Book of Lost Books

Stuart KELLY, Viking 2005

It's a nice title but unfortunately pretty hard to read. The concept of great books that were SAID to have been written. He wrote of an example, can't remember of some ancient Greek tragedian who was supposed to have created such monumental works that even Pericles was moved to tears. Then it was lost in time. When examples of his work were finally uncovered in the late 19th century, they had paled in comparison to mod. lit. Pretty lame stuff. The author concludes that sometimes lost books are better lost.

Other than the concept, the author is rather eurocentric, or as some of the reviewers said, western classical in inclination.

He sited Confucius and some Mencius on 2 pages. And another 2 page on Ibn Battuta.

Maybe too many great works had been lost in Asia. No thanks to book burning monarchs.

Surprisingly, this book is filed under FICTION

ps: I gave up reading this after a while because I discovered the next book more interesting