatments. There’s also a bit on mediums that channeled dead authors including Shakespeare, Dickens and Twain. One medium also channeled martians!
A great read that made me laugh too.

[Flybyreader · Rating 5 out of 5]

Get ready to be engrossed in this literary feast, a dream book for curious bibliophiles, who are obssessed with not just books but books about books, here we have one of the best examples of bookception.
I absolutely loved this collection of the strangest books and literary curiosities, which will surely tickle the curious bone of the everyday bibliophile and quench the never-ending thirst for more. It contains multitudes of bizarre examples of books, most of which were totally unknown to me. I learned a lot while enjoying it, a wholesome package of knowledge and entertainment. In here you will find some elegant samples of books that are not actually books (including wearable, tearable, edible, mummified books), cryptobooks (including every romantic, obscene cryptic love letters), bibliohoaxes (books that were meant to be ridiculous but taken too seriously), supernatural books, pseudo-scientific books (including a riveting image of blood transfusion between a goat and man!), mini and maxi-sized books ever written and last but not least, books with strange titles that will make you question your reading choice.
This magnificently constructed, beautifully illustrated book will spark imagination, provoke enthusiasm to research and read more. As quoted in the introduction from Rosenbach, this book is for booksworms, who “go long journeys halfway about the world, forget friendships, even lie, cheat and steal, all for the gain of a book.”
Loved it!

(I received a complimentary copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.)

[Amy Imogene Reads · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very cool concept!

As a book lover who loves all things books, and as a person who also loves obscure and dark history, this was a perfect match. I really enjoyed it as a whole.

Like many nonfiction collections of shorter sections, it was a mixed bag of enjoyment—some sections I skimmed a bit due to lack of interest, others I was extremely invested in every word.

If you are a bonafide bibliophile, check this one out!

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[Radwa · Rating 5 out of 5]

English Review Below.

هذا الكتاب هو بالضبط ما تتوقعون من العنوان. موسوعة لتاريخ أغرب وأعجب الكتب. فهناك فصول عن كتب ليست كتبا وكتب مصنوعة من اللحم والدم البشري وكتب مرمزة وكتب مزيفة وكتب دينية وخرارقة للطبيعة، وكتب بمختلف الأحجام غير المتوقعة وغيرها. الكتب يبدو عليه أسلوب البحث المكثف والتنقل من مثال لآخر كان سلسل وأسلوب الكتابة لم يكن معقدا. أنصحه لمحبي تاريخ الكتب ولهواة القراءة عن التاريخ العجيب والمثير للأشياء.

This book was exactly what it promised. An Encyclopedia of all different and bizarre books. There are books that aren't "books" in the sense we know of them now, books made of flesh and blood, cryptic books, hoaxes, supernatural and religious books, books of different irregular sizes and more. The research that went into this book was apparent and the segway from one example to another was smooth. I really enjoyed this book and took my time reading it, as I really didn't want all of the chapters to blend together. I'd recommend for fans of strange and weird books and those interested in the history of books themselves.

I thank Netgalley for the digital ARC.

[Ints · Rating 5 out of 5]

Šī ir klasiska grāmata par grāmatām. Autors ir savācis dažādus unikālus eksemplārus no grāmatu izdevniecības vēstures un labākos no tiem apraksta šeit.

Te nav vienkārši lielākās un mazākās grāmatas pasaulē, kā tas parasti bija manas bērnības avīzēs. Te tām ir tikai viena nodaļa, tāpat kā grāmatām, kas sarakstītas ar asinīm (Sadams Huseins izrādās ir ziedojis asinis, lai ar tām sarakstītu Korānu). Grāmatas kas ievākotas cilvēku ādā, te gan nav kaut kādi koncentrāciju nometņu stāsti, bet savulaik, pacienti gribēja, la pēc viņu nāves viņu slimības vēsture, biogrāfija, tiktu iesieti viņu ādā. Patiesībā liela aļa no foliantiem, kuri it kā iesieti cilvēku ādā, bieži vien ir parasts liellops. Tad ir nodaļa par kriptogrāfiskajām grāmatām, pirmais kas nāk prātā ir Voiničas manuskripts. Neviens vēl nav ticis skaidrībā kas tur īsti ir un kad tas radies. Tad ir vesela kaudze ar traku cilvējku pierakstiem, stenogrāfijām un velna apsēstu mūķeņu kriptētām vēstulēm.

Vienu vārdu sakot, ja interesē grāmatas, gan to attīstības līkloči gadsimtu gaitā iesaku izlasīt 10 no 10 ballēm.

[Liam Ostermann · Rating 3 out of 5]

A marvelously entertaining book, but although what it says is interesting, what it says is limited. There are many more interesting books, about books. What this book does offer is an incomparable selection of photographs of some absolutely stunning prints from some of the most beautiful books ever printed. Well worth it for those alone, but anyone who likes their history, or even their anecdotage to be more than soap bubbles, will be disappointed at the rather light and insubstantial text.

[Tim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brooke-Hitching has compiled a fascinating collection of the obscure, the odd, and the over-the-top outrageous in history of the written word. Without delving too deeply into the technicalities of production through the years, the reader still gets an informative overview of the development of the codex.

Most interesting to me were the chapters covering books with cryptic writing and literary hoaxes because I love a good puzzle and a good joke. The last chapter on amusing titles was good for a chuckle.

The best part of the book were the colorful photos of these books of history. Madman’s Library is generously filled with pictures allowing readers to fully appreciate the artistry and craftsmanship of the past. It is no wonder that books have been cherished and revered by so many.

I read my ARC electronically on Adobe Digital Reader (thank you Netgalley). I look forward to purchasing this in hardback. Some things to note about the e-book in the version I read: (i) couldn’t read on phone or tablet as file was too large. I had to be at my computer (ii) could not adjust page view for easy reference. This needs a side by side page option so that one can look at the photos of the book being described-able to glance back and forth rather than scroll up and down. The newspaper style columns of text on the page were also irritating on an e-reader as I had to read down one column, scrolling down, and then scroll back up to read the next column. The font was too small for me to read comfortably and keep the page small enough to fit on the screen without scrolling.

So, approach thoughtfully with an e-reader but I still have no hesitation in giving this 5/5 stars.

[Nandakishore Mridula · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a bibliophile's dream come true. Especially if that bibliophile happens to be a bit of a weirdo, like yours truly.

Ever since the alphabet has been invented, people have been writing, and collecting the written material into books. Rare book collector Edward Brooke-Hitching gives us the most unusual examples of the same.

The Madman's Library, divided into ten chapters, talks about

1. Books that Aren't Books: We tend to think of books as comprising a bunch of pages bound together. But writing can be done on any medium. Here we have the seamstress Agnes Richter, an inmate of Heidelberg psychiatric hospital, who embroidered biographical fragments into a jacket: the Union soldier Simon Conn, who kept his battle diary of the American Civil War on an unused violin: and Petter Moen, the Norwegian resistance activist thrown into a dark cell by the Nazis, who pricked out his memoirs on toilet paper and hid them in a ventilator shaft, where they survived. And there is writing that is not even writing in our modern sense, like the Inca system of keeping accounts using knotted strings.

2. Books Made of Flesh and Blood: Leather has been used to bind books for a long time - but when the skin used to produce it is from humans, we are entering Stephen King territory. There have been a lot of instances of convicted criminals ending up on the covers of books, and thus getting immortalised. As for blood as ink, there has been the practice of using human blood to copy out "holy" books - the most bizarre example being that of a Qur'an written in Saddam Hussein's blood.

3. Cryptic Books: Books are not always written to be intelligible. Sometimes they are purposefully written in ciphers, so as to be intelligible only to the few who have the key. (There is purportedly buried treasure somewhere in Bedford County, Virginia, the key to which is provided in a cryptic set of writings by the man who buried it, Thomas J. Beale.) And there are books which are written in indecipherable languages (the most famous is the Voynich Manuscript) which tantalise us with their esoteric nature. (Codex Seraphinianus is not included - a grave omission in my opinion.)

4. Literary Hoaxes: Biographies of people who never existed. Journeys to lands which never were. News stories dreamed up by creative reporters. This chapter is the most entertaining of the lot. Especially entertaining is the story of the book Naked Came the Stranger, written as a spoof on trashy pulp fiction full of gratuitous sex, which became a bestseller! There are also criminal hoaxes such Howard Hughes' fictitious autobiography and Hitler's diaries.

5. Curious Collections: Do you know that the biggest contributor to the Oxford English Dictionary was an inmate of the Broadmoor Asylum for the criminally insane? Or that the Encyclopaedia Britannica was originally full of gross errors? This chapter deals with such curious facts. Also included are the "bestiaries", tales of wonderful beasts around the world which are, unfortunately, non-existent (except perhaps with Hagrid at Hogwarts).

6. Works of the Supernatural: Ghoulies and ghosties and long-legged beasties and things that go bump in the night... I love these! Practical manuals for conjuring up demons and lavishly illustrated books about hell, afterlife and the gentleman with the cloven feet, forked tail and horns abound.

7. Religious Oddities: Quirky bibles, bowdlerised "holy" books, and the proceedings of Satan's lawsuit against Jesus Christ... highly entertaining.

8. Curiosities of Science: Yesterday's science is today's pseudoscience. Yesterday's medicine is today's quackery. Yesterday's chemistry is today's alchemy... this chapter shows us the curious oddities from science's journey through the ages. Pseudoscience is still alive and kicking, by the way!

9. Books of Spectacular Size: From Teeny Ted from Turnip Town, etched on silicon micro-tablets measuring 0.07 x 0.1 mm in size (it requires an electron microscope to be read) to Patria Amada, a 7.5-ton tome compiling Brazil's incredibly voluminous and complex tax laws; from a poem comprising a single letter to the 106-volume nineteenth century Japanese novel Nanso Satomi Hakkenden - the long and short of books.

10. Strange Titles: The chapter title says it all!

Full of interesting information, lavishly illustrated, this is a book to die for!

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely fascinating.....this beautifully illustrated book looks at the many weird, wonderful, ingenious, and sometimes downright disturbing ways people have conveyed the written word.....
From beautiful manuscripts to messages written on clothing, and even one written on slices of cheese, I found every page interesting.....

[The Sassy Bookworm · Rating 5 out of 5]

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Is there anything better to a bibliophile than a book about books??!! 📚🤗

PROS
-- Gorgeous Illustrations and photos
-- Easy to read
-- Well researched
-- Fascinating amounts of information
-- Packed full of hilarious and bizarre (sometimes downright scary) facts
-- My favorite "chapter"...books bound in human skin and written with human blood (don't judge 😂)

CONS
-- That I don't have a physical copy of this book in my hands. However, I will remedy that shortly! 🙌🏻

**ARC Via NetGalley**

[Maxine · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you love books, not just the texts, but everything about them, you really need The Madman’s Library by Edward Brooke-Hitching. It describes books of every seemingly possible (and occasionally seemingly impossible) material and text. There are books that are fantastic, beautiful, sacrilegious and religious; books made of every conceivable material including human skin and written in human blood; books that are indecipherable and books that are just plain odd. But they are all amazing to look at and read about.

Brooke-Hitching’s descriptions are both informative and entertaining and the full-colour illustrations that accompany them are absolutely stunning. I definitely recommend this book highly for all the book lovers out there.

Thanks to Netgalley and Chronicle Books for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review

[Anoud · Rating 5 out of 5]

Many thanks to Netgalley and Chronicle Books for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I need a copy of book, I need it to exist in my book shelves asap. It was filled to the brim with awesome, funny, scary horrifying stories. My favorite story was the story of the war prisoner Peter Moen.
The Japanese farting competitions was hilarious, and the human skin book binding was horrifying. I had a sneak peek to the French revolution's atrocities with that maid pants story and smiled at the authors at the hoax section of the book.

[Kinga · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wonderful collection of oddest and most unusual books. Brilliantly illustrated with scans and photos of the books, this is a joy to read for bibliophiles.

[Ben Chandler · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is a normal book about weird books. It is not bound in human skin.

[Claudia · Rating 4 out of 5]

When a book starts out with the inside covers being that of vividly bright colored fish from the 1719 book Fishes, Crayfishes, and Crabs by Louis Renard; some fore-edge paintings (illustrations along the edge of the pages that are only revealed when the pages are slightly fanned); a demon or two along with some strange inhabitants of far off lands with tales of inhabitants with extra body parts or parts in unusual places and a scroll from the Edo period which displays farting competitions, you know it's GOING to be interesting.

Seriously.

Books that are not books like the Incan quipu. Books made of blue jade. Of linen and used to wrap an Egyptian mummy. Books embroidered on cloth. Written on skulls and violins. A wooden library made from the trees themselves with leaves and seeds inside and the bark outside. Books made to hide things like weapons and poisons. A book that can double as a portable commode stool.

Books written or covered by a variety of hides - with or without fur/hair - included human. Written in blood. A book made of cheese slices and Splenda packets.

Codes and cyphers - the most famous being the Voynich manuscripts and Beale cipher which conceals a treasure buried in Virginia. There are many publications for the 'armchair' treasure hunters starting with Masquerade and dozens of others.

The pamphlet printed for Land Rover customers in Dubai that if the vehicle breaks down, it provides many survival instructions as well as being edible.

Collections and lexicons. Plates of birds, flowers, of sea creatures and swan marks (ownership symbols branded or cut into the birds' upper bills). A collection of wallpaper samples - all of which are highly toxic from the high amount of arsenic in the brilliant colors. The Harris List of Covent Garden Ladies - prostitutes with appearances and talents - which were published annually for nearly 40 years.

Of course, there is a nod to the various hoaxes or fake books like the Hitler diaries and the so-called autobiography of Howard Hughes.

The catalogue of Hernando Colon's massive library who tried to collect a copy of every book in the world and is now the only source regarding many titles that no longer exist.

The supernatural - from grimoire and demons - along with manuals for the I Ching and books written by the ghosts of authors working with a live person. Alchemy and anatomy books.

And no book on books would be complete without a nod to Titivillus, the patron "demon" of scribes who is responsible for the misspellings and dropped words that plagued the handwritten copiers of various tomes and required some creativity to deal with.

From largest - take your choice of the one that is six feet tall to the antiphonies (medieval choral books that were large enough for the entire choir to share) to the printing of the Brazilian tax laws weighing in at 7.5 tons, 41,000 pages and nearly 7 feet tall (first and only edition since Brazil basically adds 35 new tax laws a day at the time of the book's publication). Then there is the mini-Bibles and tiny copies of the Qur'an that were small enough to be affixed to battle standards or even personally worn as an amulet to the really smallest which requires a electron microscope to read.

It's just a fun read and lavishly illustrated. I am certain that the author had a fun time writing it and finding examples of the different types of books as well as being surprised by the more exotic items.

2021-110

[Theediscerning · Rating 5 out of 5]

Let's be frank, there's very little about this that appears at all mad (apart perhaps from some blood-letting Chinese scholars making their own ink from themselves), for some good time. This is a whirlwind tour of everything every book lover would love to have, from the Voynich Manuscript, to books bound in human skin, and through the fake Hitler diaries to the likes of "Masquerade", the puzzle book with the immense sales figures and golden rabbit reward, and no small sense, it turned out, of dubiousness. It does get suitably mad, and perhaps a smidge less interesting, when discussing antiquarian religious books produced in cahoots with the Devil, and the typical mediaeval medical advice involving lots of urine and dead animals. But everything bizarre that has ever been in print is here, so much so the likes of the "Hypnerotomachia Poliphili" and the "Malleus Maleficarum" are deemed too bloody mundane. Here's A N Wilson getting suitably shafted by a vengeful author, here's a wonderful chapter devoted to the smallest and then the largest volumes known to man, here is Jesus living to the age of 106 in Japan, while his brother took his place on the cross, and here is Stevie Wonder doing the soundtrack to a film about the psychic ability of plants, in one of the world-beating, if not world-stopping, bits of trivia to be gained here. Stupendous scope – the visuals are everywhere, and are wonderful, and contain just as much unique content as did the text – means this has to get a five star rating. Yes, it preaches to the converted, in being a book honouring books for people who honour books, but it's joyous, over-too-soon fun.

[Rosh ~catching up slowly~ · Rating 3 out of 5]

As the tagline of this book suggests, it is a collection of "the Strangest Books, Manuscripts and Other Literary Curiosities from History." The book contains many interesting historical tidbits about strange, curiousity-inducing books from the past. While the collection covered is staggering, the information is presented in a very dry manner. I felt like I was reading a documentary rather than reading an captivating ode to the books of the past. The photographs are vast in range and do absolute justice to the book. After a few chapters, I just began flipping through the photographs as I couldn't maintain interest in the writing style. This will be a fabulous book no doubt for those who like to read encyclopaedic tomes but they aren't my cup of tea and I was expecting something else from this ARC.

Thank you to NetGalley and Chronicle Books for providing this ARC.

[Tracey Allen at Carpe Librum · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Madman's Library - The Strangest Books, Manuscripts and Other Literary Curiosities from History by Edward Brooke-Hitching is a weighty yet stunning hardback book bursting with glorious images and plates showing the books - and their pages - described within. According to his bio, Edward Brooke-Hitching lives in London and is the son of an antiquarian book dealer, which may shed light on his interest in unusual books, obscure books, famous and forgotten books.

It's immediately clear that the author is a well-researched book lover and bibliophile, and it doesn't take much effort for the reader to match his enthusiasm for books and of course reading them.

The author gives us a tantalising sample of what we can look forward to early on:

"Invisible books, books that kill, books so tall that motors are needed to turn their pages and books so long they could destroy the universe. Edible books. Wearable books. Books made of skin, bones, feathers and hair. Spell books, shaman manuals, alchemist scrolls, sin books and the ancient work known as the 'Cannibal Hymn'. Books to communicate with angels, and books to summon treasure-hunting demons. The lawsuit filed by the Devil, and a contract bearing his signature. Books worn into battle, books that tell the future, books found inside fish or wrapped around mummified Egyptians. Leechbooks, psychic books, treasure-finding texts and the code-writing hidden in the Bible." Introduction Page 16

The writing strikes a comfortable balance between being well researched and well written while never tipping over into the dry and academic style of writing that often ruins my interest level in books like this. Brooke-Hitching really gets it.

"But these books breathe. They hold thoughts, knowledge and humour otherwise long gone. Their stories - and to a degree, their authors - are alive upon opening them, undiminished by the violence of time." Introduction Page 16

Tell me you haven't shared these thoughts too. The use of hornbooks pops up in my reading from time to time, and while I'd once Googled to clarify what they were, I don't recall ever seeing one, until now, which was a joy.

And while I knew what a hornbook was, I'd never heard of a xylothek or a wooden library, have you? According to the author, Xylotheks:

"... record arboreal biodiversity by forming a library from the trees themselves. Each volume is made of the wood of a different tree, their spines composed of the bark... and their contents containing specimens of the tree's leaves, seeds, branches and roots." Books that Aren't Books, Page 34

I defy any reader to view the accompanying photograph in the book and not instinctively want to reach out to touch and smell the volumes. Apparently xylothek collections of native flora can be found around the world and we have one here in Australia! Who knew?

I enjoyed studying the sheer ingenuity and variety in the emerging designs for the typewriter, and of course reading about the Voynich Manuscript; a book that has been studied around the world, but never been successfully decoded or deciphered.

I thoroughly enjoyed The Madman's Library and have already made plans to read his follow up published in 2022, entitled The Madman's Gallery: The Strangest Paintings, Sculptures and Other Curiosities from the History of Art . Here he turns his eye to the 'greatest curiosities from the global history of art' by gathering together more than a hundred 'magnificently eccentric antique paintings, engravings, illustrations and sculptures, each chosen for their striking beauty and the wonderfully bizarre story behind their creation.'

Colour me interested!

[Nisha Joshi (swamped, will review whenever possible) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Totally fascinating and utterly stupendous. This book lists manuscripts and books from as early as 1400 BC and there are pictures, lots of them. There is hardly anything mad about this book but it is amazing how man has always wanted to make a mark in the world.

This will make a great coffee table book. The author has done a massive amount of research and the result shows.

Thanks to Netgalley, Edward Brooke-Hitching, and Chronicle Books for the ARC.

[Verena · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5 ⭐️

Das Beste an diesem schönen Buch sind ohne Zweifel die vielen tollen Abbildungen. Auch wenn man merkt, dass es sich beim Autor um einen wahren Bücherkenner und -liebhaber handelt, ist es schade, dass leider keine zusammenhängende Geschichte erzählt wird. Das Buch liest sich wie ein Katalog: Einzelne Gegenstände werden beschrieben, aber nur wenige Zusammenhänge hergestellt. Deshalb bleibt leider auch nur sehr wenig hängen.

Ein paar Kuriositäten merkt man sich dann aber doch: Dass Gott in den 1970ern in den USA wegen eines Blitzschlags verklagt und in absentia verurteilt wurde, dass der vermeintliche Mark Twain Bücher aus dem Jenseits an ein Medium übermittelte, jedoch den Großteil seines sprachlichen Talents eingebüßt hatte, oder dass Jesus nicht am Kreuz starb, sondern unerkannt nach Japan reiste, wo er drei Kinder zeigte und Knoblauch anbaute, bevor er mit 106 Jahren starb.

[Jess · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Subjective Strangeness is in the eye of the book holder"

"The Madman's Library" is a MUST HAVE for every book collector. Edward Brooke-Hitching dives into the obscure history of books and all of it's oddities to compile the strangest books throughout history. "The Madman's Library" brings into the spotlight the outcasts for once, the books not mentioned in popular culture or primary school, the books considered too controversial or odd, abandoned and forgotten about, and tells us the fascinating stories of how they were created. Being an eccentric, antique book collecting, history obsessed artist myself, I absolutely LOVED this entire book. It is beautifully illustrated as well. "The Madman's Library" is the perfect coffee table book or would make a unique gift for all of your book loving friends.

Thank you Netgalley for the copy, I really enjoyed it.

[periwynn · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5*
This was an interesting read about odd books made throughout history. I like that there is a lot of pictures of the items mentioned included.

This book consists of a few chapters that are focused on different aspects of why books are strange - their size, the materials used to make them, the way they are written, having funny mistakes in them and so on.

This book is very focused on history, so if you usually don't enjoy reading history books in the first place, you probably won't enjoy this one very much. It was very hard to read and follow because of its dense and dry writing. Way too many years and names listed one after another - I got completely lost and bored a lot of times. All those fun and interesting stories about books could be told in much more memorable way.

(I got and ARC through NetGalley.)

[Al Bità · Rating 5 out of 5]

This rather astonishing book of historical literary curiosities will provide much to amuse and marvel at for anyone interested in the range and depth of human capabilities (and surely that is all of us!).

The book is lavishly illustrated throughout, with each illustration accompanied by its explanatory box — and simply perusing through those will provide hours of pleasure… The Introduction provides us with the author’s story of his own interest in this subject-matter, and lays out the basis for the organisation of the remainder of the book.

The writing is pragmatic and relatively straightforward (although I would have preferred if the editors had provided more consideration to the sectional aspects of this, through the use, perhaps, of judicious boldface openings to the various sub-sections to assist the reader — but this is a minor quibble). Brooke-Hitching’s cool, rather detached style should not alienate: there is much, much more in the written aspects for each chapter, specifically many stories and anecdotes that widen the perspective. And every now and then there is the author’s rather sly sense of humour that peeps through with wry comments and asides…

Perhaps the most astonishing aspect of all of this is the extent to which the human mind can range: from the gruesome, the most grotesque, the most beautiful, the most outrageous, the most obsessive, the most insane — the list goes on and on. Here also are the contenders for the smallest books ever published, the longest novel so far written, and for physically gargantuan-sized books. Some of these would also require technological marvels of ingenuity and expertise needed to realise them. One such example which might be overlooked can be found in the first column on page 222 where we can see what looks like an elongated underline encased between brackets; use a magnifying glass to look more closely at the “underline” and be amazed — you are looking at a sentence written in the smallest typeface ever created, and this was achieved in 1819!

There is, perhaps, a rather pedantic quality to this work. The objects it exhibits are simply presented. They actually exist. Brooke-Hitching provides basic backgrounds as to the reasons why such works were done, and one feels that similar deeds will continue to be realised in the future, but one cannot help but feel the question remains unresolved. One the one hand they express the loftiest of ambitions and creativity; on the other they raise questions as to the soundness of mind of their creators.

Perhaps the most accurate answer to the question why? is “because it seemed like a good idea at the time”, but it is also true that curiosity, obsessiveness, ingenuity, and other like qualities are equally valid. One thing is clear: there is no limit to what human beings have, and will achieve. All these objects exist because we are human: they are the products of humanity. And perhaps that in itself should both exhilarate and terrify us in equal measure!

[Eule Luftschloss · Rating 5 out of 5]

trigger warning
books written on human skin and with human blood, mention of torture, mention of racism

I think I can spare the summary of the contents as it's what it says on the tin: The Strangest Books, Manuscripts and Other Literary Curiosities from History. We have books that are not in the form of a codex, which is how we know our books today, books whith physical contents that are unusual like penguin blood as ink, books whose literary contents are unusual or that are written in code.

It's a giant trove of weird things to do with books and stories, easily accessible for the reader but also suited to be quoted due to the excellent work of the author.
This is the second book I read by him, the first being Fox-Tossing, Octopus-Wrestling and Other Forgotten Sports, which was equally hilarious, entertaining and educating, which is my favourite combination of adjectives to put to a non fiction book.

This is great. I would love to have my own physical copy of this, and I am sure one day I'll have every book he wrote in my shelves. It's been exactly as great as I hoped it would be, so I am very thankful for being given the arc by the publisher.

Full recommendation.