I love books-about-books, classic fantasy illustrations, and Laura Miller, so this was perfect for me. It’s a two to four page spread on each of several dozen books, in the categories Ancient Myth & Legend, Science and Romanticism, Golden Age of Fantasy, New World Order, and The Computer Age. There’s a brief essay on the book, first publication information (which is cool and not often mentioned), the original cover or a photo of the earliest tablet/papyrus etc., a portrait of the author if applicable, and lots of supporting graphics—illustrations, art, maps, ephemera, etc. It’s a beautiful book. I’ve read most of the works mentioned, but there were several I’d never heard of and want to check out:
- The City of the Sun – Tommaso Campanella, 1602
- The Description of a New World, Called the Blazing-World – Margaret Cavendish, 1666
- The Journey of Niels Klim to the World Underground – Ludvig Holberg, 1741
- Alamut – Vladimir Bartol, 1938
- Pedro Paramo – Juan Rulfo, 1955
- W or the Memory of Childhood – Georges Perec, 1975
- Egalia’s Daughters – Gerd Brantenberg, 1977
- Obabakoak – Bernardo Atxaga, 1988
- Wizard of the Crow – Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, 2006
- The Man with the Compound Eyes – Wu Ming-Yi, 2011
- The Imperial Radch Trilogy – Ann Leckie, 2013-15
- Lagoon – Nnedi Okarafor, 2014
Plus reminding me of a bunch of authors/books I haven’t yet read and want to, like China Mievelle, Orlando Furioso, Cloud Atlas, etc.