Hey there,

I have the small key. I have this infamous book, but I seriously can't figure out on how to use them together to unlock the book. Playthrougs on the internet were not helpful so far.

Please help! I'm dying of excitment over here for opening this certain book.

I had this bug, I think it was caused by trying to read the message you are told not to read. (He won't read it, but it appears to softlock my game.)

The process I used to solve this was:
1. Go to secret room
2. Talk to man
3. Get message and book
4. Go to other room
5. Get key from under carpet
6. PUT KEY IN ACTIVE ITEM SLOT
7. RE-ENTER SECRET ROOM

These last two are the ones that no walkthrough I found mentions adequately. "Put key in active item slot" means that if you right-click or tab you will see the small key in a picture at the top of the screen next to your other verbs. If everything is going right, as soon as you re-enter the secret room with the key in your use-item slot you will get a line of dialogue like "Hmm, what if I use this small key in the book?" Then just use the book.

Try not to punch your monitor because you spent a half-hour failing to use the key on book and the game just wouldn't let you while you kept screaming at it "WHY I CAN'T USE KEY ON BOOK YOU STUPID TENTACLED !@#$%"