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Don't know what to read? Pick a card.

Don't know what to read next? Shuffle a tarot deck of 258 reviewed science fiction and fantasy books, turn a single card over and follow it to the full review.

Deal five cards

The library holds 258 reviewed books, and this deck gives each of them one card. Choose a shelf or leave the question open, press the button, and the deck is shuffled and five cards are dealt face down. Turn one over and it names a book, its author, the shelf it sits on and a short account of what its review covers, with a link into that review. Deal again as often as you like, since the deck is reshuffled every time.

    How the deck is built

    Every card is a book the library has reviewed, taken from the same catalogue that feeds the author files and the genre shelves, so each one leads to a review. The cards are numbered in alphabetical order of title, from 1Q84 at No. 001 to Wizard of the Crow at No. 258, and a card's number tells you roughly where its book stands in the stacks.

    A tarot deck divides into suits, and this one borrows the library's five genre shelves for the purpose. Alternate histories, reality and simulation, first contact, posthuman futures and social systems each give their name to a suit, and a book filed on a shelf carries that suit's mark on its face: a forking road, a frame inside a frame, two overlapping circles, a hexagon around a cell, a row of towers. Most of the library is not filed on any shelf. Those books form a sixth group, the open stacks, marked with a star, and they make up the larger part of the deck: 161 of the 258 cards.

    The question chosen before the shuffle decides which cards are in play. Ask about a single shelf and only that suit is dealt; leave the question open and the whole deck goes in.

    Reading a draw

    The cards are for choosing a book and make no predictions. Standing in front of a full shelf with no reason to prefer one spine over another is a familiar problem, and the draw supplies the reason. The face of the card gives enough to decide whether the book deserves the evening: title and author, the suit and what that suit stands for, and a short account of the book taken from its review.

    If the card names a book you already know, draw again, or take it as a prompt to reread. If it names one you have never heard of, that is the case the deck is for. The reviews run from Victorian ghost stories to recent literary fiction, and a random card is a fair way to reach the parts of the collection that the reading paths and the homepage never point to.

    Cards inside the books

    Fortune-telling cards turn up in several of the novels reviewed here, usually as a sign that someone is reading the world for hidden patterns. In Little, Big, John Crowley gives the Drinkwater family an unusual set of cards, akin to a tarot deck, which some of them rely on for information on the Tale. Thomas Pynchon fills Gravity's Rainbow with the occult and the metaphysical, and tarot symbols play an especially noticeable part among them.

    Elsewhere the cards are one oddity among many. Samuel R. Delany breaks off the space opera of Nova to show his knowledge of tarot and fortune-telling, one digression in a novel that also steps aside for unconventional technologies of music and the visual arts, and for tips on writing a novel. The Illuminatus! Trilogy by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson puts tarot card prognostication beside talking dolphins, Atlantis and an elderly Adolf Hitler.

    The full deck

    G / 01

    Alternate histories

    The card of the road not taken. It points to a history that turned the other way at some decisive moment.

    1. No. 0034-3-2-1Paul Auster
    2. No. 023BrasylIan McDonald
    3. No. 037Colson Whitehead and the Evolution of the American Slave NarrativeColson Whitehead
    4. No. 096Jonathan Strange & Mr NorrellSusanna Clarke
    5. No. 159The Big TimeFritz Leiber
    6. No. 179The First 15 Lives of Harry AugustClaire North
    7. No. 204The Man in the High CastlePhilip K. Dick
    8. No. 216The Plot Against AmericaPhilip Roth
    9. No. 242The Yiddish Policemen's UnionMichael Chabon
    G / 02

    Reality & simulation

    The card of the unsteady floor. It asks whether the world on the page, or the one outside it, can be trusted.

    1. No. 0011Q84Haruki Murakami
    2. No. 015At Swim-Two-BirdsFlann O'Brien
    3. No. 018Barefoot in the HeadBrian Aldiss
    4. No. 026Burning ChromeWilliam Gibson
    5. No. 044DhalgrenSamuel R. Delany
    6. No. 046Do Androids Dream of Electric SheepPhilip K. Dick
    7. No. 057FiccionesJorge Luis Borges
    8. No. 061Flow My Tears, the Policeman SaidPhilip K. Dick
    9. No. 070GlasshouseCharles Stross
    10. No. 074Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the WorldHaruki Murakami
    11. No. 084House of LeavesMark Z. Danielewski
    12. No. 088How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional UniverseCharles Yu
    13. No. 112NeuromancerWilliam Gibson
    14. No. 126Ready Player OneErnest Cline
    15. No. 129Report on Probability ABrian Aldiss
    16. No. 136Snow CrashNeal Stephenson
    17. No. 138SolarisStanisław Lem
    18. No. 200The Lathe of HeavenUrsula K. Le Guin
    19. No. 215The PeripheralWilliam Gibson
    20. No. 218The Raw Shark TextsSteven Hall
    21. No. 241The World of Null AA.E. van Vogt
    22. No. 248UbikPhilip K. Dick
    23. No. 249VALISPhilip K. Dick
    24. No. 251VurtJeff Noon
    G / 03

    First contact

    The card of the stranger. It deals a meeting with a mind that will not translate easily into human terms.

    1. No. 0022001: A Space OdysseyArthur C. Clarke
    2. No. 005A Case of ConscienceJames Blish
    3. No. 022Bloodchild and Other StoriesOctavia E. Butler
    4. No. 032Childhood's EndArthur C. Clarke
    5. No. 053EmbassytownChina Miéville
    6. No. 055Ender's GameOrson Scott Card
    7. No. 067GatewayFrederik Pohl
    8. No. 081His Master's VoiceStanisław Lem
    9. No. 131RingworldLarry Niven
    10. No. 143Stories of Your Life and OthersTed Chiang
    11. No. 145Stranger in a Strange LandRobert Heinlein
    12. No. 180The First Men in the MoonH.G. Wells
    13. No. 181The Forever WarJoe Haldeman
    14. No. 184The GenocidesThomas M. Disch
    15. No. 195The HumansMatt Haig
    16. No. 206The Martian ChroniclesRay Bradbury
    17. No. 226The Three-Body ProblemCixin Liu
    18. No. 233The Voyage of the Space BeagleA.E. van Vogt
    19. No. 243This ImmortalRoger Zelazny
    G / 04

    Posthuman futures

    The card of the altered body. It turns on what remains of a person once science, war or evolution has remade them.

    1. No. 012Ancillary JusticeAnn Leckie
    2. No. 033CityClifford Simak
    3. No. 062Flowers for AlgernonDaniel Keyes
    4. No. 063FrankensteinMary Shelley
    5. No. 089I Have No Mouth & I Must ScreamHarlan Ellison
    6. No. 090I, RobotIsaac Asimov
    7. No. 104Lord of LightRoger Zelazny
    8. No. 110ModeranDavid R. Bunch
    9. No. 111More Than HumanTheodore Sturgeon
    10. No. 114NightwingsRobert Silverberg
    11. No. 116NorstriliaCordwainer Smith
    12. No. 134SlanA.E. van Vogt
    13. No. 173The Einstein IntersectionSamuel R. Delany
    14. No. 178The Final ProgrammeMichael Moorcock
    15. No. 192The Horror of Good IntentionsKazuo Ishiguro
    16. No. 198The Island of Dr. MoreauH.G. Wells
    17. No. 208The Mixed MenA.E. van Vogt
    18. No. 219The Rediscovery of ManCordwainer Smith
    19. No. 237The Wind-Up GirlPaolo Bacigalupi
    20. No. 244Time Enough for LoveRobert Heinlein
    21. No. 246To Your Scattered Bodies GoPhilip José Farmer
    G / 05

    Social systems

    The card of the built city. It shows a society someone designed, and the people who have to live inside it.

    1. No. 004A Canticle for LeibowitzWalter M. Miller, Jr.
    2. No. 006A Clockwork OrangeAnthony Burgess
    3. No. 021BlindnessJosé Saramago
    4. No. 024Brave New WorldAldous Huxley
    5. No. 025Bug Jack BarronNorman Spinrad
    6. No. 027Camp ConcentrationThomas M. Disch
    7. No. 040Dana Gioia on Jack Vance's The Languages of PaoJack Vance
    8. No. 049Down and Out in the Magic KingdomCory Doctorow
    9. No. 051DuneFrank Herbert
    10. No. 054EmphyrioJack Vance
    11. No. 056Fahrenheit 451Ray Bradbury
    12. No. 127Red MarsKim Stanley Robinson
    13. No. 141Station ElevenEmily St. John Mandel
    14. No. 147SubmissionMichel Houellebecq
    15. No. 149Super Sad True Love StoryGary Shteyngart
    16. No. 168The Demolished ManAlfred Bester
    17. No. 170The DispossessedUrsula K. Le Guin
    18. No. 176The Female ManJoanna Russ
    19. No. 183The Foundation TrilogyIsaac Asimov
    20. No. 188The Handmaid's TaleMargaret Atwood
    21. No. 201The Left Hand of DarknessUrsula K. Le Guin
    22. No. 209The Moon is a Harsh MistressRobert Heinlein
    23. No. 240The World InsideRobert Silverberg
    24. No. 258Wizard of the CrowNgũgĩ wa Thiong'o
    Unshelved

    The open stacks

    A card from the open stacks: a book the library has not filed on one of its five genre shelves. Read it with no question attached.

    1. No. 007A Collapse of HorsesBrian Evenson
    2. No. 008A Fall of MoondustArthur C. Clarke
    3. No. 009A Visit from the Goon SquadJennifer Egan
    4. No. 010A.E. van Vogt: A TributeA.E. van Vogt
    5. No. 011American GodsNeil Gaiman
    6. No. 013Are You Ready for a Horror Novel That Looks Like an Ikea Catalog?Grady Hendrix
    7. No. 014Around the MoonJules Verne
    8. No. 016AuraCarlos Fuentes
    9. No. 017Babel-17Samuel R. Delany
    10. No. 019Behold the ManMichael Moorcock
    11. No. 020BelovedToni Morrison
    12. No. 028Can Horror Fiction Go Highbrow?Ramsey Campbell
    13. No. 029CarrieStephen King
    14. No. 030Cat's CradleKurt Vonnegut
    15. No. 031Charles Dickens and the Christmas Ghost StoryCharles Dickens
    16. No. 034Clive Barker's Books of BloodClive Barker
    17. No. 035Cloud AtlasDavid Mitchell
    18. No. 036CloudstreetTim Winton
    19. No. 038Conjure WifeFritz Leiber
    20. No. 039CrashJ.G. Ballard
    21. No. 041Dandelion WineRay Bradbury
    22. No. 042Dangerous LaughterSteven Millhauser
    23. No. 043DeathMichael Crichton
    24. No. 045Dimensions of MiracleRobert Sheckley
    25. No. 047Doctor FaustusThomas Mann
    26. No. 048Dona Flor and Her Two HusbandsJorge Amado
    27. No. 050DraculaBram Stoker
    28. No. 052Dying InsideRobert Silverberg
    29. No. 058Fifth BusinessRobertson Davies
    30. No. 059FlatlandEdwin A. Abbott
    31. No. 060FledglingOctavia E. Butler
    32. No. 064Fritz Leiber at 100Fritz Leiber
    33. No. 065From the Earth to the MoonJules Verne
    34. No. 066Gargantua and PantagruelFrançois Rabelais
    35. No. 068Gene Wolfe's Most Mysterious Sci-Fi EpicGene Wolfe
    36. No. 069Giles Goat-BoyJohn Barth
    37. No. 071Gods Without MenHari Kunzru
    38. No. 072Gravity's RainbowThomas Pynchon
    39. No. 073Gulliver's Travels and the Birth of Genre FictionJonathan Swift
    40. No. 075Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's StoneJ.K. Rowling
    41. No. 076HavJan Morris
    42. No. 077Hell HouseRichard Matheson
    43. No. 078Henry James, Horror WriterHenry James
    44. No. 079Herovit's WorldBarry N. Malzberg
    45. No. 080Hieroglyphic TalesHorace Walpole
    46. No. 082Horror for Slackers: The Shameful Success of John Dies at the EndDavid Wong
    47. No. 083HothouseBrian Aldiss
    48. No. 085How Alice Got to WonderlandLewis Carroll
    49. No. 086How Did Antiquarians Become Action Story Heroes?M.R. James
    50. No. 087How the First Monser in Our Culture Grew Up to Become an Existentialist HeroJohn Gardner
    51. No. 091Infinite JestDavid Foster Wallace
    52. No. 092Interview with the VampireAnne Rice
    53. No. 093Is The Castle of Otranto the Clumsiest Classic Novel?Horace Walpole
    54. No. 094Joe Hill's Heart-Shaped BoxJoe Hill
    55. No. 095John Fowles's Peculiar UFO NovelJohn Fowles
    56. No. 097Journey to the Center of the EarthJules Verne
    57. No. 098King Kong as Literary HeroEdgar Wallace
    58. No. 099LaviniaUrsula K. Le Guin
    59. No. 100LightM. John Harrison
    60. No. 101Like Water for ChocolateLaura Esquivel
    61. No. 102Lincoln in the BardoGeorge Saunders
    62. No. 103Little, BigJohn Crowley
    63. No. 105Love in the RuinsWalker Percy
    64. No. 106Magic for BeginnersKelly Link
    65. No. 107Making a Case for Clark Ashton SmithClark Ashton Smith
    66. No. 108Midnight's ChildrenSalman Rushdie
    67. No. 109MindswapRobert Sheckley
    68. No. 113NeverwhereNeil Gaiman
    69. No. 115Nine Hundred GrandmothersR.A. Lafferty
    70. No. 117NovaSamuel R. Delany
    71. No. 118Old Man's WarJohn Scalzi
    72. No. 119One Hundred Years of SolitudeGabriel García Márquez
    73. No. 120OrlandoVirginia Woolf
    74. No. 121Perdido Street StationChina Miéville
    75. No. 122Pet SemataryStephen King
    76. No. 123Practical MagicAlice Hoffman
    77. No. 124Ramsey Campbell's Quest to Become the Nabokov of Horror WritingRamsey Campbell
    78. No. 125Ray Bradbury at Ninety: An AppreciationRay Bradbury
    79. No. 128Remembering J.G. Ballard (1930-2009)J.G. Ballard
    80. No. 130Revisiting Two Neglected Jules Verne ClassicsJules Verne
    81. No. 132Robert Heinlein at One HundredRobert Heinlein
    82. No. 133Robert W. Chambers and The King in YellowRobert W. Chambers
    83. No. 135Slaughterhouse-FiveKurt Vonnegut
    84. No. 137So It Goes: The Unconventional Sci-Fi of Kurt VonnegutKurt Vonnegut
    85. No. 139Some of Your BloodTheodore Sturgeon
    86. No. 140Something Wicked This Way ComesRay Bradbury
    87. No. 142Store of the WorldsRobert Sheckley
    88. No. 144Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr HydeRobert Louis Stevenson
    89. No. 146StrangersTaichi Yamada
    90. No. 148Suddenly, A Knock at the DoorEtgar Keret
    91. No. 150Swamplandia!Karen Russell
    92. No. 151Swords and DeviltryFritz Leiber
    93. No. 152Tales of Mystery & ImaginationEdgar Allan Poe
    94. No. 153Ted Gioia on William Peter Blatty's The ExorcistWilliam Peter Blatty
    95. No. 154The Atrocity ExhibitionJ.G. Ballard
    96. No. 155The Author as Butcher: Jack Ketchum's Off SeasonJack Ketchum
    97. No. 156The Avant-Garde Science Fiction of Brian AldissBrian Aldiss
    98. No. 157The Bear Comes HomeRafi Zabor
    99. No. 158The Bestseller That Brought Zombies Back from the DeadMax Brooks
    100. No. 160The Blind AssassinMargaret Atwood
    101. No. 161The Book of Laughter and ForgettingMilan Kundera
    102. No. 162The Centauri DeviceM. John Harrison
    103. No. 163The Chronicles of NarniaC.S. Lewis
    104. No. 164The CipherKathe Koja
    105. No. 165The Cold-Blood StorytellerPeter Straub
    106. No. 166The Color of MagicTerry Pratchett
    107. No. 167The Crystal WorldJ.G. Ballard
    108. No. 169The Devil and Rosemary's BabyIra Levin
    109. No. 171The Dragon MastersJack Vance
    110. No. 172The Drowned WorldJ.G. Ballard
    111. No. 174The End of the AffairGraham Greene
    112. No. 175The Famished RoadBen Okri
    113. No. 177The Fifty Year SwordMark Z. Danielewski
    114. No. 182The Fortress of SolitudeJonathan Lethem
    115. No. 185The Golden AssApuleius
    116. No. 186The Great God PanArthur Machen
    117. No. 187The Great San Francisco Magical Realism NovelFritz Leiber
    118. No. 189The Haunting of Hill HouseShirley Jackson
    119. No. 190The Hitchhiker's Guide to the GalaxyDouglas Adams
    120. No. 191The HobbitJ.R.R. Tolkien
    121. No. 193The Horror Stories of William T VollmannWilliam T. Vollmann
    122. No. 194The House of the SpiritsIsabel Allende
    123. No. 196The Illuminatus! TrilogyRobert Shea & Robert Anton Wilson
    124. No. 197The Illustrated ManRay Bradbury
    125. No. 199The Kingdom of This WorldAlejo Carpentier
    126. No. 202The Magic Toyshop of Angela CarterAngela Carter
    127. No. 203The MagiciansLev Grossman
    128. No. 205The MartianAndy Weir
    129. No. 207The Master and MargaritaMikhail Bulgakov
    130. No. 210The Most Dangerous Sci-Fi AnthologyHarlan Ellison
    131. No. 211The Most Mysterious Woman In the History of Sci-FiJames Tiptree, Jr.
    132. No. 212The Obscene Bird of NightJosé Donoso
    133. No. 213The Orange Eats CreepsGrace Krilanovich
    134. No. 214The OtherThomas Tryon
    135. No. 217The Puzzling Case of Robert SheckleyRobert Sheckley
    136. No. 220The RoadCormac McCarthy
    137. No. 221The Scariest of Them All: A Tribute to Richard MathesonRichard Matheson
    138. No. 222The Sherlock Holmes of the Occult WorldAlgernon Blackwood
    139. No. 223The Sirens of TitanKurt Vonnegut
    140. No. 224The State of the ArtIain M. Banks
    141. No. 225The Stephen King of SwedenJohn Ajvide Lindqvist
    142. No. 227The Tiger's WifeTéa Obreht
    143. No. 228The Time MachineH.G. Wells
    144. No. 229The Time Traveler's WifeAudrey Niffenegger
    145. No. 230The Tin DrumGünter Grass
    146. No. 231The Trouble with TychoClifford Simak
    147. No. 232The Vampire Book That Will Not Die: How Academics Learned to Love I Am LegendRichard Matheson
    148. No. 234The WandererFritz Leiber
    149. No. 235The Weird Tales of H.P. LovecraftH.P. Lovecraft
    150. No. 236The White HotelD.M. Thomas
    151. No. 238The Witches of EastwickJohn Updike
    152. No. 239The Woman in BlackSusan Hill
    153. No. 245Time's ArrowMartin Amis
    154. No. 247Tribute to Samuel R. Delany on his 70th BirthdaySamuel R. Delany
    155. No. 250Vladmir Nabokov, Sci-Fi WriterVladimir Nabokov
    156. No. 252Warm Worlds and OtherwiseJames Tiptree, Jr.
    157. No. 253Were Ambrose Bierce's Ghost Stories InspiredAmbrose Bierce
    158. No. 254What Dreams May ComeRichard Matheson
    159. No. 255White is for WitchingHelen Oyeyemi
    160. No. 256Winter's TaleMark Helprin
    161. No. 257Wittgenstein's MistressDavid Markson

    About the book tarot

    Which books can the deck deal?

    Only books with a review in the library. The deck holds 258 cards, one for each reviewed book, drawn from the same catalogue as the author files and the genre shelves. When a new review joins the library, its card joins the deck at the next update of the site.

    Is the draw really random?

    Yes. Each deal shuffles the cards in play with a Fisher-Yates shuffle in the browser and lays out the first five. Nothing is weighted toward popular titles or recent reviews, and the order changes on every deal, so the same card can turn up twice in a row only by chance.

    What do the suits mean?

    The five suits are the library's genre shelves: alternate histories, reality and simulation, first contact, posthuman futures and social systems. Books that sit on none of them belong to the open stacks, which account for 161 of the 258 cards. A book filed on two shelves shows the first on its face but can be dealt for either question.

    Can the deck be used without JavaScript?

    Yes. The complete deck is printed below the table, suit by suit, with every card linked to its review. Shuffling and dealing need JavaScript; choosing a card from the printed deck by any method you like, a die or a closed-eyes finger, works just as well.