[Pulpmeister]

Around 2001 a website of this name surfaced, containing fictitious books found in other books. The site ran for a number of years before finally, as websites will, dying.

I thought it was a fun idea at the time, collected a few imaginary books from novels on my own shelves, and emailed them in, but (cause and effect? I hope not) the site faded away soon after without my small contribution appearing.

We all know some of these books in the Invisible Library: the various books of Oolon Colluphid which are mentioned in The Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy, and "The Joy of Snackes" by Gytha Ogg in "Maskerade" (an R-rated cookbook). Not to mention "The Necrotelecomnicon" in various places in the Discworld Saga.

But did you know that Cohen the Barbarian wrote a book (most likely ghost-written, let's be honest: Cohen probably couldn't sign his own name let alone spell it):

In Just Seven Dayes I Will Make You a Barbarian Hero! (in Sourcery).

I still keep finding these imaginary books in all sorts of unlikely places. Arthur W Upfield, not noted for humour in his novels, had his Detective Inspector Napoleon Bonaparte (undercover as a writer in "An Author Bites the Dust") suddenly having to invent a book he claimed he was writing, and produced the in an instant the title "I Walk on My Toes". A doubly invisible book, since even in Upfield's universe, it was never written.

Other Authors of invisible works, so to speak, are naturally Ariadne Oliver in various Agatha Christie novels, and Rose M Banks (wife of Bingo Little) in Wodehouse's Jeeves and Bertie stories.

I can't help thinking that modern Fantasy writing, which I rarely read, must produce a bumper crop of invisible books. I don't doubt for a minute that several members of this forum have created their own.