Ho hum...
OK.
I just dug out the book.
It does say it's fiction on the printing details page, but the thing is, I am hardly likely to read that before I begin reading a book.
On the back cover it says...
The Celestine Prophesy contains secrets that are currently changing our world. Drawing on the ancient wisdom found in a Peruvian manuscript, it tells you how to make connections between the events happening in your own life right now... and lets you see what is going to happen to you in the years to come.
Later on on the back cover it says that it is a guidebook that has the power to crystalize your perceptions of why you are where you are in life'
And so on.
So, anyway, it does say fiction in very small writing on the publishers page.
So maybe I was stupid thinking it was non fiction when I started, but there isn't anything obvious to the person who is not expecting to have to check the fine print.
I was interested in the Peruvian manuscript.
I wanted to know about it, and I remember he dawning realisation that there was no manuscript and there never had been...
So.
Should I wear the cone of shame?
Or am I just condemned to examine the publishing details of every book before I start reading it?
Also, I would like to point out that this book is never in the fiction section of bookshops, always in the 'mind, body, spirit' section, which lends it an air of veracity.
But whatever.
I said I'd check and I have.
Am I an idiot or would you have been fooled?