Making up book titles

[bret]

I thought I would get some suggestions from this crowd.

I've got a few books and manuscripts for one of my characters. I would like to give titles and subject matter for these books.

The setting is the Forgotten Realms in the year 1161. The character grew up in Amn, moved to the Baldur's Gate area about 1115, and finally moved to Sembia about 1157 or so.

Although almost any topic could appear (the character would often just pick up manuscripts when he had spare cash), these topics would be of special interest to this character:
Politics (Knowledge: Nobility & Royalty)
The sea, especially the Inner Sea
Magic
Geography
Ettiquette
Anything relevant to his profession as a valet (gentleman's manservant)
cartography


I would give the character a copy of Volvo's (sp?) Travelogue, but I don't think that character was born this early.

I was thinking of having at least one manuscript on politics be by a Red Wizard or something like that. Sort of 'The Prince' done by a wizard.

Suggestions on titles, author's, etc welcome.

 

[LostSoul]

Here are a few:

The Revelation of the Younger Sosigenes
A Compendium on Music
Lexicon of Zymurgy
The Saga of the Burning of the False Shebneb
Emir Zovirax's Cabin
A Gazetteer of Farm Implements
Questions Pertaining to Numismatics
The Hours of Rhetoric
Atlas of Penumbral Dolmens
Unwisely Unearthed Scrolls on Pedantry
A Treatise on the Wise Theodosia
The Hairy Potter and Theology
The Gospel of the Somniferous Gervaisius
Battle Angel Achsa's Complaint
A Miscellany of Scrawlings from the Cell of Senator Galen


These were generated by a web page (that I've saved) called the Necrobiblicon. If you save that page to your hard drive, you can mess around with the ingredients and put your own flavour into it.

 

[LostSoul]

Here are more:

Against the Venerable Bucge
Treatise on Ultramagenta Cairns
A Volume on the Topic of Beetroot Cultivation
Deep Thoughts by Bohemund the Hesychast
Sayings of the Infernal Ulalume
Essays on Febrifuges
The Gospel of Judge Gervaisius
Speaking of Music
The Book of Quaint Numina
Collected Works of the Unnameable Tanaquil
My Life in Logic
Heresies of the Semi-Divine Ebrewin
Etiology of Antepenultimate Darkness
A Panegyric on Thaumaturgical Cenotaphs
Juvenalia of the Warlock Astyanax

 

[Elder-Basilisk]

Well, (with apologies to Contact's story hour) you could always give him a copy of the _Zhentarim Field Handbook of Torture and Related Leisure Activities_ (for research purposes only, of course. . . .)

A few others possibilities:

Magic
_Travels in the Far Realms_ (written in Draconic)
_Conversations with a Pit Fiend_ (written in common--a "popular work")
_To Rule In Hell: An Introduction to Baatorian Politics_ (written in Infernal--considered to be an introductory text on Faerunian politics by the Red Wizards)
_The Paradoxes of Celestia_ (Written in Celestial)
_Nine Years in Halruaa_ (Written in common-more of a travel log really but has a lot of nifty conceptual stuff for magic)
_Diagrams of Binding_ (A book of summoning circle designs and analyses of their relative strengths and weaknesses--written in Draconic)
_Libram of the Elements_ (Draconic)
_The Tome of Hagroth_ (A very rare book on magical theory by an ancient wizard)
_The Secrets of the Drow_ A book describing unique drow magics but not giving the spell formulas--it's written from observation of their tactics. (Written in Elvish)

Politics:
_The Kingdom of Nowhere_ (by Azoun IV of Comyr--some of his musings on an ideal kingdom)
_Sleeping Dragons_ (A treatise on dealing with dragonkind)
_Understanding Altruism_ (written in Infernal and only widely known in Thay, this deals with the psychology of lawful good characters)

Etiquette:
_Customs of the Uthgardt_ (Dalean Red Tiger with Boddyknock Ginkle)
_Drinking Games of the Sword Coast_
_Parleys and Embassies_ (Chief Herald of Comyr)
_The Laws of the Duel_

History:
_Legends of the Uthgardt_ (Dalean Red Tiger with Boddyknock Ginkle)
_The Temptation of Lady Aribeth_
_The Foundation of Mithral Hall_
_Annals of the City of Waterdeep (1100-1115)_
_The Dalelands through the Time of Troubles_
_A Monument to Our Fallen Brothers_ (A history of the order of the Purple Dragons of Comyr)
_Sufferers in Silence_ (A history of the church of Ilmatar)

 

[Kilmore]

An idea I've always had is having standard gaming books available as general player knowledge (without game rules specifics). For example, there would be a book called The Monster Manual which would be a beastiary containing the same information about the monsters that is contained in the real MM.

This explains the players knowledge of such monsters. Not that it's neccessarily accurate...

 

[Dracolich]

These were generated by a web page (that I've saved) called the Necrobiblicon. If you save that page to your hard drive, you can mess around with the ingredients and put your own flavour into it.

Can we get a link to this webpage. My yahoo search turned up nothing. Thanks.

 

[BigFreekinGoblinoid]

I can't find my Necrobiblicon link ( and it wasn't working last time I tried it, but check this out:

http://www.dcrouzet.net/nbobooks/

 

[LostSoul]

Can we get a link to this webpage. My yahoo search turned up nothing. Thanks.

I have no idea where it might be. I saved it to my hard drive. I could email it if you wish.

 

[NiTessine]

Here's a website that might prove interesting.
http://www.wizards.com/forgottenrealms/FR_20001129b_P1.asp

 

[Maldur]

Slightly off topic, but relevant (I think).

How are books made? Handcopy? Print?
Are they readily available? Or is it a task searching for the right book? As a lot of old treaties are writen in series ( The herbology of the swordcoast by Aldrum Barak in seven parts) Are they complete? How are they stored? On lecture tables? On shelves? Are they Librum? Or scroll? Late middle ages could have a avid reader and renound scholar have the impressive library of 42 books, how much books are there? When buying a book do you buy the unbound sheets? How are they bound? Leather? Parchment/vellum? Are they done on paper?