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In the past year, I have shared with you numerous books that I not only enjoyed, and hope you have as well, but also how these books have triggered what I call “little thinks,” observations and ­memories, or perhaps a new perspective; all the books I have ­discussed have been locally authored, published and/or designed, albeit, several have reflected a broader perspective of Canada beyond the Island and British Columbia’s borders.

I will soon be taking a break after this fabulous year of exploring the abundance of books I have described to you weekly, and it seems fitting to end with an extraordinary book with the intriguing title, The Madman’s Library, The Strangest Books, Manuscripts and Other Literary Curiosities From History by Edward Brooke-Hitching (2021, Chronicle Books LLC., San Francisco).

Although this book is not of local origin (it was originally ­published in Britain in 2020), it is an amazing and amusing read for anyone who loves books; it is brilliantly illustrated with everything from the oozing sores of the hands that held the books bound with deadly 17th-century green arsenic paint, to The Great Zoo Hoax poster printed in Harper’s Weekly in 1874 (fake news!) to the ­intricate illustrations drawn by a patient at an 1870 mental asylum near Cambridge, England; using their patients’ drawings and ­writings, doctors compiled books and manuscripts to “clear up ­misconceptions” regarding mental health.

The text of this often macabre but enchanting read is absolutely fascinating and has kept me up throughout the recent nights! It ­certainly is an autumn book with its almost creepy carnival clown type of material in some chapters, fantastical writings, “Books Made of Flesh and Blood” and “Cryptic Books.”

The introduction is especially riveting; you might recall that the Google company had a plan at one time to digitize every book and piece of writing on the planet, which amounted to 129,864,880 books. However, according to this author, that is only a rough estimate, as such a vast array have been lost. But how were they lost? Many of the Chinese oracle bones (which I have seen in the ancient town of Anyang, northern China) were mistakenly thought to be dragon bones and ground up for medicinal purposes; some books were ­buried in gardens, some were eaten (yes, EATEN! As ­punishment or a concealment “silk cord, lead seal and all”), and yet another ­manuscript met its demise in the cold sea. “One of the most ­spectacular losses was that of the luxury London bookbinders … a magnificent binding featuring over a thousand precious jewels for a manuscript of the Rubaiyat for the wealthy American bibliophile Harry Elkins Widener. He excitedly boarded a ship to take the ­treasure home with him in 1912.” The name of that vessel? Titanic.

Not all the material is dark. At times, it is amusing, and for me, one example is the Japanese scroll from the Edo period (1603-1868) which depicts He-Gassen, translated as, fart competitions. It is hilarious and took me back to the time when I was suffering from scarlet fever, lying in my bed in my little beige, breezy apartment in Vancouver’s West End a block from English Bay. Mum had flown out from Fredericton and was nursing me; she visited the Joe Fortes library down the street and brought me some books during my recovery.

I’d weakly prop myself up on my pillows and look at the books she’d chosen and I remember that one book was the drawings of the English eccentric Art Nouveau illustrator Aubrey Beardsley ­(1872-1898). Beardsley was of the same ilk as Oscar Wilde and rumours abound regarding his relationships; he drew decadent and what I would call naughty pictures, and as I slowly perused the book, his thick ink drawings became more and more, well, let’s say focused on bodily functions, exaggerated bodily functions. I took to a severe laughing fit which turned into a dangerous heaving coughing fit igniting the return of my raging fever, thus delaying my recovery by several days.

The Madman’s Library might not bring on a laughing fit, but you might roll your eyes at some of the notions of books and their ­contents; one tale tells of a fellow attaching a plant to a lie detector. And there’s an entire chapter on the size of books. The Story of the South, which weighed half a ton, was so huge that it required a motor to turn the pages!

I will end on what you might think of as ridiculous ideas for a book, perhaps as ridiculous as milking a live goat in an art gallery and calling it art. I speak of the book 20 Slices of American Cheese by New Yorker Ben Denzer. It is a book made of 20 processed cheese slices. This “book” sold for $200! Far more important than this “book” are the philosophical questions it posed such as, what is a book? A librarian (who was lactose intolerant) asked: “Is someone the author? What is the subject? Is it about cheese if it is cheese?”

This is what books can do — help us ponder, dream and question. Happy reading, and thinking!