A quick post about a recent acquisition that will in particular tickle the funny bone of librarians and booksellers. Artist Marina Luz has authored a book called A Library of Misremembered Books, published by Chronicle Books in 2021, for which she has created fictional book covers based on readers’ attempts to identify a book in the absence of title or author information.

The subtitle says it all: “WHEN WE’RE SEARCHING FOR A BOOK BUT HAVE FORGOTTEN THE TITLE But Are Certain It Was about Dogs, and Definitely Blue… of Maybe Red…”

One of her covers in particular made me laugh out loud in the store… Heard About It On NPR This Morning… a perennial classic.

And out of all the covers, there was only one that I was immediately able to identify… Singing to Crystals… so it’s a bit of a puzzle book as well, as Luz does not actually provide corresponding real book titles to go with fictional covers.

On the other hand, it was almost as fun to simply imagine the book that could have been. Or perhaps they could serve as writing prompts for the aspiring authors amongst you.

Whatever the case, A Library of Misremembered Books is a welcome addition to our “books about books” collection. And I share in the author’s hope that the book “inspires you to be brave and track down that forgotten book you have from your past. Everyone has one.”

Happy (mis)remembering!

– Winston