"Diseasemaker's Croup" by Neil Gaiman. ★★/5.

This was a lot of fun. From the entries to the historical review, to the notes on each author. By the time you get to the end you feel like Dr. Gaiman and Dr. Mieville and all the others actually exist (and I guess they do, kinda), but especially Dr. Lambshead. He becomes a legendary figure like Allan Quartermaine or Captain Nemo.Makes a great bathroom book because the entries are short (mostly). I was sad that half of the pages dis-attached from the binding after reading it for a week or two, h...

Book Info: Genre: Medical Guide Satire/Speculative fiction shortsReading Level: AdultRecommended for: Anyone who likes a laughMy Thoughts: If you want to know what sort of lunacy to expect from this book, here is just a tiny taste. Discussing Ballistic Organ Syndrome: “In rare cases, the Ballistitis virus infects the patient's entire body. Eventually, some event causes one or more cells to rupture, after which the patient's body is disrupted in an explosive ejection of all bodily organs. This m...

Why I didn't finish this: I thought this would be really cool, but it ended up not being really interesting--just various writers writing descriptions of weird diseases. More like flash fiction than short stories, and not a format that intrigued me.

This is exactly the kind of thing I should love, but unfortunately the execution is pretty stultifying. I just can't slog through this right now. Lovely printing, though.

Jeff Vandermeer founder of genre "New Weird" brings all the weirdos together to update the chapbooks and pocket guides of Thackeray T. Lambshead's discredited diseases.An all star cast of authors such as; Neil Gainman, Alan Moore, Cory Doctorow. to name a few and some of my favorites Brian Evenson, Paul Di Filippo, and Steve Aylett. Of all 56 contributers they all put weird sickness on the pages.My Favorites:-Chronic Zygotio Dermis Disorder-Fungal Disenchantment-Fuseli's Disease-Hsing's Spontane...

A very strange volume… allegedly a guide, as the title states, to bizarre diseases, this book has contributions from some of the top names in the business (Neil Gaiman, Michael Moorcock, China Mieville, Kage Baker, etc), but the entries aren’t really (quite) stories…Each author has made up a disease, syndrome or ailment, and prepared a short (most are 2-4 pages) entry regarding this ailment, its history and symptoms. The imaginary diseases range from the funny to the truly disturbing and grotes

This is probably the paradigmatic example of the category I call "unreliable reference" . . . Jeff Vandermeer and his circle of weirdos got together and decided to write stories in the surprisingly fecund format of a diagnostic guide to diseases. Since said circle includes such luminaries as Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman, Michael Moorcock, and the underrated but astounding Michael Cisco, the maladies in this book are sometimes so perfectly True that you may find yourself infected. Thankfully, the edit...

Personally, the most interesting thing about this book is its very existence. Of course, VanderMeer isn't the type to include true biographical details, so we may never know the story of its creation.Where else can you find China Mieville, Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman, Jeff VanderMeer, Michael Moorcock and ahost of other authors new to me, but clearly talented and odd as their company suggests.In a practical sense, it's not really a good book to read cover-to-cover. It is a faux textbook, essentially...

An eccentric conceit and an amusing book. Mostly lightweight, largely self-indulgent although some entries tap into a more ominous or genuinely fantastic vein. Still, this is one you'd want to buy a cheaper edition of unless you're some sort of book fetishist or new weird fanboy.

This is a fun, weird book. A collaborative book where different writers submitted imaginary diseases fro a medical guide coordinated by the fictitious and mysterious Dr. Thackery T. Lambshead. It is however more interesting as an idea than as an actual book to read. Some of the diseases are really cool, and they all have an usually fun description relating the symptoms, the first known case, the history of the disease and possible cures. The illustrations are also suitably weird. Some of my favo...

SO WEIRD. I read some of this before and it ended up in *that* pile so years later I figured it was time for a reread/finish. It's eh. Some bits are fun (not nearly as many as there ought to be), some are bad, some are seriously dated. I find the intentionally pompous tone of many of the entries grinding. It's more surreal where there were opportunities to be truly incisive. Given what it is, fair amount of body horror.I think the best aspects are the typography, it's a fun looking book, and Dow...

I just want to read the Neil Gaiman contribution really. I don't even know the title of the bit he wrote.

Purporting to be the latest edition of a long-standing medical guide, Lambshead is, in reality, an anthology featuring several of today's best fantasists working at the top of their game. Some entries are humorous, others are serious, but all are enjoyable. There's a sense of fun to this book that's quite...well...infectious.Editors VanderMeer and Roberts have assembled a stellar crew of cohorts, and everyone is clearly on the same page. The internal references in the various entries to Dr. Lamb...

On Monday, I was happily browsing the library, trying to find a series in which I forgot the title and author but knew the general location it was at. And did I mention that this was before the library re-arranged the shelves? Well, one pleasant find was this book: The Pocket Guide to Eccentric & Discredited Diseases edited by Jeff Vandermeer & Mark Roberts.When I got home, I realised that it was like an anthology (many authors) which include Neil Gaiman and Mieville China. My reaction? -> O.O T...

I resent this book

Given that "homosexuality" is now an eccentric and discredited disease, I was hoping for more edgy social commentary along the same lines. Nothing doing. This is weird and sometimes chuckle-worthy, but on the whole it seems the writers creating it are having more fun than us, the readers.

I had a nasty cold last week, and spent a couple of days in bed, in a NyQuil haze: it seemed like an appropriate time to crack open this little volume of delectably deranged stories. Constructed as a medical guide satire, the "Thackery T. Lambshed Pocket Guide to Eccentic & Discredited Diseases" is what happens when you get a bunch of lunatic New Weird writers and ask them to pretend to be doctors: it's gross, funny, quirky, morbid and very entertaining… if exploding organs are your idea of a ch...

This book is exactly what the title suggests with contributions from Neil Gaiman, Michael Moorcock, Alan Moore, China Miéville, Jeffrey Ford, Kage Baker and many others. Where else could you read about post-traumatic placebosis, female hyper-orgasmic epilepsy, or vestigial elongation of the caudal vertebrae?

This is silly and cute and a pretty fun read. The book is an anthology of imaginary diseases invented by a slew of sci-fi and fantasy writers. A few are priceless, and I was not surprised at all that Michael Moorcock and Neil Gaiman wrote most of the reports that were the funniest and most inventive. It's not an Earth-shattering good book, but it's nice way to pass the time here and there. Toss if on your coffee table and read a disease or two a day.