Huge disclaimer: I have not read this book, and I will surely revise this blurb when I have read it. I am a huge fan of Caillois, however, and it's great that these books are now available (I haven't read them because I couldn't find them!). I think Caillois will come to be known as an amazing thinker by English readers, sooner or later...hopefully sooner. His book "The Writing of Stones" is an almost comically profound meditation on nature and our role in it. He has the ability to make you feel yourself as infintesimal and gargantuan at the same instant, often with one brilliant turn of phrase. A truckload novelists and poets have spent, are spending, and will spend their lives attempting to create such feelings of awe with their words....

Well, I hope that one gets the reprint treatment too.

If it matters to you, Caillois was an associate of George Bataille and a fellow member of The College of Sociology in the 30s. His ideas are similar to those of Bataille, but Caillois comes from an anthropological and scientfic background, whereas Bataille was a medieaval librarian...enough said. I found Caillois after reading Cioran's great essay about him in his book "Anathemas and Admirations." I recommend reading that if I have not managed to muster your interest.