SciFi and Fantasy Book Club discussion

I am not explaining this well but I am looking for books that have references to other fictional books in the world.

Like the excerpts at the beginning of every chapter in Dune. “Arrakis, the planet known as Dune, is forever his place. —from ‘Manual of Muad’Dib’ by the Princess Irulan”

Or the numerous book references and quotes in Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norell. “A Complete Description of Dr Pale’s fairy-servants, their Names, Histories, Characters and the Services they performed for Him by John Segundus, pub. by Thomas Burnham, Bookseller, Northampton, 1799.”

And even the vast library of books in the Harry Potter world, that are available to read in full.

I don’t mind what the plot of the book is, I just enjoy reading about fictional books that tell us more about the lore of the world.

The Malazan series by Steven Erikson has that sort of thing at the start of every chapter

The Way of Kings does this, as well, e.g. quotes from a collection of "prophecies uttered at the moment of death", as well as other kinds of books.

- Shadowmarch starts out with a fake history book quote, not sure how much this continues in the rest of the series (it's been a while)

- Black Sun also starts chapters with little fake journal entries on crow behaviour, etc.

- The Lord of the Rings, especially in the endnotes, but also throughout the text in the form of characters quoting from fake poems or songs

- The entire Cage of Souls of written as a fake personal journal, and also quotes some other fake books

- Malice features "excerpts from the writings of..."

Middlegame I think? Please correct me if I'm wrong, I haven't read it yet, but since the fictional work (Over the Woodward Wall) has been published separately, I'm assuming it's in the book :)

Inkheart

The Neverending Story

Dark Lord of Derkholm (the book-in-book *could* be The Tough Guide to Fantasyland)

The Magicians

The one I'd actually like to be able to read is Ordol's The Fivefold Pathway of the Soul: On the True Methods of Quintarian Theology from Lois McMaster Bujold's The Curse of Chalion.

The Age of Myth series as part of its chapter heads give quotes for The Book of Brynn.

A Song of Ice and Fire series mentioned a few books, mostly written by the maesters such as
https://awoiaf.westeros.org/index.php...
https://awoiaf.westeros.org/index.php...

The The Way of Kings has references to a book called The Way of Kings in that story world. In the same way, Words of Radiance is also a book that one of the characters is searching for and afterwards reads.

I remember when I was little, wondering if the books in Mr. Tumnus' cave were real books:

In one corner there was a door which Lucy thought must lead to Mr. Tumnus's bedroom, and on one wall was a shelf full of books. Lucy looked at these while he was setting the tea things. They had titles like The Life and Letters of Silenus or Nymphs and Their Ways or Men, Monks, and Gamekeepers: a Study in Popular Legend or Is Man a Myth?.

"Now, Daughter of Eve!" said the Faun.

–– The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

I've only read the free sample, not the whole book yet. But it definitely has excerpts from older books:

The Book of the Unnamed Midwife - Meg Elison

Mother Ina picked up one volume with a gentle hand, and the boys could see another chamois cloth underneath the books. She held the volume up for them to see. In the bottom corner of the front cover, a year was stamped in gold...
"The Book of the Unnamed Midwife is actually these nineteen journals," she began. "What we have taught to you boys is called the canon. It holds the story of the dying. The Book of the Dying is very hard to read, and terrible things happen in it."
...
"You have all learned the hives and the Book of Honus. The Book of the Dreamless Ones is what you'll finish with when your training is complete." She gestured back to the stacks of books on the desk. "These are the rest of her story. The canon is short, but the whole story is longer, and messier. Each year, a group of scribes is chosen to recopy the entire cycle. This year that group is you."

There was excitement in the room. The boys felt pride at having been chosen and were fairly bursting to know that there was more to this book than what they had been taught...

Gardens of the Moon and the Malazan Book of the Fallen series.

One of the granddaddy's of this is H. P. Lovecraft's Necronomicon, along with its companion volumes supplied by his friends and peers for the mythos, like De Vermis Mysteriis and Unaussprechlichen Kulten. One or more of these show up in many Lovecraft stories, rare volumes that pop up darn near everywhere.

There's also The King in Yellow from Robert W. Chambers.

The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick immediately springs to mind. The fictional book, The Grasshopper Lies Heavy, is a central theme in the story.

But I think (conceptually) my favorite fictional book isn't a fictional book at all because it was actually written and published.

That would be Venus on the Half-Shell by Kilgore Trout ... or rather, Philip José Farmer,

The book was originally a fictional book mentioned in a Kurt Vonnegut novel and was written by Vonnegut's favorite and reoccurring fictional SF author, Kilgore Trout. An excerpt of the book was in Vonnegut's God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater.

Farmer liked the idea of the book and got Vonnegut's permission to write a whole novel incorporating the original excerpt in Vonnegut's book.

I've never actually read it, but the idea is just so ... uh ... meta or something. I love it.

Huh ... it's also an important work because, according to wikipedia ... "The plot, in which Earth is destroyed by cosmic bureaucrats doing routine maintenance and the sole human survivor goes on a quest to find the "Definitive Answer to the Ultimate Question," was an inspiration for the plot of the later Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series."