There's something undeniably creepy about big, expansive libraries. The hushed whispers, the almost artificial quiet, and the smell of dusty tomes combine to create a surreal experience. But when it comes to creepy libraries, Harvard University might take the cake... you see, at least two of its books are bound in human skin.

A few years ago, three separate books were discovered in Harvard University's library that had particularly strange-looking leather covers. Upon further inspection, it was discovered that the smooth binding was actually human flesh... in one case, skin allegedly harvested from a man who was flayed alive. Yep, definitely the creepiest library ever....

"The (test result) from Des destinées de l’ame matched the human reference, and clearly eliminated other common parchment sources, such as sheep, cattle and goat," said Harvard Laboratory director Bill Lane.

According to Director of University Libraries Sidney Verba '53, there are almost certainly more of the human flesh-books out there, probably even in its own library, but while it's possible to touch the one confirmed and two possible skin-books in Harvard's rare book room, the librarians aren't exactly fond of all the attention they've received lately (even inciting a few tepid responses to this very post). In fact, they've made it a point to downplay their ownership of the real flesh-bound books in favor of reminding the media that one of them is fake. Nice try.