Once touted as compendiums of human knowledge, the encyclopedias and handbooks of bygone eras now read quaintly, if not comically'yet within their musty pages are often found phrases of uncanny evocative power. Scrupulously stitching such fragments together, in a sequel to the Governor General's Award-winning Forms of Devotion, By the Book is a collection of verbal and visual collages, whose alchemies transform long-dead texts into stories of enduring vitality. With her visually wittyfull-colour artwork and stories like What is a Hat? Where is Constantinople? Who Was Sit Walter Raleigh? And Many Other Common Questions, Some With Answers, Some Without, and Consumptives Should Not Kiss Other People: A Handy Guide to the Care and Maintenance of Your Family's Good Health, Schomeperlen's irreverent and ironic brand of nostalgia combines vintage kitsch with comic, creepy unexpectedly moving yarns.