For some reason, last night as I was falling asleep, I started wondering about the world's largest book. I have this huge board, 4 foot by 8 foot, in my studio and I was imagining how I would make it into a coptic-stitch bound book using rope. (Books were on my mind, I think, because I made two finished journals and two almost finished ones yesterday.) I asked Nick how big he thought the world's biggest book would be, and he, half asleep, muttered a number that seemed way too small. No, I said, I bet it's huge. Well, he said, I'm sorry, but I'm too tired to look. I wasn't going to get up to research it either, and figured I'd probably forget all about it by morning. And I did. But Nick didn't.
So what do you think? How big is the world's biggest book? According to Nick's research, this is it:
Source: http://www.luxuo.com/events/worlds-biggest-atlas-book-fair-frankfurt.html |
Second in line to the atlas is Bhutan, a book published by Michael Hawley of the MIT Media Lab in 2003.
Source: http://www.lib.washington.edu/specialcoll/exhibits/bhutan/book1.jpg |
"Bhutan: A Visual Odyssey Across the Last Himalayan Kingdom" weighs in at more than 130 pounds and stands at five by seven feet, nearly as big as a Ping-Pong table. The book features more than 100 pages of spectacular images of a country often referred to as "the last Shangri-la," and showcases a variety of new digital, photographic and printing techniques.The rest of the MIT press release details the making of the book and is definitely worth a read.
The third largest book, 2nd largest atlas, is the Klencke Atlas, which was presented to Charles II of England on his restoration.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/jan/26/klencke-atlas-british-library-exhibition |
Here's an interesting entry on Wikipedia about the world's largest stone book, which stands upright and resides in the Kuthodaw Pagoda in Myanmar. It's not the type of book I was thinking about when I thought about giant books, but it's still worth a read! (The entry I mean, not sure about the book!)
Stop back tomorrow and we'll talk about books at the opposite end of the spectrum! How small do you think a book can be?
I had the opportunity to see that book, BHUTAN. Astounding. And who wants to dust something that large? hehehehehe
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