Word Up — reading this week in Washington Heights

PERSONAL DAYS, DESPERATE NIGHTS: A Reading with Ed Park, Jon Michaud, S. J. Rozan, and S. A. Solomon A reading with Ed Park, author of the multi-award-winning novel Personal Daysand the founding editor of the Believer; Jon Michaud, author of When Tito Loved Clara (set in Inwood and named as Barnes & Noble Review’s Year’s Best Reading 2011); S. J. Rozan, editor of Bronx Noir; and S. A. Solomon, contributor to New Jersey Noir. Click here for more info.

Stop accepting mediocrity—

Crude Futures is back!

Success

Dzyhead Sam writes, in response to my vacuous challenge:

Your question: What are the fictional (invisible) books that are bad for a reader's mental health? The Necronomicon (and other Lovecraftian creations); the manuscript in Amis's The Information...

My answer: In Never Any End to Paris, by Enrique Vila-Matas, the narrator is trying to write a book (The Lettered Assasin) that is so good it will kill anyone who reads it. But! This is actually already a book by Vila-Matas. It's called La Asesina Ilustrada, and it hasn't been translated. Maybe because he SUCCEEDED??!?

The Vacuous Grimoire

From Grognardia, quoting Gygax's Dungeon Masters Guide:

 A book of this sort is totally impossible to tell from a normal one, although if a detect magic spell is cast, there will be a magical aura noted. Any character who opens the work and reads so much as a single glyph therein must make 2 saving throws versus magic. The first is to determine if 1 point of intelligence is lost, the second is to find if 2 points of wisdom are lost. Once opened and read, the vacuous grimoire remains, and it must be burned to be rid of it after first casting a remove curse spell. If the tome is placed with other books, its appearance will instantly alter to conform to one of the other works it is amongst. 

My question: What are the fictional (invisible) books that are bad for a reader's mental health? The Necronomicon (and other Lovecraftian creations); the manuscript in Amis's The Information...