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1[[quoteright:240:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/city_of_dreaming_books.jpg]]
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3->''"But what was the point? I demanded, sitting up with a groan. I nearly went mad, I didn't understand any of it, and I've as good as forgotten it all again.\
4It's always the same with demanding literature."''
5
6''The City of Dreaming Books'' is a fantasy novel by German author Creator/WalterMoers. It's a tribute to books and reading, but also chock full with LampshadeHanging and tropes of all kinds.
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8The novel takes place on the fictional continent of Zamonia, which is populated mainly by [[IntellectualAnimal anthropomorphic animals]] or other types of imaginary creatures. The story follows Optimus Yarnspinner. Optimus is a Lindworm, and like all of his species, he is destined to become a writer. When Optimus' mentor Dancelot dies, he leaves Optimus his most valuable possession: the greatest manuscript ever written. After reading it, Optimus becomes determined to meet the unknown author, and sets off for the city Bookholm in search of him. Bookholm is a city dedicated entirely to books. The city itself is filled with bookstores, publishing houses, and writers, editors, publishers and critics. Bookholm also sits atop a huge expanse of catacombs, which are filled with the rarest books in existence, as well as large numbers of dangerous creatures. Bookhunters are employed to find books in the catacombs, and the books are so valuable that Bookhunters often resort to boobytraps and murder to get them. In all of this, Optimus begins to search for his mysterious author, but quickly discovers that his quest is more dangerous than he had anticipated.
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10!! ''The City of Dreaming Books'' provides examples of:
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12* AbsurdlySpaciousSewer: The catacombs have traits of this.
13* AlternativeNumberSystem: It's subtle, since the numbers used for the chapter headers are fantasy glyphs, but if you pay attention you'll see that they're in Base 8.
14* AncientTomb: Under the city streets lies a vast networks of tunnels and vaults, filled with old books.
15* ArcSymbol: The Triadic Circle for the Part One of the book.
16* BadassBookworm: Colophonius Regenschein, the most famous Bookhunter in the city.
17* BetterToDieThanBeKilled: When the [[spoiler: Bookhunters invade the Leather Grotto, Regenschein does this.]]
18--> [[spoiler: '''Al''':]] ''You can't simply die of your own free will, no one can!''
19--> [[spoiler: '''Regenschein''':]] '''''I''' can! I'm [[spoiler: Colophonius Regenschein]]! I've done plenty of things no one thought I could do.''
20* BodyHorror: The story of [[spoiler: The Shadow King.]]. Oh so much so.
21* BountyHunter: The Bookhunters could be taken straight out of ''Franchise/StarWars'', except that they hunt books.
22* ChekhovsGun: A particularly hilarious example is [[spoiler:''Ritter Hempel'', the novel that Optimus hated and never finished reading. He has to complete some lines from it when he meets the Booklings, to prove he's an actual Lindworm. Lucky for him, the lines the Booklings quoted were the exact same ones he heard in his conversation with the Nocturnomath bookseller]].
23* ClassicalAntiHero: Optimus. He's a master of the written and spoken word and can turn an eloquent phrase better than almost anyone -- but he's also a cowardly whiner who constantly goes off on tangents instead of concentrating on the task at hand, tends to make all the stupid mistakes he chides fictional heroes for making, and despite being a dinosaur he's absolutely useless in a fight.
24* DarkIsNotEvil: [[spoiler: The Shadow King.]]
25* DeadPersonConversation: Possibly. Optimus is never clear whether he actually talked to the ghost of his mentor Dancelot, or if he imagined it, since he was pretty close to insanity at that point. Either way, it helped.
26* EldritchAbomination: A variation with [[spoiler: the scientist giant]].
27* EvilCounterpart: Rongkong Koma the Terrible to Colophonius Regenschein. They're both highly successful Bookhunters, but while Regenschein finds rare books by using his wits, Rongkong Koma is the most violent and deadly Bookhunter in the catacombs.
28* FateWorseThanDeath: It's heavily implied that Smyke wants to [[spoiler: turn Optimus into the new Shadow King]].
29* GenreBlindness: Discussed by Optimus, when he finds himself standing at the entrance to a spooky castle, and reflects that if he were the hero of a horror story, he'd walk right into the castle without a second thought. Although, as it turns out, Optimus himself isn't quite GenreSavvy enough:
30-->Not me though! ''I'' wouldn't go inside. . . I wasn't some asinine hero who risks his neck to satisfy the vulgar requirements of a lowbrow readership. No, I wouldn't go ''right'' inside, I would only go ''a little way'' inside. Where was the harm in that, after all?
31* HauntedCastle: Big time.
32* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler:Colophonius Regenschein]], who is already dying, kills himself so that others won't endanger themselves by staying behind to protect him.
33* HeWhoFightsMonsters: [[spoiler: Homuncolossus]] becomes the most terrifying thing in the catacombs by killing Bookhunters, until he has a MyGodWhatHaveIDone moment.
34* HeterosexualLifePartners: [[spoiler: Homuncolossus]] and Optimus Yarnspinner. They get... very close, very quickly, sometimes bordering on HoYay.
35* HowIWroteThisArticleArticle: This is the subject matter of [[MacGuffin the manuscript]] and it's specifically noted that the book should be a ClicheStorm by all rights. Yet, reading it convinces people that it's the greatest piece of literature ever put to the page.
36* HurricaneOfPuns: [[PunnyName Pick a name. Any name.]] Often mixed with a certain degree of GeniusBonus.
37* IHaveThisFriend: A particularly dark example with [[spoiler: Homuncolossus]].
38* IronicEcho: ''If it lives, it can be killed''.
39* JustBetweenYouAndMe: The BigBad loves this. So much so that he tends to jump the gun, telling his evil plan to people who don't even realize he's evil. Then he disposes of them.
40* LampshadeHanging: Happens a few times, often with some HypocriticalHumor thrown in. The characters will mention a trope that is occurring, and point out that such tropes only occur in works by hack writers. For instance:
41-->'''Dancelot''' (on his deathbed, about to make a sensational revelation): The last words of a dying man on the point of imparting a sensational revelation! Make a note of that literary device, it's a guaranteed cliffhanger! No reader can resist it!
42-->'''Optimus''' (narrating): Although Dancelot was dying, nothing seemed more important to him at that juncture than to teach me a cheap trick favoured by trashy romantic novelists.
43* MadScientist: [[spoiler: Smyke]], the giant, and the alchemists referenced several times throughout the book.
44* MeaningfulName: Optimus Yarnspinner, who is going to be a writer. Since his entire species is writers, the meaningful name isn't that surprising.
45* MindControlDevice: Trombophone music. Not only can it induce powerful hallucinations, but it can also plant suggestions that linger for some time.
46* MoreHypnotizableThanHeThinks: Optimus, when faced with the booklings' hypnosis.
47* PaintingTheMedium: Used when [[spoiler: Optimus Yarnspinner]] passes out. First, when he opens the poisoned book, the pages of the novel turn into the pages of that book. While he is losing consciousness, the page is black with white type. To give a sense of time while he is passed out, there are a few pages with no text, just blackness or illustrations.
48* PoorCommunicationKills: Two different people warn Optimus that he is in danger and must leave Bookholm at once. Neither of them, however, explains why, beyond a few cryptic warnings.
49* RidiculouslyCuteCritter: [[spoiler:The booklings]].
50* SandWorm: The "victorious worm", with a bit o' {{Wormsign}} thrown in for good measure.
51* SchmuckBait: [[spoiler: Pfistomel Smyke]] poisons his victims by handing them a book, and telling them to open it to a certain page. And bear in mind, he does this ''after'' the victim knows perfectly well how evil he is.
52* SeriousBusiness: Books. People will die for books. People will kill for books. People will kill ''with'' books to get other books. Optimus Yarnspinner's entire species is made up of writers, and there are other species in existence who dedicate their lives to books, even one that feeds off of reading.
53* ShoutOut: Many of the names of authors and some of the poems recited are anagrams of the names of real life poems and authors. For instance, the author Doylan Cone comes from [[Literature/SherlockHolmes Conan Doyle]], and the poems of Creator/EdgarAllanPoe and Creator/WilliamShakespeare show up as well.
54** Additionally, [[spoiler:poisoning someone by having them turn pages in a book coated in the poison]] is likely an allusion to "The Tale of the Wazir and the Physician Duban" in ''Literature/TheArabianNights''.
55* SlowPacedBeginning: In-universe. The protagonist was told repeatedly by his uncle to read the great novel "Ritter Hempel" (Hempel the knight), but gave up after the first fifty or so pages were all about how to clean lances. Only later he learns that everyone else had the same problem, and later in the book there are great and funny scenes, like when the knight loses his glasses in his armor.
56* [[spoiler:SuicideBySunlight]]
57* TakeOurWordForIt: The manuscript. Everyone who read it said it was probably the greatest piece of literature ever written, to the point where its mere existence endangered all of fiction, because after reading it, no one would ever be satisfied with a something less perfect.
58* TakingYouWithMe: [[spoiler:Homuncolossus to Pfistomel Smyke]], with a bit of DrivenToSuicide thrown in as well since [[spoiler:Homuncolossus wanted to feel sunlight one more time, even though he knew it would kill him]].
59* TheBrute: Rongkong Coma.
60* TragicMonster: [[spoiler: Homuncolossus]], and how.
61* WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity: It's shown that from an [[ChildProdigy early age]] [[spoiler:Homuncolossus]] wasn't a perfectly stable person.[[spoiler: But being turned into a gorilla shaped paper monster and left in an inescapable labyrinth prison did not help his state of mind in the slightest]].
62* WeakButSkilled: Colophonius, contrasting with UnskilledButStrong Rongkong Coma.
63* WhamLine: [[spoiler:''You have just been poisoned.'']]
64* WretchedHive: Many parts of Bookholm appear to be this.

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