Short stories in the traditions of Jorge Luis Borges, Edgar Allan Poe, and The Twilight Zone. In Books of the Weird, ordinary reality is simply a departure for further speculation, invention, and exploration. These stories reflect the weirdness of everyday life and tell just how intimately our lives are intertwined with fantasy.
Most of the stories in this collection are permeated with Bibliomania, but the mania quickly spreads to other obsessions. Here you will encounter Johannes Gutenberg as he perfects the printing press with the disguised help of the Devil and Christ, both taking rival sides in its development, each hoping for antagonistic results. In another tale a man gradually transforms into the books he reads and in another a massive book collection is threatened by an unseen invader.
John Riley has been in the used and antiquarian book business for nearly fifty years starting his first bookshop while still a college student at the University of California Santa Barbara where he graduated with a degree in Comparative Literature. He currently owns Gabriel Books in Northampton, Massachusetts which is celebrating its twenty-fifth anniversary. John is also the editor of a column on books about books entitled “Wryly Noted” published in Against the Grain. He has created a large body of video work on libraries, publishers, and others in the book arts available on his YouTube Channel: John D. Riley.
