The Book That Read You

In 1923, an unnamed librarian in Prague catalogued a book bound in mirrored glass, titled Speculum Animae — The Mirror of the Soul. Unlike other tomes, its pages were blank until opened. The words that appeared were always written in the reader’s own handwriting, recounting secrets, regrets, and desires they had never confessed. Those who read it too long reported the text continuing beyond the pages, curling up their arms like tattoos. The librarian locked it away, but the book vanished during the Nazi occupation. Occasionally, rare book collectors whisper of a mirrored journal that writes itself in your voice — and erases the memory of reading