You have always felt pretty interested in myths and legends, drawn to the cryptids and creatures that populate stories from all over the world. Even as a kid you had a shelf full of books about greek and norse mythology and in college you loved your brief elective course on those topics before ending up getting a very sensible degree that has afforded you a comfortable life. But today, with the sun streaming into this beautiful new library you felt a little like a kid again. A kid discovering a strange new place full of potential. You let your feet follow your heart and hopes through the crowds and shelves. As you moved you realized that the shelves, grouped into strange and unusual categories, have also been decorated and redesigned to fit the themes of their categories. The Alien Visitors section is all chrome and glowing green light but you move quickly to the "Creature Features" section.
The shelves are dark hardwood bound with brass and the end of each has a wooden torch, topped with a fabric flame illuminated by orange and yellow-LEDs. It looks somehow both expensive and cheap and has the charm of a theme party. You glance past the torches down the aisles and see that there are marble busts joining the hundreds of books on the shelves and glass cases holding grecian urns and other artifacts. Rather than people each and every piece depicts a strange or mythical creature. The granite floor here has been covered in a thick carpet that has been patterned with mythical creatures all chasing each other down the length of the aisle. A dragon chases a minotaur, who in turn races after a harpy, and so on all down the aisle between the shelves. You examine the books nearest you and see that they are not grouped by culture - as are most of the books you have seen, but rather each is devoted to a particular kind of mythical monster or creature. The titles and authors are strange as well, entirely unfamiliar and spanning all sorts of genres and languages. Many seem to have titles constructed more for their labored puns than for any sense of clarity.
Your finger traces along the shelf until it stops at a particular title that has drawn your eye, and you decide to check out...