Here's the secret to handling any book with glaring omissions:
"There is no way of emending a confused book, but everything may be supplied in the case of books with omissions. For my own part, when I read one of the latter type I am not bothered a bit. What I do, on arriving at the end, is to shut my eyes and evoke all the things which I did not find in it. How many fine ideas come to me then! What profound reflections! The rivers, mountains, churches, which I did not find on the written page, all now appear to me with their waters, their trees, their altars; and the generals draw swords that never left their scabbards, and the clarion releases notes that slept in the metal, and everything marches with sudden soul. The fact is, everything is to be found outside a book that has gaps, gentle reader." —Machado de Assis, Dom Casmurro
