Cow Heavy Books recently published The Official Catalog of the Library of Potential Literature edited by Ben Segal & Erinrose Mager. More than 50 little-known but ambitious authors participated, each contributing a blurb composed out of their own heads to promote a book that does not exist (except inside their own heads). Of the faux-blurbs I have so far had time to read, my favorite is the following, by Aimee Bender:
When I read, I generally feel transported, but when I read this book, I did actually seem to be transported. When I finished it, I looked up and some of the furniture in my living room had been rearranged. This is true! The couch, the bookshelf, the coffee table. I mean, maybe someone came and did that and I was so absorbed in the story that I didn't even notice. But that would be a feat in itself, because you'd think I would notice the clunky loud moving sounds of furniture? That I was even sitting on? And the door was still as locked as it was when I sat down. No, the experience of reading this book fit with the true changing of a viewpoint, like somehow the room changed into a new place while I was reading and nothing could quite be the same after. I just couldn't just be living in the same world, with my same foreshortened perspective. But also important: I like the new rearrangement. I really like it. It is smartly done – with the couch in this new direction, I look outside more now, and I can have more people over, and the light's better too.
