Welcome to Excerpts from Nonexistent Books! Each entry is a short piece of fiction designed to seem as if it’s a part of a longer book, just enough to give a sense of a larger work lurking in the shadows. It’s an old writing exercise of mine that seemed like a good idea for a weblog, so here it is.
The titles and authors for each excerpt are made up, and aren’t intended to reflect anything more than the occasional bad pun. Likewise, the excerpts themselves are original. A few bits and pieces of pop culture or echoes of existing works might creep in, but they’re simply side effects of an author living in a media age and not intentional plagiarism. Most author names are made using a random name generator and are not intended to represent any real person, living or dead, unless otherwise noted. If one of the fake names is too close for comfort, drop me a polite note and I will happily alter it.
As for the author, it should be obvious enough that he’s a librarian; any other details aren’t really relevant in telling a good story (or part of one, anyway). Do tell me if you’d particularly like to see a longer (2500 words or so) fleshing-out of one of the excerpts here, and I’ll see what I can do!
Not sure where to start? Try a random excerpt!
Anyone interested in subscribing via RSS can use the feed page here: https://nonexistentbooks.wordpress.com/feed/
Excerpts From Nonexistent Books 
September 8, 2010 at 12:48 pm
hi just read your about page. I’m intrigued! I’ve signed up and will now go off exploring your site.
April 6, 2011 at 10:43 pm
I love the idea of this blog 🙂
April 7, 2011 at 9:41 am
Thank you! I can’t tell you how long I’ve been waiting for someone to say that 🙂
May 28, 2011 at 11:20 pm
Let me tell you something about your blog.
I look forward to each of your posts.
I haven’t read all of the 5 billion (estimated) “excerpts” you’ve written and I plan on entertaining myself with them for some time.
I know you’ve asked us if there are any that we would like to see more of but I don’t have a favorite as of yet. What else are you working on? If this is little more than an exercise for you then what does your hard work go into? I would like to see that.
May 31, 2011 at 11:27 am
Thank you! I can’t tell you how much a nice comment like that means to me.
This site serves as my daily writing exercise; I put in a fair amount of work in on novel-length projects as well. I’ve got a sci-fi/historical fiction book out to agents right now (unsuccessfully so far) and a noir-style mystery about two-thirds complete.
September 12, 2011 at 7:40 pm
Cool concept!! I love it! Very Stanislaw Lem (A Perfect Vacuum — book reviews of non-existent books) and Borges (obviously!! haha)…
September 14, 2011 at 11:59 am
Thanks! That means a lot to me.
Would you believe I had never read Borges when I started this? I had only read people who had read him.
September 14, 2011 at 10:22 pm
What of his have you read since then? Have you read Lem’s A Perfect Vacuum? You really should… It’ll be right up your alley considering the things you write. How can you resist book reviews of non-existent books?
September 14, 2011 at 11:22 pm
I’ve read Borges’ complete short fiction and poetry (in translation) since then. Fabulous stuff all. I do still need to read Lem, but it can be hard to find recent translations at a good price for him.
September 17, 2011 at 1:31 pm
If I remember correctly, the translation for A Perfect Vacuum as top-notch. I can’t believe (to my knowledge) that the translations of Solaris which are out are still translations of the FRENCH translation not from the Polish — which is terrible…
May 17, 2012 at 4:08 am
I found you through D.A. Bancroft, and this blog is absolutely amazing. I think that sooner or later I will have to do a mock cover for one of the mock books…
May 17, 2012 at 8:20 am
Thank you so much for the kind comment! And if you’re ever moved to do such a mock cover, I will totally post/link to it 😀
December 5, 2012 at 10:58 pm
Love this idea! And, the occasional bad pun! 🙂
December 6, 2012 at 9:52 am
Writing always has a healthy glow when it’s got a pun in the oven.
December 6, 2012 at 4:42 am
I like the idea of your blog. I too have many short ‘excerpts’ on my computer but it never occurred to me to post them up as standalone works. I’ll be making my way slowly through the archive 🙂
December 6, 2012 at 9:46 am
Thanks! I used to scribble pages upon page of short fragments both as a daily writing exercise and as a way to keep myself from forgetting the cool little ideas that occur every day. And nothing engages the inner editor more than public display!
Do comment on anything you find that seems cool 🙂
December 14, 2012 at 3:43 pm
Some posts of mine and pieces of unpublished writing ended up being just that: “pretending to be excerpts from larger works.” Don’t they look so good standing a lone, though, as if they weren’t orphans of the literal world? As if we wrote them intentionally, confidently, purposely where they fit perfectly within a coherent whole?
Oh, if only writing novels required combining orphaned pieces like these… (that’s actually what I feel I’m secretly doing).
December 14, 2012 at 3:55 pm
Me too.
If I ever get published, it’ll be a fun exercise to compare the prototype scenes in my blog with the finished one in the book.
December 15, 2012 at 1:12 pm
Sure would be. I think I more than anything, they are great prompts.
February 23, 2013 at 10:53 pm
Just excellent!
March 25, 2013 at 1:49 pm
I love the idea of this blog! and the reading is so good!!
March 25, 2013 at 2:33 pm
Why thank you! That means a lot to me 🙂
Speak up if there’s any kind of content you’d like to see more of!
April 25, 2013 at 9:58 pm
I nominated you for the Very Inspiring Blogger Award.
http://bloodoverithaca.wordpress.com/2013/04/26/i-win-an-award-also-there-are-some-puns/
Tadaa… *jazz hands*.
May 14, 2013 at 2:58 pm
I nominated you for the Shine On award http://anactofwriting.wordpress.com/2013/05/14/shine-on-award/
November 29, 2013 at 4:23 am
Great idea… I’m working on a novel and you inspired me with this method of writing.
Well done!
http://www.suefashion.wordpress.com
November 29, 2013 at 10:09 am
Wonderful! I cannot tell you how happy that makes me 🙂 Send me a link to your novel when it is finished!
November 29, 2013 at 10:09 am
I will 🙂
February 20, 2014 at 12:53 pm
Hello, Alex,
Please contact me about a request to reprint your story Beloaralsk.
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October 2, 2016 at 6:17 am
I am late but I love this blog!
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