Ambiguous Name: Books That Bite

DarklingArcher from behind you Since: Feb, 2020 Relationship Status: Singularity

#1: Oct 14th 2021 at 1:15:53 PM

Books That Bite is meant to be not just about aggressive animate books, but any troublesome Animate Inanimate Object in general, however given the on-page flavor and Literal-Minded tendencies regarding the name, most of the time it gets used only for animate books anyway, biting or otherwise.

After digging through the edit history, I realized it was used this way since the very beginning, and is a very old trope indeed, existing before the edit history started being logged in 2010, so the page creation itself wasn't there, but the short description back then was a shorthand for the current one, with most examples being books anyway. What I also found of note is that the laconic version was redefined from "books assault you physically" to just "troublesome sentient objects", so the ambiguity was present even there.

Here is the wick check, summing up both on-page examples and external wicks. As the criterion I've chosen whether the examples are about actual books or troublesome Animate Inanimate Objects in general, and whether the biting is literal or a metaphor for any unwanted and potentially harmful behavior.

Books that literally bite - 30 / 95 (32%)

Books That Bite: One ComicStrip.Calvin And Hobbes had Calvin's book suddenly come to life and eat his homework before attacking him. Or at least that was the reason he gave Miss Wormwood for why his homework wasn't done.
Books That Bite: According to Creator.Dave Barry, every year a taxpayer is randomly chosen for an audit and thrown into the room containing the US tax code and the door hastily shut. There's some screaming and burping noises, and the next day the tax code is just a little thicker.
Books That Bite: One of the fake Necronomicons bites Ash's hand in the graveyard scene in Film.Army Of Darkness.
Books That Bite: As Reisen learned in the Franchise.Touhou Project spin-off manga, Inaba of the Moon and Inaba of the Earth, when Patchouli tells you not to touch certain books, don't touch them. They bite, and the bigger biting ones have a taste for meat.
Books That Bite: Children's book The Book That Eats People claims to be Exactly What It Says on the Tin.
Books That Bite: Literature.Harry Potter: The Monster Book of Monsters, which is Exactly What It Says on the Tin: a monster that is simultaneously a book about monsters, if you can get it to stay open long enough to read without it closing on your hand and biting it off. It turns completely docile if you stroke the spine, but the students weren't too keen on getting near it.
Books That Bite: VideoGame.Final Fantasy IX: The book monster had poisonous fangs. Possibly a Mythology Gag to the aforementioned books from V, given the sheer number of references IX had to past games.
Books That Bite: VideoGame.Lapis Re Lights has the library of Flora Girls Academy, where it's shown that the animate, aggressive tomes are mixed in with the regular books. There doesn't seem to be any safety measures nor warning until one chomps down on your hand for handling it wrong.
Books That Bite: The Evil Flying Book from WebComic.Axe Cop did this. Likely in the literal sense.
Books That Bite: Webcomic.Sinfest: Criminy received a demon book as a gift from Fuchsia. He learned to tame it (with bookmarks), and now it's like a fiercely-loyal guard dog that also makes for good reading.
Books That Bite: WesternAnimation.The Venture Brothers episode "Trial of the Monarch" has Dr. Orpheus getting sworn in to testify - he suggests substituting the Bible for his book of choice, the Necronomicon, warning the bailiff "Watch your fingers - he's a nibbler!"
Chest Monster: The Literature.Harry Potter books have this with The Monster Book of Monsters, a Care of Magical Creatures textbook that is actually a furry, sharp-toothed monster itself, and will try to bite the reader if s/he doesn't open it the right way.
Ingesting Knowledge: Literature.Discworld: The Books That Bite in Unseen University library have been known to eat each other. Many of the weird creatures in L-Space are implied to be infovorous as well.
Throw the Book at Them: Fanfic.Dangerverse: Hermione does this to Pettigrew when he tries to kidnap her Pack-sister Megan. With her Monster Book of Monsters.
Characters.Mega Man Battle Network 6 Cybeast Gregar And Cybeast Falzar: Books That Bite: One of JudgeMan's attacks summons giant fanged books that chomp towards his opponents.
Characters.Sinfest: Books That Bite: Apparently all of the devil's book's are like this.
Characters.Strange School: Books That Bite: Clamps its chompers down on #73's leg like a miniature crocodile, and refuses to let go. Also illustrated◊ as a toothy book on-page.
Characters.Touhou Eiyashou Imperishable Night: Butt-Monkey: Everyone Reisen met treated her as a Butt-Monkey in the semi-canonical Inaba of the Moon & Inaba of the Earth. She often suffers through "punishment time <3" at the hands of her master Eirin who sometimes knocks her out for days or weeks at a time, takes the brunt of whatever whims Princess Kaguya is having, and is the favorite target of Earth rabbit Tewi for her pranks. Both Mokou and Keine considered eating her, Suwako beat her up, Patchy teleported her into a wall after she almost got eaten by Books That Bite, she almost became bait for Flandre, Alice used her as bait against a carnivorous mushroom, the other Reisen kicked her in the face when she landed, Yorihime ran her through Training from Hell, and even Wriggle, a stage one boss, completely overwhelmed her with her bugs. Poor Moon Rabbit.
Characters.Undead Unluck UMA: Books That Bite: Bites off Andy's hands when he tries to forcibly open Apocalypse for some reason. Also illustrated◊ as a toothy book on-page.
FinalFantasyIX.Tropes A To H: Books That Bite: The book monster has poisonous fangs.
Literature.Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban: Exactly What It Says on the Tin: Hagrid sees nothing wrong with assigning The Monster Book of Monsters as required reading for Care of Magical Creatures. You have to tame the book before you can open it, and it is absolutely feral until you do.
Quotes.Awesome But Impractical:

In the nineteenth century, Brakebills had appointed a librarian with a highly romantic imagination who had envisioned a mobile library in which the books fluttered from shelf to shelf like birds, reorganizing themselves spontaneously under their own power in response to searches. For the first few months the effect was said to have been quite dramatic. A painting of the scene survived as a mural behind the circulation desk, with enormous atlases soaring around the place like condors.

But the system turned out to be totally impractical. The wear and tear on the spines alone was too costly, and the books were horribly disobedient. The librarian had imagined he could summon a given book to perch on his hand just by shouting out its call number, but in actuality they were just too willful, and some were actively predatory. The librarian was swiftly deposed, and his successor set about domesticating the books again...

—The Magicians

Recap.Dawitsus Folly: Books That Bite: See The Cameo.
The Cameo: A virtual replica of Wheatley, Zora Eggs, various pictures of "Starmen" as well as one of a busty, red-haired maid, a pink shell house on a floor known as Locria's Level, and books that gain teeth and attack people.
Recap.The Epilogue: Books That Bite: Yutaka still seals her books with this spell. It's actually a bluff to distract the potential thief (Marisa, naturally) from her and Patchouli's more advanced library defense mechanisms. Most likely used in the literal sense.
Roleplay.Academy Of Merlin: Books That Bite: A few of the books in the library have a bit of an appetite.
VideoGame.Lapis Re Lights: Books That Bite: Worryingly, Flora Girls' Library has animate books complete with sharp teeth that seem to be completely out in the open, waiting for a callous student to handle them wrong and suffer its wrath. Coco is one such victim and Melissa was witness, as seen in the background of Episode 1.
VideoGame.Neopets The Darkest Faerie: Books That Bite: The biting spellbook enemy. There is a shooting variant as well.
VideoGame.Super Mario 64: Books That Bite: There are some called Bookends in Big Boo's Haunt that fly out of the shelves and open up, revealing their giant teeth before flying at you.
Webcomic.Furmentation: Books That Bite: Referenced here.
Webcomic.Oglaf: Books That Bite: The Book of Love. At least, it tries to eat parts of Ivan...

Hostile/Harmful books in general - 44 / 95 (46%)

Books That Bite: In Fanfic.A New World, the books in the Scarlet Devil Mansion library have been heavily enchanted for a wide array of defensive purposes. It has been a long time since anyone was sure of how many layers of protection have been placed over the books, so when a band of unwary invaders is lured into the library and the books triggered to attack, they wind up unleashing a maelstrom of every kind of magic available.
Books That Bite: While this didn't originally apply to the Franchise.Cthulhu Mythos Necronomicon, it's a common trait in adaptations. What better way to advertise a Tome of Eldritch Lore than having it possibly kill you before you even read it?
Books That Bite: Literature.Discworld: The magic books inside the Unseen University's Library have to be chained to their shelves. Sourcery describes a few of the books. The Necrotelicomnocon is bound in iron plates, the Guide to Levitation has been floating in the rafters for about a hundred and fifty years, and the Booke of Forbidden Sex Majyk is kept in a deep-frozen room and should only be read if you are over the age of 80 and, if possible, dead.
- To make matters worse, the books, apart from a fair number of them being able to rip the skin from your bones, they can read each other and learn methods to kill you with everything from magic to a door handle. There's a very good reason why the students only venture into the library in large numbers (or scouting expeditions).
- The Octavo, the creator's own grimoire is so powerful that it can overload the most powerful anti-magic spell in existence and change reality.
Books That Bite: Literature.Harry Potter:
- In the eyes of Flourish & Botts, this is worse than when they ordered 200 copies of The Invisible Book of Invisibility. ("Cost a fortune, and we never found them.")
- Madame Pince has put various spells on her books to protect them from mistreatment. In Quidditch Through the Ages, Dumbledore recalls how he once started doodling in the margins without thinking and found the book beating him around the head the next second.
Books That Bite: In Literature.Rainbows End, the library at the University in San Diego has these, although they're purely virtual and only visible to people who are "wearing". Nevertheless, they're as real as any of the other e-books the library has. They were created as an in-universe Shout-Out to Discworld.
Books That Bite: TabletopGame.Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay sourcebook Tome of Corruption has a section on grimoires - at least one of them is daemonically possessed and will attack people.
Books That Bite: VideoGame.Baten Kaitos has them in the library. Most likely refers to unusual books.
Books That Bite: VideoGame.Castlevania Symphony Of The Night: There are two varieties. The first type merely flies at you and tries to slam into you. The second type opens up and tries to skewer you with an array of magically summoned weapons.
Books That Bite: VideoGame.Donkey Kong 64: There are monster books in the Creepy Castle Library.
Books That Bite: In VideoGame.Fate Grand Order, animate books are common recurring Mooks that attack by shooting bolts of magic at your Servants; several Palette Swap versions also possess different skills/abilities.
Books That Bite: VideoGame.Final Fantasy V: The possessed books don't themselves bite, but the demons inside them take forms based on their pictures when they attack, often switching forms during battle. (They're known for the occasional party wipe, as some cast Level 5 Death,^note and you enter the library around level 25).
Books That Bite: VideoGame.Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets (most versions) has a level set in the library. You will regularly get the shit beaten out of you by books flying in and out of the shelves.
Books That Bite: VideoGame.Hearthstone has Babbling Book as a Mage minion, among various other Animate Inanimate Objects around Karazhan. It's presumed to be normally docile, but has gone berserk with Medivh missing.
Books That Bite: Overlord Zetta in VideoGame.Makai Kingdom ends up becoming one of these. He doesn't bite, but he does possess Eye Beams that vary in strength from simply being really painful to causing explosions the size of a small nuke. In his cameo appearances in other Nippon Ichi games, he almost always attempts to blast someone with them after they mistake him for a normal book.
Books That Bite: VideoGame.Secret Of Mana: Books that attack (largely via casting magic) are a recurring enemy. They also have the rare chance of displaying a naughty centerfold!
Books That Bite: In VideoGame.Super Mario 64's Big Boo's Haunt course, the books in the library don't bite, but they do fling themselves out of the shelves to attack Mario. An adjacent room also contains an animated piano whose lid opens up to reveal sharp teeth and will leap around chasing after Mario.
Books That Bite: In VideoGame.Touhou Koumakyou The Embodiment Of Scarlet Devil, the books in the Scarlet Devil Mansion's library don't bite. They just fire enormous waves of bullets and lasers... and they like to attack in swarms.
Books That Bite: In WesternAnimation.The Smurfs 1981 episode "Papa's Family Album," the evil imp wizard Hotap in Papa Smurf's flashback story turned Brainy's book into one of these, which then chased after Brainy until Papa Smurf turned it back into a normal book again.
Airborne Mook: VideoGame.Harry Potter: Plenty of those in the earlier games. There are pixies, which strafe around and throw magical projectiles, Billywigs (effectively just very large flying mosquitoes), small Books That Bite that ambush you from certain bookshelves (as opposed to large ones that shoot spells and act like mini-bosses) and more.
Attack of the Killer Whatever: If you can think of something, there's probably a B-grade horror movie about it trying to kill a bunch of people. You name it. Snowmen, ice cream men, Santa Claus, dentists, clowns, dolls, books, [...]
Bookish Tropes: Books That Bite Just an index entry, but the index itself is about books.
Flying Books: See also Books That Bite. On a page about actual books.
Great Big Library of Everything: The Library of the Ancients in Videogame.Final Fantasy V has an unbelievable number a books, including a large number which decide to attack the party. Being killed by a book is not a good way to go.
Sprite/Polygon Mix: VideoGame.Castlevania Symphony Of The Night has a few polygon backgrounds or objects, notably the clock tower before Dracula, the Books That Bite in the Long Library, and the save points. If you're emulating the game, with certain settings, you can really notice the difference between the "duller" sprites and the "sharper" 3D effects.
Wax On, Wax Off: In Literature.Warcraft The Last Guardian, a Warcraft Expanded Universe novel, the first task that our hero faces when attempting to become the wizard Medivh's apprentice is to clean, fix, and sort out his library. This turns out to be a Secret Test of Character, since an apprentice is supposed to know the contents of the library inside and out, have the patience and humility to do some physical work every now and then, and know which books are actively harmful.
Characters.Enter The Gungeon: Books That Bite: Good news! They don't actually bite and don't even have fangs. Bad news! They instead cast powerful bullet-based magic spells at the player. The color of the Bookllet's cover shows what specific attack patterns that particular one has access to.
Characters.Monolith: Books That Bite: Grimoire is a book haunted by a spirit, and can attack you by summoning pages that shoot out magic projectiles, as well as flinging the pages themselves at you in the form of paper aeroplanes.
Characters.Ozzie The Vampire: Books That Bite: Downplayed; Grimsley is a sentient book, but isn't capable of moving on his own at all - not even turning his own pages.
Characters.Slay The Spire:
One on several seemingly sentient books of ancient lore left among the Spire's ruins. Unlike others that you can encounter, the Book of Stabbing has no interest in trying to drive you to madness with its knowledge. No, it just wants to stab you. A lot.
Books That Bite: A much more actively hostile example than most, as just encountering it is enough to earn its wrath, and it won't rest until either you or it are dead.
Characters.The Secret World The Big Three: Magical Library: According to the lore entries, the Templars own the largest collection of occult literature in the world. Unsurprisingly, most of it's kept under lock and key in the vaults of Temple Hall, partly to prevent misuse of the knowledge it contains but mostly to ensure that unsuspecting readers don't get hurt. Anyone desperate enough to actually enter the vaults must be armed and ready to fight at the slightest opportunity. Gladstone recommends entering on Tuesdays, when most of the books are asleep.
FateGrandOrder.Tropes A To C: Books That Bite: The London update introduces Spell Book-type Mooks, though they don't bite and hurl magic balls instead. They drop the Forbidden Page material.
Quotes.Great Big Library Of Everything:

Deep inside the Impossible Fortress, according to some profane accounts, lies Tzeentch’s fabled Hidden Library. This infinite collection of tomes, scrolls, and parchments of every kind contains every scrap of knowledge and thought ever recorded; stories written and unwritten; histories true and alternate; and accounts of futures potential, actual, and imagined. Many of the volumes are so weighty with knowledge that they gain a sentience of a kind and spend centuries chattering to passersby, arguing with one another, rewriting themselves, and then reorganising their placement accordingly. Magical chains of warpflame help to protect the books and bind them in place. Horrors serve as grotesque librarians and work tirelessly to re-shelve the works, catalogue the collection, and maintain what passes for order in the Impossible Fortress, though as the concept itself is anathema to the Great Mutator, no mortal could possibly fathom such a design.

—Black Crusade: The Tome Of Fate

Recap.Welcome To Night Vale Ep 3 Station Management: Books That Bite: All around Night Vale, books have stopped working. Words used include "sparks", "meat smell", "biting", and "lethal gas".
ReferencedBy.Discworld: In Literature.Rainbows End, royalties from a Discworld Augmented Reality game have allowed Terry Pratchett to buy a chunk of Scotland. The AR version of San Diego University Library has Books That Bite as an in-universe reference to Unseen University.
UniqueEnemy.Donkey Kong: Creepy Castle's library has some evil living books that are exclusively found there.
VideoGame.Final Fantasy V: Books That Bite: All the enemies in the Library of the Ancients. It's not the books themselves as much as the fact that demons have gotten into the lower stacks and attack from books.
VideoGame.Kingdom Of Loathing: Books That Bite: One of the types of enemy found in Spookyraven Manor's Haunted Library.
VideoGame.La Tale: Books That Bite: These appear as enemies in Velfa Library and its main dungeon, the Magic Book Room.
VideoGame.Living Books: For books that are actually alive, see Books That Bite.
VideoGame.Quest For Glory IV: Books That Bite: The Necrophilicon. A name fitting for a Tome of Eldritch Lore.
VideoGame.Riverbond: Books That Bite: One of the levels is a library, where you mainly fight floating books.
Webcomic.Crystal Heroes: Books That Bite: The first battle is against two literal Book Swarms. They have a normal attack, a slightly more damaging paper cut, and a rush forward that deals limited damage, but to everyone in the group.
WesternAnimation.Twice Upon A Time: Books That Bite: Killer books are seen during Ralph and Mumford's nightmare.

Non-book troublesome objects - 11 / 95 (12%)

Books That Bite: In Fanfic.With Strings Attached, Brox's scheme to restore monsters to Baravada centers on a spell that turns inorganic objects into living creatures. The Ghost City of Ehndris is subsequently filled with "Nasty Bits," as the four dub them—everything from little crab-like chunks of walking concrete and clumps of glass shards that act like spiders, to boulders with tentacles and fangs, to stone columns with vertical mouths, to living bedframes. Ironically for the name of this trope, books wouldn't be affected because they're organic. Valuables like gems and swords aren't affected either.
Books That Bite: In Literature.Young Wizards, the protagonists end up in a pocket-universe version of Manhattan which has no human inhabitants, but where everything from cars to elevators to fire hydrants is animate, and mostly malevolent. One of the characters gets bitten by a keyhole!
Books That Bite: TabletopGame.Dungeons And Dragons: Variants of this (killer candles, etc.) are some of the weakest monsters available for players to fight, generally used as a challenge for loner characters at level 1.
Books That Bite: The entire premise of the Website.Gaia Online MMORPG zOMG! is that inanimate objects have become, well, Animated!
Deadly Book: Also compare Books That Bite, which is when an object (which may or may not be a book) actively attempts to bite at anything around it.
DarthWiki.Paper Mario 5: The Swordling◊ enemy. An animate sword mook.
EarthBound.Tropes A To G: Books That Bite: See Everything Trying to Kill You.
Everything Trying to Kill You: Animals, stop signs, hippies, robots, animate cups of coffee, and a hundred other weird monsters, including those goddamn exploding trees! Doesn't mention actual books.
Laconic.Books That Bite: Troublesome sentient objects.
Undertale.Tropes B: Books That Bite: In the Ruins, there is a Block Puzzle where one of the rocks is sentient, and you must convince it to move onto the pressure plate.
VideoGame.The Longing Ribbon: Books That Bite: Chapter IV; almost every piece of furniture from the mansion starts to lash out.
VideoGame.Treasure Hunter Man: Books That Bite: A giant sword with a derp face can be found in the Golden King's Tower.

Other misuse - 2 / 95 (2%)

Books That Bite: The Book of Darkness in Anime.Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha As, which was shown in the Second Sound Stage and the fifth chapter of the supplementary comic to act like a floating puppy around Hayate. An animate book as a pet/companion.
Books That Bite: In Creator.AA Pessimal's take on the Literature.Discworld, Assassin Johanna Smith-Rhodes puts on a little demonstration for the grimoires that her husband Ponder Stibbons keeps in his study. After her youngest daughter takes an interest in the magical books ^note Johanna shows them a book and a box of matches. She then tears out pages, one by one, sets them on fire and drops the ashes in the bin. The point having been made, she nods at the intently watching grimoires and walks out again. Later, a visiting witch, aware the books are testing her out, draws her short but very sharp Cossack knife, and subjects an otherwise blameless City Watch memo to the death of a thousand cuts. She points out to the grimoires that whatever magic they contain, they are still only made of paper and she keeps her blades very sharp. Just sentient books, the rest is off-topic.

ZCE/Unclear - 8 / 95 (8%)

Books That Bite: The Marvel Comics story ComicBook.Inferno featured this as a side effect of Limbo's demons invading New York.
Books That Bite: VideoGame.Earth Bound: There are a lot of monsters like this.
Books That Bite: A few appear in VideoGame.Enter The Gungeon, specifically, in the Keep of the Lead Lord. Like every other enemy in the game, they attack with Bullet Hell patterns.
Books That Bite: VideoGame.Kings Quest II Romancing The Throne: In the Fan Remake, one of the puzzles involves Graham solving a riddle at a bookshelf. If he gets it wrong, he is eaten by the bookshelf's guardian. No mention what is the guardian.
Books That Bite: Ridewords and Deathwords in VideoGame.Ragnarok Online.
Animate Inanimate Object: Books That Bite Just an index entry.
Speculative Fiction Tropes: Books That Bite Just an index entry.
DarthWiki.Earth Bound 3: Books That Bite: Several enemies.

Time is subjective.

Berrenta How sweet it is from Texas Since: Apr, 2015 Relationship Status: Can't buy me love

How sweet it is

#2: Oct 14th 2021 at 3:09:41 PM

Opened for discussion.

she/her | TRS needs your help! | Contributor of Trope Report

WarJay77 Big Catch, Sparkle Edition (Troper Knight)

Big Catch, Sparkle Edition

#3: Oct 14th 2021 at 3:11:20 PM

Honestly, I wouldn't oppose just making this book-specific and moving other examples to tropes like Chest Monster and Animate Inanimate Object.

Currently Working On: Incorruptible Pure Pureness

TheLivingDrawing Lucas the Dreamer from The Town of Clayton Since: Apr, 2019 Relationship Status: Yes, I'm alone, but I'm alone and free

Lucas the Dreamer

#4: Oct 14th 2021 at 3:20:49 PM

How about splitting it into this and a new trope “Hostile Inanimate Object”

Why waste time when you can see the last sunset last?

Tabs Since: Jan, 2001

#5: Oct 14th 2021 at 3:30:07 PM

A comparatively small number of examples (fewer than 10) are about Hostile Inanimate Objects. That's not enough for a split.

Nen_desharu Nintendo Fanatic Extraordinaire from Greater Smash Bros. Universe or Toronto Since: Aug, 2020 Relationship Status: Who needs love when you have waffles?

Nintendo Fanatic Extraordinaire

#6: Oct 14th 2021 at 4:44:19 PM

Kirby: Triple Deluxe has a course reminiscent of Big Boo's Haunt in Super Mario 64, complete with books that attack the player and even a piano that bite.

https://wikirby.com/wiki/Wild_World_-_Stage_3

There should be enough now to create the Hostile Inanimate Object trope.

Edited by Nen_desharu on Oct 14th 2021 at 7:48:35 AM

Kirby is awesome.

Malady (Not-So-Newbie)

#7: Oct 14th 2021 at 8:20:37 PM

Why are books important? Is it because they're usually evil Spell Books?

Disambig Needed: Help with those issues! tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=13324299140A37493800&page=24#comment-576

DarklingArcher from behind you Since: Feb, 2020 Relationship Status: Singularity

#8: Oct 15th 2021 at 2:33:12 AM

Yes, the most common use of the trope is Garnishing the Story by giving an evil Spell Book or Tome of Eldritch Lore a behavior to match the expectations.

Time is subjective.

DarklingArcher from behind you Since: Feb, 2020 Relationship Status: Singularity

#9: Oct 15th 2021 at 9:08:19 AM

Because nothing says "it's evil" more than the fact that it wants to maim you at the first opportunity, or ruin your life in some other way, rather than being just a repository of forbidden knowledge. And the non-evil examples are either animated by Wild Magic, haunted, or Self-Demonstrating (such as the Monstrous Book of Monsters that is a monster itself).

Time is subjective.

Tabs Since: Jan, 2001

#10: Oct 15th 2021 at 9:15:20 AM

, That's very good description if we split/narrow an Evil Animate Book trope.

WarJay77 Big Catch, Sparkle Edition (Troper Knight)

Big Catch, Sparkle Edition

#11: Oct 15th 2021 at 10:22:36 AM

Plus, books already kinda look and move like mouths. Just tip them sideways.

Currently Working On: Incorruptible Pure Pureness

Piterpicher Veteran Editor IV from Poland, for real (Series 2) Relationship Status: Armed with the Power of Love

Veteran Editor IV

#12: Oct 15th 2021 at 10:46:28 AM

Agreed with the reasoning. This seems fine with being book-specific.

Currently mostly inactive. An incremental game I tested: https://galaxy.click/play/176 (Gods of Incremental)

selkies Professional Wick Checker Since: Jan, 2021 Relationship Status: Star-crossed

Professional Wick Checker

#13: Oct 15th 2021 at 10:55:46 AM

Yeah, I see a distinction in evil books vs. other evil objects. I'm on team "split" so far.

WarJay77 Big Catch, Sparkle Edition (Troper Knight)

Big Catch, Sparkle Edition

#14: Oct 15th 2021 at 10:56:39 AM

As for "Hostile Inanimate Object", is it really that worthy of being separated from the other similar tropes, Animate Inanimate Object and Chest Monster?

Currently Working On: Incorruptible Pure Pureness

Synchronicity (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)

#15: Oct 15th 2021 at 10:59:28 AM

I like the idea of malicious mouthlike books, that's definitely a thing.

I don't think is splitworthy so far however.

Edited by Synchronicity on Oct 15th 2021 at 12:59:40 PM

GastonRabbit Sounds good on paper (he/him) from Robinson, Illinois, USA (General of TV Troops) Relationship Status: I'm just a poor boy, nobody loves me

Sounds good on paper (he/him)

#16: Oct 15th 2021 at 12:05:26 PM

Honestly, I wouldn't oppose just making this book-specific and moving other examples to tropes like Chest Monster and Animate Inanimate Object.

Same here, except I don't see a problem with allowing evil books in general, as opposed to books that literally bite. (I'm not sure if you hold the same opinion, so I wrote this as an addendum.)

The Castlevania: Symphony of the Night example that came up in the wick check's second folder (evil books that don't bite) came to mind when I thought to write this. They look like ordinary books aside from the fact that they try to attack the player.

Edited by GastonRabbit on Oct 15th 2021 at 2:06:49 PM

Patiently awaiting the release of Paper Luigi and the Marvelous Compass.

WarJay77 Big Catch, Sparkle Edition (Troper Knight)

Big Catch, Sparkle Edition

#17: Oct 15th 2021 at 12:07:19 PM

I think Evil Books in general are fine, too. I almost wrote a second paragraph to clarify that and then halfway through writing it I decided not to save the edit.

Currently Working On: Incorruptible Pure Pureness

amathieu13 Since: Aug, 2013

#18: Oct 16th 2021 at 6:39:11 AM

Agree with making this book only and moving the non-book examples over to the already existing pages. don't agree with making a wholly new trope for the non-book examples.

Edited by amathieu13 on Oct 16th 2021 at 9:39:29 AM

Memers Since: Aug, 2013

#19: Oct 16th 2021 at 7:39:58 AM

Why do they need to be evil? FFXIV has a chatty book with teeth named Principia who helps teach you Summoning.◊

FernandoLemon Nobody Here from Argentina (Troper Knight) Relationship Status: In season

Nobody Here

#20: Oct 16th 2021 at 7:57:04 AM

Rename + narrow + cleanup.

By the way, the logic about books looking like mouths from 11 is also applicable to chests. Explains in part why that trope exists.

I'd like to apologize for all this.

Malady (Not-So-Newbie)

#21: Oct 16th 2021 at 8:00:50 AM

- Why do they even have teeth? That just looks really threatening?

Edited by Malady on Oct 16th 2021 at 8:02:46 AM

Disambig Needed: Help with those issues! tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=13324299140A37493800&page=24#comment-576

GastonRabbit Sounds good on paper (he/him) from Robinson, Illinois, USA (General of TV Troops) Relationship Status: I'm just a poor boy, nobody loves me

Sounds good on paper (he/him)

#22: Oct 16th 2021 at 1:29:35 PM

I'd actually be fine with allowing non-evil examples.

Patiently awaiting the release of Paper Luigi and the Marvelous Compass.

Karxrida The Unknown from Eureka, the Forbidden Land Since: May, 2012 Relationship Status: I LOVE THIS DOCTOR!

The Unknown

#23: Oct 16th 2021 at 2:55:58 PM

Same. In the Harry Potter series there are enchanted schoolbooks with mouths that aren't evil, just kind of dangerous if not handled properly. Otherwise they follow the idea of this.

I think "the books are potentially dangerous" is a much cleaner qualifier than "is evil."

Edited by Karxrida on Oct 16th 2021 at 2:57:25 AM

If a tree falls in the forest and nobody remembers it, who else will you have ice cream with?

DarklingArcher from behind you Since: Feb, 2020 Relationship Status: Singularity

#24: Oct 18th 2021 at 3:21:13 PM

Alright, seems like we have a general idea about what needs to be done. Let's start the crowner, shall we?

Time is subjective.

Berrenta MOD How sweet it is from Texas Since: Apr, 2015 Relationship Status: Can't buy me love

How sweet it is

#25: Oct 18th 2021 at 4:15:36 PM

Hooked!

she/her | TRS needs your help! | Contributor of Trope Report

PageAction: BooksThatBite

18th Oct '21 3:10:55 PM

Crown Description:

Books That Bite is often misinterpreted as referring to animate books only, despite having a much broader definition covering any troublesome animate object. What should be done to deal with this problem?

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