Ben Schott spends his time sifting vast quantities of information for his miscellanies, so it’s not surprising that his favourite book has very few words at all…

The Object Lesson by Edward Gorey

“Gorey is one of those authors for whom there’s that instant gleam of recognition: if you see it on the bookshelf of a complete stranger, you know you’re going to like them. Gorey was an illustrator who had a very idiosyncratic style. He wrote very dark and disturbing fairytales for adults. An ex-girlfriend introduced me to his work and that’s one of the many reasons I have to be grateful to her.”