140 x 212mm, 88 pages, Colour printing, Perfect bound, Softcover, 2026

Imaginary Libraries of the Nintendo Entertainment System: A Directory is a concise study/reference work related to in-game libraries, that is, libraries depicted in video games. While in-game libraries aren't a new subject, this little book takes a different approach; notably given its focus on the Nintendo Entertainment System, and a consequent time period: 1986-1994 (the North American release of the NES until the issuing of its final game). The consideration of such libraries is rendered via a bibliographical hauntology, which takes as its forebears Tan Lin's indexing and bibliographical projects, Rachel Blau DuPlessis' drafts related to ghostly or incomplete books, Alec Finlay's anthology The Libraries of Thought and Imagination, and Craig Dworkin's The Perverse Library.

In the latter, Dworkin writes that "libraries are defined not by what they have on their shelves, but by what they exclude from them" as real and imaginary titles and categories proliferate in the inherent gaps of any collection. Dworkin's libraries are essentially imaginary constructs, housing a matryoshka-like spiraling of material and immaterial "books." Imaginary Libraries of the Nintendo Entertainment System posits that libraries portrayed in NES games are emblematic of such an arrangement, especially in the context of their intrinsic crudeness and anonymity.

The work concludes with a directory, which lists NES games that depict libraries, with instructions for how to "access" them. The work is complemented with screen captures of the libraries and illustrations by Eddie Hopely.

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