I got a birthday present, yesterday.
A friend (author Alex Girola, of Plutonia Experiment) sent me a copy of Brenda Rosen’s The Mythical Creatures Bible.

The book is a wonderful, compact, brick-like volume about… well, about Mythical Creatures. All of them, more or less. Sort of an almost-pocket guide to things of folklore and legend. It’s beautifully illustrated with both original artwork and reproductions of ancient images, and it features a global selection of beings.
I’ve only been able to browse it so far, but the entries are succinct but suggestive, and the book, apart from being absolute eye-candy, is also the sort of quick reference one might need while writing fiction.
As I said in the past, if novel writing requires cartloads of research, playing fast and loose when writing short stories is perfectly OK.
And books like these are a treasure trove of go-to information.

So, great gift.
Thank you Alex!