The Bibliophile in me loved this book. The author collects a wide range of strange and unusual books. The illustrations and descriptions are wonderful. This is a fun and informative read. Enjoy

I appreciate the publisher allowing me to read this book but I was never able to download and read it.

I was pleasantly surprised with this book. The idea to represent some of the special books from the entire human history and from all around the world was genious. I was also glad to see one of the books from my country among the first ones represented in the book. It is the linen book of Zagreb,
the longest Etruscan text, dated to the 3rd century BCE. I was always amazed by this piece of history and was excited it was recognized by the author.

The perfect gift for any book lover! I think there’s many a sane book lover who would wish to have many of these madman’s relics in their own collection. Gets a bit tedious towards the end but overall a wonderful and delightfully odd book for any wonderful and delightfully odd reader.

Now, this was a fascinating read! I loves this book and I can't wait for it to get published so that I can get myself a copy.

A book about weird books, what more can you wish for!?

I received a complimentary copy of this title from the publisher through NetGalley. Opinions expressed are my own.

As a librarian, this was a must-read. I've heard of a few...weird books over the years, but a bunch of them compiled together? Yes, please!

This book was absolutely fascinating. In addition to loving books, I also love hearing about things that are just WEIRD. A match made in heaven! I really loved that these ranged from the gross-weird to the WEIRD-weird to the "what were they thinking?"-weird. All of them were interesting and the entries were nice and succinct--the basics without much commentary.

I definitely recommend this to anyone interested in weird stuff, books, or someone who's just curious about what humanity is capable of. Super cool read!

A book about books that don’t look like books! Honestly, this is a gorgeous book and includes really interesting iterations of the written word that have been preserved through history. One item, the Civil War violin, was created not far from where I live and work. There are so many stories still to tell, and this book includes such amazing works that remind us of how intricately our history is written.

This is fascinating - especially for book nerds (like me)! My Rating 4.5.

I enjoyed the great extent of details and illustrations shared in this book. The introduction indicates the Google Books project set out in 2002 to scan the then known 129,864,880 books. The book opens with illustrations of a multi floored library, then a partially naked alien warrior (with exposed parts), and Chinese illustrations of figures using flatulence as weapons. So now that he has your attention, the author can share about size (so large to require an engine to turn pages, small enough for a locket and smaller), and materials (including skin and tin, inks and bindings with poisons like arsenic).

Scan the table of contents and you will see the diverse topics the book is going to share. I loved the Books that Aren’t Books chapter and Cryptic Books. The Curious Collections and Curiosities of Science are cool too, as are all the chapters.

This is certainly a good table conversation book but it could also be great for creative inspiration for book nerds. Not that you want anyone inspired by the blood and skin books but there are plenty of items that are worth being inspired by! I recommend this to every book lover to enjoy the history and variety of books.

Source: NetGalley Read Now.

What a fascinating collection of book related oddities! Xylotheques (a kind of herbarium), anthropodermic volumes, books written in blood, hoaxes in the form of books or pamphlets, books of cypher, wearable or edible books, all come together in this beautifully illustrated collection – clearly one to own and look through from time to time.

I understand that this book is not for everyone. To start with, it doesn’t have a plot, nor human characters…

The protagonists are objects, books to be more specific. They fill the entirety of the story. Its pages are full of them. Some are very crazy, some are simply weird. Others terrifying and others simply disgusting…

THE STORY

Here is the thing: I love books, and I love reading about books. The weirder they are, the better. I like to read about how they were made in the past, and how they are made now, the different techniques, materials, etc. So “The Madman’s Library” was made for me.

Furthermore, I collect books. I don’t have much money (in fact, I am quite broke!) so it is quite complicated for me if not impossible to find rare books on a daily basis. But in my years of visiting second-hand bookshops I can proudly said I have found a couple of little treasures.

The author himself, Mr. Edward Brooke-Hitching, (apart from being a renowned best-seller author) is the son of an antiquarian book dealer as well as a collector of rare books himself. His love for them has fuelled him to compile the most amazing collection of unusual and weird books ever under a single title.

The book is nicely structured under thematic sections: 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. Through these sections, he tells the history of literature, but from the perspective of the bizarre and with a curious eye.

The story is full of data, the level of which blows my mind. I don’t know how many hours the author has invested in compiling all this information, but it must have been an insane amount of time. For this reason, I have read some reviews which say it can be a very arid and boring reading, but in my opinion it was not so. Plus Brooke-Hitching has quite a sense of humour!!

CURIOSITIES & SURPRISES

So by reading this book, I was most shocked to know that there are books lying around in the world written, for example, with the blood of Saddam Hussein, donated by him with the exclusive purpose of making that book.

Or that the skin of a famous body-snatcher served as cover for another book. This man and his story, by the way, I came to know by reading another book called “The Resurrectionist” and I was quite surprised to know that you can see such a book displayed in a museum in Edinburgh as well as his skeleton. That is something!

The reader can also learn about books which were considered to be “damned” or as having magical powers, or simply written by the Devil himself. Other books can kill the reader, as they are written with a poisonous ink.

Apart from discussing books by their topic, the author also talks about the sizes of books, presenting the reader with the biggest book ever written (for which one needs a crane in order to turn its pages) or the smallest, tiniest one, whose reading has to be done with a sort of microscope.

Special attention deserve the dozens of photos which accompany the text. They are very much appreciated. Without their inclusion in the book, it wouldn’t have been such a pleasure to read it. So thanks to the author for his effort to collect and add them.

FINAL THOUGHTS ABOUT “THE MADMAN’S LIBRARY”

I have never learnt so much about books and so many interesting facts about the history of literature as with “The Madman’s Library”. It is a special one. And as I said, it is not for everyone. You have to be interested in books as objects, not only as a means of entertainment.

But, if you do decide to read it, you would love it as much as I do. I found myself thinking about different books I have learnt about in its pages, even weeks after I had finished reading it. And this fact, I consider a sign that this book has indeed trapped me.

Plus I have laughed a lot with it, because some of the stories narrated are just hilarious due to their absurdity and being so incredible.

As I only own it in digital format, “The Madman’s Library” would be one of the few ebooks that I would love to physically own a copy of.

So go for it. Read it. It is just fascinating.
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Thanks to the publisher, Simon & Schuster UK, the author Edward Brooke-Hitching and NetGalley for providing me with a free copy of “The Madman’s Library” in exchange for an honest review.

If you are a book lover, an etymologist, and a history buff with leanings toward the literary, 'The Madman's Library' by Edward Brooke-Hitching was Made For You.

Filled with images of books-past and history galore, you'd expect it to read like a textbook...ie. BORING. However, Brooke-Hitching shares these historic tales with the mastery of a true storyteller.

I originally started reading this as an e-galley, but soon switched to a hard copy I knew I *needed* for myself. While the digital version is great, I highly suggest getting a physical copy to pour over again and again.

Thank you to Netgalley and Chronicle Books for the opportunity to read and review this book.

The cover hints at the exciting discoveries to be made…

This is book for lovers of books. The seekers of history. For those that love the quirky, the unusual and the mundane. Books of all quirky subjects, shapes and sizes can be found in this compendium of the strange, the wild and all points in between. Descriptions of each book, which ranged from religious texts to dictator’s memoirs, always gave some new nugget of information – even if I thought I knew a lot about them. Turning the virtual pages was a treat that revealed surprises at every turn. The illustrations were beautiful and unique providing a feast for the eyes, as did the words that accompanied them.

The author shared so much but be prepared to want more. My to be read list is teetering even more after adding a raft of titles that this book opened up for me. I’m looking forward to going back and rereading this book as a print copy where I can savour the details of each illustration, each surprise, even more.

Probably just me, but the formatting for this one makes it a bit of a pain to get into. While the collection itself was extremely superb, it took a bit of patience to get through the whole book.

The Madman's Library is a great collection of odd books from around the world. It covers things like books bound in human skin, written in blood, cipher books, hoax books, the longest book ever written, to the smallest book ever made, and even a book made out of cheese, At times it even asks us to question our ideas of what books are, There are full color illustrations to go along with the descriptions of the various books and is a great read if you're interested in rare and unusual books.

Books about books will always fascinate readers. This one in particular functions as a cabinet of curiosities with lots of interesting and intriguing information and even more intriguing pictures. Definitely a book I would gift a reader friend.

This is a must for any bibliophile. A book about books might not sound like a thrilling read but I was immediately drawn in and found it captivating. Some may not consider it mad but there were plenty of macabre and bizarre books included. I have always been down to things considered weird or out of the ordinary so I found this to be highly entertaining. It can be a little on the academic side as far as the tone and style of writing but I dis not find it boring by any means. The illustrations and photos were fantastic and brought the book to life.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

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

<b>PROS</B>
-- 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 😂)

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

**ARC Via NetGalley**

I love the idea of obscure and unique reading materials. If that is something you are into, you may want to check out this book.

Thanks for the chance to read and review this book. It's not often that I want to buy a book brand new. I am kind of cheap about acquisitions... I have to know that I like it or catch it at a really good price. This is one of the rare times that I want to own a book asap. It is a beautiful edition with a captivating research aim. Like most people on NetGalley, I love books. I love books ABOUT books! This book has SO much to offer readers. I will be getting a copy to promote as soon as possible, but most importantly, it is something I would like other readers to enjoy and something to own within my collection.

"The Madman’s Library: The Strangest Books, Manuscripts and Other Literary Curiosities from History" (Chronicle Books, nonfiction) bursts with life—from its eye-catching dust jacket to its gorgeous endpapers to its vibrant illustrations throughout—and it delivers exactly what it promises: cryptic books, literary hoaxes, and all manner of bookish oddities. The author, Edward Brooke-Hitching, grew up surrounded by antiquarian books and now collects quirky rare books; he owns several of the volumes referenced in this book, including an eighteenth-century French confessional with tear-out sins to help the confessor remember what to disclose, and a POW diary written on toilet paper. The Madman’s Library is nothing short of spectacular.