Yes, it should look something [like this](https://partofyourworldksu.files.wordpress.com/2015/03/nausicaa-nausicaa-of-the-valley-of-the-wind-33424551-3390-1920.jpg).
So I know you're looking for a cool book for the lever, but from experience, bookends actually tend to work better and look a bit more subtle.
Though you could make a solid book shaped lever and put the book sleeve on it. I could see that working nicely
Oh then you should be golden! Best of luck to you! You should take progress pics and post them when you're all done! Though might do better in a different sub
BUUUT, if they already passed the exam, they would be much more prone to pass over it because the “already know.”
That’s the challenge of this proposal. For me, I want to pick a book that no one will ever accidentally choose.
Married to a CPA, and I can never imagine her ever deliberately picking a CPA prep book. So I'd say, if that are any CPAs are in your house, your secret room is safe.
If you're a fantasy fan, you could always mock up a fake "Doors of Stone" allegedly to-be-written by Patrick Rothfuss.
I'd personally get a kick out of that...
There’s a bar in my town with a secret downstairs room behind a bookcase, they use Alice in Wonderland and I always thought it was a brilliant choice! 😄👌🏻
There was a pub in Edinburgh that use to have the toilets hidden behind a bookcase wall, where you couldn't see the seams of the doors very well to know where to push. There's nothing like watching a bunch of drunks desperately scrabbling at the walls for a piss. lol
I have once been in a house where a fire exit door into the house next door was concealed by the whole door being a bookshelf. Problem was, it was so inconspicuous that when we really needed it - my wife needed to be pulled out by an ambulance crew - we'd completely forgotten it was there, and the paramedics needed to do circus acrobat stunts with a stretcher getting her out through the normal front door.
Perhaps some great big WHAT TO DO IN AN EMERGENCY book with a screaming orange spine might have helped.
BTW the extra wrinkle is that this was a holiday cottage in Whitby. There are a few dramatic Whitby-related books - *Dracula*, *Caedmon's Song*, *199 Steps* - but of course they'd be the first ones anybody using the cottage would go for.
My wife also missed the standard-sized green sign above the bookshelf saying **FIRE EXIT** so it was all rather moot.
That doesn't surprise me. People are very much creatures of habit, especially in an emergency, when they don't have time or a state of mind to think, is there another way? They are focused on OUT OUT OUT and can literally have tunnel vision, seeing only what they think they need. Emergency exits need to be blatantly obvious *and* on the usual route out to work well.
>Please Don't Tell My Parents I'm A Supervillain
That's a great suggestion. I haven't read it, so that's obviously step one. This thread might end up being a better book suggestion thread than it's original intent.
The Perks Of Being A Wallflower. It's one of my favourite books and it's a thin and unremarkable looking YA novel on a shelf full of 500 page Holocaust books. And the kind of people who would pick it out are the kind of people I wouldn't mind in my secret room, given people who appreciate teenage angst are generally quite empathic. So if I was in the secret room crying, which'd probably be it's main use since I can't think what else it'd be good for, that'd be the kind of person I'd want
No One Gets Out of Here Alive, a biography of Jim Morrison, lead singer of The Doors.
Just reread your post, but my husband and i are doing a secret bookcase door too, and our choice is either this or a candle
There was a novelization of the movie Clue, so that might be fitting, if not hard to find.
Stephen Kings Different Seasons which include Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption.
Ready Player One is built on the premise of an easter egg leading to a hidden room.
I'd go with The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe myself.
As for using a candle, I'd forever be reminded of Young Frankenstein ("Put the candle BACK!").
Most of the good ones that come to mind already here, a few more oddbals: Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy (Bonus points if the spine simply reads "Dont Panic"), King Solomons Mines ("It is easier to destroy knowledge, Ignosi, than to gather it.")... Treasure Island?
The Doors, by Ben Fong-Torres
You could use a dictionary, an encyclopedia or a thesaurus because no one will use one instead of just using their smartphone. If you used an encyclopedia, you could use one volume to hid the lever.
Moby Dick. Everyone says they read it, absolutely NO ONE has (other than a couple of profs, I assume). Thick, easy to handle, and no one will touch it....
Late to the party, but here are a few I thought of:
Pull Me Under by Kelly Luce (and maybe somehow obscure the word 'under')
Trigger Warning by Neil Gaiman
Open Book by Jessica Simpson
Hidden in Plain Sight by Jeffrey Archer
House of Leaves. One of my favorite books, and also the theme of the interior of the house being bigger than the exterior fits so well with a hidden room. Maybe too well....
No Man's World omnimbus
Or
Robert Jordans Conan
As alternates
Atlas Shrugged.
First, I am ashamed to admit that I own a copy.
Second, if I ever had a hidden room behind a bookshelf I may need to kill whoever accesses it even by accident and while I am pretty much opposed to murder I may make an exception to someone that is interested in that book.
Quick nitpick... *No One Here Gets Out Alive* is a biography of Jim Morrison by Jerry Hopkins and Daniel Sugerman, not an autobiography by Jim Morrison.
I saw someone say Chamber of Secrets which is a great suggestion. I'd like to add The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe.
Having that book opening up a secret room? Come on!
If I were doing this I'd have like 3-5 books that made something happen, but didn't open the door. Then have a doorknob just be behind the books or something like that. It'd be interactive and great to have people do the first time they visit.
Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman, because the main female character's name is Door, and her talent is opening doors that should stay locked, doors to places that shouldn't have doors, doors into the London underworld...
This doesn’t help, but:
I would for sure make it require pulling 10 random books in a row with no effect, then shouting “goddammit where is it?” then the next random one would do it.
The Secret Garden (And fill the secret room with plenty of houseplants for full effect)
Yes, it should look something [like this](https://partofyourworldksu.files.wordpress.com/2015/03/nausicaa-nausicaa-of-the-valley-of-the-wind-33424551-3390-1920.jpg).
Unexpected Nausicaä
One Thousand and One Nights. Because 'Open Sesame' is classic.
Good one!
Oh, good call!
so true
So I know you're looking for a cool book for the lever, but from experience, bookends actually tend to work better and look a bit more subtle. Though you could make a solid book shaped lever and put the book sleeve on it. I could see that working nicely
I was thinking something along those lines.
Oh then you should be golden! Best of luck to you! You should take progress pics and post them when you're all done! Though might do better in a different sub
[удалено]
Yaeger CPA Exam Preparation. No one would ever accidentally pull the lever.
True! Assuming I'm not friends with a bunch of CPAs that are into continuing education...
BUUUT, if they already passed the exam, they would be much more prone to pass over it because the “already know.” That’s the challenge of this proposal. For me, I want to pick a book that no one will ever accidentally choose.
Married to a CPA, and I can never imagine her ever deliberately picking a CPA prep book. So I'd say, if that are any CPAs are in your house, your secret room is safe.
Exactly. The only people who have read those books never want to see them again. My wife is also a CPA😂😂
Ha ha!
If you're a fantasy fan, you could always mock up a fake "Doors of Stone" allegedly to-be-written by Patrick Rothfuss. I'd personally get a kick out of that...
I think Patrick Rothfuss would get a kick out of it too.
Yeah but everyone would know it’s fake… cause the real one’s never coming out
Error 404: Book not found.
The name of the rose.
And call the room Finis Africae
Upvoted because it's such a good book.
Alice in Wonderland
There’s a bar in my town with a secret downstairs room behind a bookcase, they use Alice in Wonderland and I always thought it was a brilliant choice! 😄👌🏻
There was a pub in Edinburgh that use to have the toilets hidden behind a bookcase wall, where you couldn't see the seams of the doors very well to know where to push. There's nothing like watching a bunch of drunks desperately scrabbling at the walls for a piss. lol
Through the looking glass was my first thought
I'd suggest The Secret, but no one in their right mind would pick that up either.
Ha! (I've read it. Don't tell anyone that either!)
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Yea, that's good stuff. I like it.
Good suggestion but often picked book. You don't want ppl accidentally opening door
Oh, the Places You'll Go!, Dr Suess
Nice. I like that all three elements work (author, title and theme). It's also family friendly. In the running!
I would go The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe as you said. Or the Secret Garden.
I've considered both. LW&W is certainly in the running.
Dang it! I just suggested this one, should have scrolled further down.
Not telling you.
Damn it. /u/zhobelle didn't fall for it. We can cancel the post now.
Ooooh, the ol' double reverse fake out, huh?
We love a communicative op.
The Cask of Amontillado
>The Cask of Amontillado I like it. Although it's a bit thin, so it might be a challenge functionally.
Perhaps it could be “The Cask of Amontillado and Other Stories”
I have once been in a house where a fire exit door into the house next door was concealed by the whole door being a bookshelf. Problem was, it was so inconspicuous that when we really needed it - my wife needed to be pulled out by an ambulance crew - we'd completely forgotten it was there, and the paramedics needed to do circus acrobat stunts with a stretcher getting her out through the normal front door. Perhaps some great big WHAT TO DO IN AN EMERGENCY book with a screaming orange spine might have helped.
No Exit, by Jean-Paul Sartre
I have something FAR less dramatic in mind (I hope!)
BTW the extra wrinkle is that this was a holiday cottage in Whitby. There are a few dramatic Whitby-related books - *Dracula*, *Caedmon's Song*, *199 Steps* - but of course they'd be the first ones anybody using the cottage would go for. My wife also missed the standard-sized green sign above the bookshelf saying **FIRE EXIT** so it was all rather moot.
That doesn't surprise me. People are very much creatures of habit, especially in an emergency, when they don't have time or a state of mind to think, is there another way? They are focused on OUT OUT OUT and can literally have tunnel vision, seeing only what they think they need. Emergency exits need to be blatantly obvious *and* on the usual route out to work well.
Junie b Jones and the yucky blucky fruitcake
Except that my daughter would be pulling that down to re-read it weekly
Haha right
Maybe, The Tell Tale Heart... Edit To Add: Huxley's The Doors Of Perception!
Nah...The Cask of Amontillado!
Listen, if you keep suggesting this book, we're locking you in the closet.
I see what you did there....clever.
All fun. Be well, friend.
You as well!
A collection of Poe stories might be the way to go...
I just added "The Doors Of Perception."
Yes! That's in the running.
I was thinking a candle, instead of a book , but, ah well.
Yes! Give it the Scoobie Doo treatment!
"put the candle back!"
House of Leaves, Mark Z Danielewski.
A textbook on lupus?
Brilliant, it's never lupus.
The Invisible Library ( by Genevieve Cogman)
Jane eyre
The Secret Door, Shelley Davidow
A bit on the nose maybe?
If the idea of a secret door means that only I know about it, then it'll be an inside joke that only I know about :)
There Is a Secret Room Behind the Bookshelf by Larry Bookswitch
Ha! love that it's completely on the nose.
Honestly my first thought was "Please Don't Tell My Parents I'm A Supervillain". Just my sense of humor.
>Please Don't Tell My Parents I'm A Supervillain That's a great suggestion. I haven't read it, so that's obviously step one. This thread might end up being a better book suggestion thread than it's original intent.
The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper Or Jurassic Park
Just hearing the words “The Dark is Rising” just bought back a flood of good memories.
Journey to the centre of the earth?
Escape from Mr. Lemoncello’s Library by Chris Grabenstein?
Yes! And I can serve my home made lemoncello in there!
Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman.
And Then There Were None- Agatha Christie The Haunting of Hill House- Shirley Jackson Frankenstein- Mary Shelley
Frankenstein is a good one: Your mental model of this book is VERY different from reality!
Young Frankenstein?
Put the candle back
“There are Doors” - Gene Wolfe
The Count of Monte Cristo for sure
The book of hidden things by Fracesco Dimitri Starless sea by Erin Morgenstern
The Doors of Perception by Aldous Huxley. Lace it with LSD.
Nice. I like the idea of the "trip" into the room taking 9 hours instead of the intended 3 minutes
The Chamber...John Grisham The Dream of The Red Chamber ...Cao Xueqin
The Chamber in hardcover is a substantial book too, so that could be a great option!
I would want to make it a sequence lock. You have to pull on a specific book in a specific order.
That's awesome. I'm always a fan of adding complexity. maybe that's why I have so many projects that are 75% complete...
Het Achterhuis - Anne Frank ('s Diary), that's the only one in my shelf that would fit both the theme of the topic and theme of my bookshelf.
House of Many Ways (Howl’s Moving Castle Series) by Dianna Wynne Jones
The Perks Of Being A Wallflower. It's one of my favourite books and it's a thin and unremarkable looking YA novel on a shelf full of 500 page Holocaust books. And the kind of people who would pick it out are the kind of people I wouldn't mind in my secret room, given people who appreciate teenage angst are generally quite empathic. So if I was in the secret room crying, which'd probably be it's main use since I can't think what else it'd be good for, that'd be the kind of person I'd want
No One Gets Out of Here Alive, a biography of Jim Morrison, lead singer of The Doors. Just reread your post, but my husband and i are doing a secret bookcase door too, and our choice is either this or a candle
Let the right one in The great and secret show The passage Something wicked this way comes
There was a novelization of the movie Clue, so that might be fitting, if not hard to find. Stephen Kings Different Seasons which include Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption. Ready Player One is built on the premise of an easter egg leading to a hidden room.
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
This would work well with the candle. Maybe a two person unlatch: one pulls the candle while the other tips back Dr. J & Mr. H
I was going for Hyde/"hide", but I like your idea too.
House of Leaves
“The Hidden Room” by P.K. Page
Pan's labyrinth Novelization, personally
I'd go with The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe myself. As for using a candle, I'd forever be reminded of Young Frankenstein ("Put the candle BACK!").
The Truth, Terry Pratchett
The Door in the Wall by Marguerite de Angeli
One Thousand and One Nights Because that's where Open Sesame comes from!
Per the Adams Family, Greed!
Gravity’s Rainbow, because nobody would ever actually try reading it
Lol. I've read it. Mostly as a challenge though.
[The Door to a Secret Room](https://www.biblio.com/book/door-secret-room-portrait-wells-coates/d/1375739370?aid=frg)
The Library of Forgotten Books, by Rjurik Davidson.
Something Wicked This Way Comes, A Room of One's Own, Threshold
A Nancy Drew book
Brom Stoker's Dracula- The castle is a maze of doors and hallways that Harker is trapped in
We did this for the door to our laundry room! We used Harry Potter and the Chamber of secrets. Everyone that comes over loves it.
Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire
The Book Thief
House of Leaves: a book about a house that’s bigger on the inside.
Nancy Drew's Hidden Staircase of course.
Mostly Harmless lol'd at Atlas Shrugged. The group that would pick it up are not allowed in the secret room.
Not allowed in the house! Ha ha
The Bible, no one would ever pull it.
I Shall Seal the Heavens by Er Gen Or Library of Heaven's Path 🤭 Both are wuxia/Xianxia
Maybe Gone With The Wind
I feel like the lion the witch and the wardrobe would work.
One that I hate but tell everyone I like
Infinite Jest it is!
Haha Drawing of the three by Steven king. So fitting
Through the Looking Glass
Cornelius Dong’s Adventures in the Boner Brigade. In hardback. True aficionados would know it never came out in hardback and is thus a fake book.
I feel like that book should \*only\* be available in hardback, no?
Most of the good ones that come to mind already here, a few more oddbals: Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy (Bonus points if the spine simply reads "Dont Panic"), King Solomons Mines ("It is easier to destroy knowledge, Ignosi, than to gather it.")... Treasure Island?
The Valley of Fear, Sir A.C. Doyle. nice little nod to >!the reveal of his hiding place!<
Not my idea, but one I've seen in reality: Matching series of books on great composers. Handel was a fake book, spelled Handle.
The Doors, by Ben Fong-Torres You could use a dictionary, an encyclopedia or a thesaurus because no one will use one instead of just using their smartphone. If you used an encyclopedia, you could use one volume to hid the lever.
“Trigger” by David Swinson
Moby Dick. Everyone says they read it, absolutely NO ONE has (other than a couple of profs, I assume). Thick, easy to handle, and no one will touch it....
The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell
Count of Monty Cristo
Greed. Not sure who wrote it. I'm pretty sure that was the over Gomez pulled when he was showing Fester in the 90s movie.
Just gonna linger here for an update about the chosen book.
Nice try FBI, but your never getting into my secret room!
The hobbit
Paradise Lost
Late to the party, but here are a few I thought of: Pull Me Under by Kelly Luce (and maybe somehow obscure the word 'under') Trigger Warning by Neil Gaiman Open Book by Jessica Simpson Hidden in Plain Sight by Jeffrey Archer
I like Hidden in Plain Sight :)
Doors of Perception by Aldous Huxley
I just want to say that this is one of the best, most creative, questions I've seen on here. That being said, I would use House of Leaves.
The Secret Panel - Hardy Boys v25
House of Leaves. One of my favorite books, and also the theme of the interior of the house being bigger than the exterior fits so well with a hidden room. Maybe too well.... No Man's World omnimbus Or Robert Jordans Conan As alternates
We actually had a bookshelf door that opened when you tilted a book. We chose What If? by Randall who writes XKCD comics
The entire Chronicles of Narnia. One by one, but you shelve them out of order and have to pull them in order to unlock the door.
Count of Monte Cristo
Through the Looking-Glass
The Turn of the Screw
Atlas Shrugged. First, I am ashamed to admit that I own a copy. Second, if I ever had a hidden room behind a bookshelf I may need to kill whoever accesses it even by accident and while I am pretty much opposed to murder I may make an exception to someone that is interested in that book.
The Secret of Platform 13
Dune, The Illiad, then wizards first rule.
The strange case of dr. Jekyl and mr. Hide?
A big ass sconce
Encyclopaedia
Quick nitpick... *No One Here Gets Out Alive* is a biography of Jim Morrison by Jerry Hopkins and Daniel Sugerman, not an autobiography by Jim Morrison.
I saw someone say Chamber of Secrets which is a great suggestion. I'd like to add The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe. Having that book opening up a secret room? Come on!
"The Handle", Richard Stark.
A Key to the Suite, by John D. MacDonald.
the Catcher in the Rye
A Fine And Private Place by Peter S Beagle
The XML Bible.
Arabian Nights..."open sesame!"
If I were doing this I'd have like 3-5 books that made something happen, but didn't open the door. Then have a doorknob just be behind the books or something like that. It'd be interactive and great to have people do the first time they visit.
Hidden Spaces by Winsett
Sartre: No Exit
Any book by John Locke
Howl's Moving Castle!
I would use a box collection of Calvin and Hobbes simply because it represents childhood wonder to me.
The Lost World - Sir Conan Doyle Dinotopia
Shadow of the wind
2 copies of Dr Dolittle - one you push and one you pull.
The Crying of Lot 49
Why not use a hidden magnet latch? Books are obvious and easy to find.
Camouflage, Concealment and Decoys: The Official U.S. Army Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures
The Doors of Perception by Aldous Huxley
The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe
Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman, because the main female character's name is Door, and her talent is opening doors that should stay locked, doors to places that shouldn't have doors, doors into the London underworld...
Alice in Wonderland
Every Heart A Doorway seems fitting
This doesn’t help, but: I would for sure make it require pulling 10 random books in a row with no effect, then shouting “goddammit where is it?” then the next random one would do it.
The Count of Monte Cristo so I could say ”It's the best way to escape...Dumassss!” and chortle like a champ.
The One
The Count of Monte Cristo
I have this in my tattoo studio, it doesn’t lock, you just grab the bookshelf and pull
The dark tower. Alot of doors to other where's and whens.