Man who types books backwards finally pens story of his own inspired by his pet dog
A man who breaks records by painstakingly typing books out backwards has written a story of his own, inspired by his beloved pet dog.
Michele Santelia (Italy) extended his record for most books typed backwards to 84 in February.
The accountant has claimed the record numerous times, starting back in 2007. By that point, he’d typed out 64 books.
Now, the dad-of-three has written a book of his own, The Man and the Brilliant Little Dog, which is dedicated to his own pup, Maya.
Michele and his dog Maya
Describing the story, he told us: “There is a man who has no name, no distinct face - it is me, but it could be anyone.
“He is a shadow walking through the streets of life, silent and reflective, full of emotions and questions. A man who seems resolute, yet through his own frailties represents all of us - our weaknesses, our impulses, our thirst for love and meaning.
“A man who has learnt that often the human world alone is not enough to fill our inner voids: too many misunderstandings, too much superficiality, too much indifference.
“And then there is her: Maya, the Brilliant Little Dog. Not a shadow, not an indistinct presence, but a living, luminous, tangible being.
Cover of The Man and the Brilliant Little Dog
“With her bright eyes and pure heart, Maya has become the companion, guide, and heroine of my story - a tale that tastes both of life and of legend.”
He’s currently in the process of having his book published.
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Michele has also been working on another story, Towards the Beyond: Odyssey at the Boundaries of Reality, which he says is “an immersive, ambitious and visionary project, composed of 18 adventures that trace a symbolic, dreamlike and profoundly human journey through the remotest territories of imagination and history”.
Cover of Towards the Beyond: Odyssey at the Boundaries of Reality
He added: “This journey also takes shape through 1,530 slides, animated with evocative images, photographs, sounds and music designed to amplify every emotion and reflection.
“This volume is therefore not merely a story: it is the written voice of a wider visual and sensory experience. It represents the literary dimension of a synaesthetic creation, conceived to stimulate both mind and heart, guiding the reader–viewer ‘towards the Beyond’: beyond the boundaries of reality, beyond the limits of ordinary perception, towards an elsewhere where each adventure becomes a mirror of the soul and a metaphor of our time.”
Michele started typing books backwards in the 1990s as a hobby.
He’s a great fan of Leonardo da Vinci and employs his mirror writing technique to type out the books, and he does it without even looking at the screen.
If that wasn’t difficult enough, Michele uses blank keyboards to type out the books.
Among the famous literary works he’s typed backwards are Romeo and Juliet, Cyrano de Bergerac, and the Egyptian Book of the Dead, which is one of the oldest documents known to mankind.
He’s written books in their original languages, including ancient ones such as hieroglyphics.
His works comprise over 36,000 pages and more than 5 million words.
Michele said: “I am able to write backwards while typing simultaneously on 16 blank computer keyboards, without seeing the monitor.
Michele with his latest work Platone e il Mito di Atlantide Backwards
“In this way, I can write 16 different texts at the same time, each in a different foreign language.
“I have always written backwards to challenge a world that, paradoxically, is upside down.”
His latest backwards work is Platone e il Mito di Atlantide Backwards, aka Plato and the Myth of Atlantis Backwards, which he dedicated to Italy’s President Sergio Mattarella and sent to him as a gift.