I was Prescribed a Book by a Fictional Bookseller

Yes, I wrote 'prescribed' because this bookseller, fictional though he is, claims that books can cure the mind of illness. So he prescribes books instead of merely selling or recommending them to people.

To back up a little, a while ago, I wrote about how G.K. Chesterton might be my favourite author and the very first book of his that I read was 'The Man Who Was Thursday: A Nightmare', and how this book was introduced to me by a bookseller in another book. At the time, I had forgotten the name of the book the bookseller was in.

Well, guess what? I have found the book and it’s called ‘The Haunted Bookshop' by Christopher Morley. And the bookseller is Roger Mifflin of the 'Parnassus at Home'. It's incredible how we keep rediscovering the same books over and over again. At least I do.

Other Prescriptions by Roger Mifflin The Haunted Bookshop

There are so many books prescribed in ‘The Haunted Bookshop' but 'The Man Who Was Thursday: A Nightmare' was a book that I had already had in the back of my mind for some time because of its title. I had hesitated to read it because of the other books written by the same author which I'd wrongly assumed to be a series of religiously infused books, which was the Father Brown series. It turned out to be my favourite series after Sherlock Holmes.

Although ‘The Haunted Bookshop' is not a book about war, there are several mentions about war that I find very poignant. There is a mention about the world on a verge of the Peace Conference, and the bookseller is optimistic about it. What he doesn't know is that the world would go on to have another world war and many more other wars. He suggests that there's a book, 'The Dynasts: an Epic-Drama of the War with Napoleon' by Thomas Hardy could or should have prevented war. I haven't read it, but he believes that if people were made to read it, there will be no more wars. I, on the other hand, am not so optimistic about the human race.

On a lighter note, this bookseller is responsible for coining the word 'librocubicularist' which means someone who reads in bed. Do you read in bed? I can never read in bed. I don't understand how people can sleep while reading a book unless the book is so boring, in which case you shouldn't have read it in the first place. I tried a few times, reading a book to fall asleep, and I simply stayed up really, really late until I had to force myself to put the book down. It simply has the opposite effect on me.