36 Fun Facts About Books

An open book.

In celebration of Book Lovers Day (August 9th), we’ve compiled a list of 36 interesting facts about books.

Record-setting Books

You can’t have a list of interesting facts about books without including some of these gems.

1. The Earliest Work of LiteratureA flooded ancient temple.

The earliest known work of literature is an epic poem titled the Epic of Gilgamesh. The ancient poem is from Ancient Mesopotamia.

Because paper books did not exist at the time, the whole tale is told on 12 tablets. Today, the Epic of Gilgamesh is available on a digital tablet or e-reader. [Wikipedia]

2. The First Modern Novel

The Tale of Genji is the world’s first novel as we know it. Murasaki Shikibu, a noblewoman and lady-in-waiting, wrote the novel in 11th century Japan.

In the original edition, almost none of the characters had names and were referred to by titles and honorifics because of Heian-era Japanese court etiquette. [Wikipedia]

3. The First Published BookAn old German bible.

Johannes Gensfleisch zur Laden zum Gutenberg printed the first ever pressed book, the Gutenberg Bible, in 1453.

Gutenberg not only printed the revolutionary book, he invented the printing press himself.  The Gutenberg Bible and the Gutenberg press are considered to have ushered in a new era in human history. [Wikipedia]

4. The First Book Composed On a Typewriter

Mark Twain’s Life on the Mississippi (1882) is considered by historians to be the first fully typewritten manuscript sent to a publisher.  In Mark Twain’s 1904 autobiography, he misattributed this to The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, which typically ends on up on fact lists (like this one) instead. [University of Virginia]

The earth.

5. There Are Tons of Books Out There

An estimated 755,755 new books are published every year.  As of mid-2017, there are an estimated 134,399,411 total published books in the world.  That’s a lot of books. [Mental Floss]

6. The Largest Book Ever

The largest “book” in the world is located in Manday, Myanmar in Burma at the Kuthodaw Pagoda.  The collection of tablets bears the complete scripture of Theravāda Buddhism.

The Kuthodaw Pagoda features a collection of 730 marble tablets surrounding the base of its structures, double-sided with text. King Mindon Min built this large “stone book” in 1857. The giant tablets originally featured golden ink and precious stones. [Atlas Obscura]

7. The Largest Book Made of PaperUAE Mosque.

The world’s largest book made of paper is located in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.  It is five meters wide, 8.06 meters long, contains 429 pages and weighs over 3,000 pounds.

The Mshahed International Group created giant tome, titled This the Prophet Muhamed, and unveiled it in February 2012.[Guinness World Records]

8. The Largest Published Book

The largest book ever published in a conventional manner is a Brazilian copy of The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (who also happens to be a pioneer of the aviation world).

Thus extra large edition of The Little Prince measures 3.08 meters wide (opened) and 2.01 meters high. The Biannual Book Fair of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil featured the giant book in their September 2007 fair. [Guinness World Records]

9. The Longest Novel EverAn open book.

The world’s longest novel ever written is Remembrance of Things Past by Marcel Proust, or A la recherche du temps perdu in its native tongue (French).  The novel is estimated to have 9,609,000 characters. [Guinness World Records]

10. The Longest Audiobook Ever

The world’s longest audiobook, published in 2008, is almost five days long.

The audiobook consists of lectures from Takaaki Yoshimoto, a philosopher, poet and literary critic from Japan. The total runtime is 115 hours, 43 minutes. [Guinness World Records]

11. The Thickest Book Ever Published

The thickest book ever published, The Complete Miss Marple, is 12.67 inches wide and 4,032 pages long.  The Complete Miss Marple is a collection of 20 short stories and 12 mystery novels, by author Agatha Christie.

The protaganist, Miss Marple, is an old spinster who solves crimes. Sort of like the show Murder She Wrote, whose lead star had portrayed Miss Marple in the feature film The Mirror Crack’d four years before the series aired. [Guinness World Records]

12. The Most Expensive Book EverA case of money.

The most expensive book in the world is a first edition of the Bay Psalm Book, first printed in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1640.

One of the first books to be printed with a press in the New World is The Bay Psalm Book. The pioneering book entered production merely a couple decades after the Pilgrims arrived at Plymouth.

The Bay Psalm Book sold for $14,165,000 at a 2013 auction in New York. [Wikipedia]

13. The Largest Structure Made of Books

In June 2017, Argentine art icon Marta Minujin created a to-scale Parthenon made of banned books, plastic wrap, and metal grills.  However, instead of building it at the Acropolis in Athens, Minujin built it at a historic Nazi book burning site in central Germany.  The “Banned Book Parthenon” consisted of 100,000 copies of 170 titles.  [The Local DE]

14. The Best Selling Book in the World

The best selling and most read book in the world is still The Bible (Gideons International might have helped make this happen).

A bible.

Other Interesting Book Facts

Now that we’ve covered record-setters, here are some facts about books you might not have heard before.

Hotel sign

15. There is an Organization Dedicated to Hotel Bibles

Those bibles you find in hotel rooms are distributed by an organization called Gideons International, founded in 1899.  The organization exists for the sole purpose of distributing bibles.

As of 2015, Gideons International has distributed over 2 billion bibles and is estimated to distribute more than 2 bibles a second (that’s more than 7,200 an hour). [Wikipedia]

Many folks wonder whether you’re supposed to (or allowed to) take these bibles from the hotel room.  Although the bibles are intended for people to have access to when they visit a hotel room, Gideons International does not mind when people take them. [Quora]

16. The Gideons Bible Used to Get Mentioned in Rock n’ Roll

The Gideons Bible is a somewhat popular topic for classic rock musicians.  It’s been mentioned in songs by The Beatles (Rocky Raccoon), Jethro Tull (Locomotive Breath), Elton John (Jimmie Rodgers’ Dream) and even Bing Crosby (Bye Bye Baby).

Ancient ruins.

17. The Library of Alexandria, Greatest Library of the Ancient World

The Ancient Library of Alexandria, located in Alexandria, Egypt, was one of the largest libraries of the ancient world. Any books that came into the Port of Alexandria became library property and the library created a copy for the owner.  

The Library of Alexandria is estimated to have housed up to 400,000 scrolls of text, before a fire engulfed the collection.  The destruction of the Library of Alexandria is famed and romanticized as one of the greatest historical cultural losses to mankind. [Wikipedia]

18. The Library of Congress, Greatest Library of the Modern World

The current largest library in the world is the United States Library of Congress, which houses more than 38 million books.  James Madison originally conceived the library and President John Adams established it as a resource for congress in 1800 through an act of legislation.A US Flag.

After the original Library of Congress established by President Adams, invading British troops destroyed it during the War of 1812. Thomas Jefferson then replaced the burnt-down library with his personal collection of books.

Thomas Jefferson had a much more eclectic collection of books than the original Library of Congress, even containing cookbooks.  After being replaced with Jefferson’s diverse collection, the Library of Congress has become the de facto national library of the United States. [Wikipedia]

19. Books Must Be Sent to the Library of Congress By Law

Pretty much all books that are published in the United States must be sent to the Library of Congress, due to the US Copyright Act’s mandatory deposit provisions.  Not just any copies either, the law stipulates that two copies the “best edition” must be sent in – which typically means the nicest hardcover edition.

Noncompliance with this law can earn fines of $250 – $2500 plus the cost of obtaining two copies of the book in question. [IP Tech Blog]

Book with a flower in it.

20. Liking the Smell of Books is a Recognized Thing, There’s Even a Word for It

If one of the first things you do when you get a new book is smell the pages, you’re not alone.  The act of smelling books is called “bibliosmia”, it’s actually pretty common.

21. The Chemical Reaction Behind the Smell of Old Books

Some people particularly love the smell of old books.

“Old book smell” is produced by the breakdown of two chemical components in paper, cellulose and lignin.  The byproducts of this process are toluene and ethylbenzene (which produce a sweet odor), vanillin (which produces a vanilla odor), benzaldehyde and furfural (which produce an almond odor), and 2-ethylhexanol which produces a flowery odor. [Science ABC]

22. “Old Book Smell” Can Be Used for Historical Dating

Much like with carbon-dating, scientists can analyze the chemicals responsible for “old book smell” to determine the age of a book.  The process is called “material degradomics”. [Wired]

A stack of books.

23. Buying Books and Not Reading Them is Also a Thing

The Japanese word Tsundoku means “to let reading materials pile up in one’s home and never read them”.  It sounds pretty noble when you frame it as an ancient art.

24. In January 2017, Amazon Sold Out of Physical Copies of 1984

In January 2017, two of the biggest trending topics in the media were “fake news” and “alternative facts”.  This inspired consumers to buy every physical copy of 1984 from Amazon, the world’s largest online retailer, by the end of the month.  Amazon did not get more newly printed copies in stock until February 3rd. [Gizmodo]

25. Medieval Books Came With Curses

Fire and brimstone.

Before Gutenberg invented the printing press, books had to be written and copied by hand. This job usually fell to monks because most of the literate people in Europe were clergy.

Transcribing a book could take years, making it a serious vocation. This made the handwritten books a significant representation of the scribe’s lifework and worth defending. To protect these valuable tomes, monk-scribes would place a wide variety of curses inscribed at the beginning and end of the handwritten tomes.

Medieval book curses involved punishments such as being mutilated by demonic swords, the gouging of eyes, and bookworms eating away at the entrails of thieves. Some curses even involved book turn into a serpent in the hands of those who borrow and do punctually not return them.

Most curses, however, simply involved excommunication (being expelled from the Catholic Church, with an implied sentence to hell). [Atlas Obscura]

26. In Addition to Curses, Medieval Books Had Chains

Most reference libraries in the Middle Ages (and some up to the 18th century) would have chains attaching books to their shelves to prevent theft. The chain would typically be placed on the corner of cover of the book. The book would be placed in the shelf with the pages facing outwards. [Wikipedia]

A boot in a horse straddle.

27. “Packhorse Librarians” Were the Bookmobiles of the Great Depression

During the Great Depression, Franklin D. Roosevelt created the Pack Horse Library Initiative as one of his New Deal programs.

Librarians would ride on horseback into the Appalachian mountains to provide books and literacy to the mountain-folk of Kentucky. However, Appalachian mountain people were often distrustful of strangers.

In order to gain the trust of suspicious mountain families who did not take kindly to outsiders, book carriers would sometimes read bible passages to prove that they were not a threat. [Smithsonian Magazine]

Portland, Oregon

28. There is a Bookstore in Oregon That Takes Up a City Block

Powell’s City of Books (founded by Walter Powell) takes up a whole city block in Portland, Oregon.  The megastore has about 1.6 acres (68,000 square feet) of retail floor space. [Wikipedia]

29. Harry Potter is the Most Banned Book of the 21st Century (US)

According to the American Library Association, the Harry Potter series was the most banned and challenged book for the years 2000-2009.  Interestingly, most instances take issue with the series’ depictions of witchcraft and wizardry. [American Library Association]

30. Charles Dickens Had a Novelty Bookcase Filled With Fake Books

Charles Dickens, author of Oliver Twist and A Tale of Two Cities, had a bookcase in his house filled with fake books with comical names.  This bookcase functioned as a secret door, much like in a mystery novel or Scooby Doo episode. [FlavorWire]

A cat

Some of the titles included:

  • King Henry the Eighth’s Evidences of Christianity (5 volumes)
  • Jonah’s Account of the Whale
  • The Lives of a Cat (9 volumes)
  • History of the Middling Ages (6 volumes)
  • The Art of Cutting Teeth

31. Almost Three Quarters of Americans Read Books

Most people in the United States read books.  According to a 2016 survey, 73% of Americans have read a book in any format within the last year. 65% of those people have read a physical, print book. [Pew Statistics]

Someone reading a book from a tablet.

32. Alternative Book Formats Are Getting More Popular

Of all the Americans surveyed who read books:

  • 28% had read an e-book (a book on a screen)
  • 13% from a cell phone
  • 14% of people surveyed had listened to an audio book. [Pew Statistics]

The Benefits of Reading

It’s common knowledge that reading is good for you, but did you know how good?  The following factoids about books might convince you to pick up a gook book to read for your health.

A nice guy.

33. People Who Read Fiction Are Nicer

According to a 2017 study by Kingston University, there is a relationship between reading fiction and real-world social abilities.

People who read fiction are more empathetic, open minded to others’ viewpoints, more likely to demonstrate positive social behavior. [Research Gate]

34. Reading Books Can Help Prevent Alzheimer’s and Dementia

One way to help prevent Alzheimer’s and Dementia is to pick up a book.  People who engage in reading throughout their lives, and other mentally stimulating activities, typically have less beta-amyloid proteins and plaque in their brains (which are associated with Alzheimer’s). [Live Science]

35. Reading Can Relieve Stress

According to a study by the University of Sussex, reading can reduce stress levels by up to 68%.  Reading even outscored listening to music (61%) and having a cup of tea or coffee (54%) as a tool for stress relief. [The Telegraph]

A book being read with coffee.

36. People Who Read Live Longer

According to a study published in Social Science & Medicine, reading books for at least 30 minutes a day can increase one’s lifespan.

Researchers found that those who read books for half an hour or more a day had a 23 month survival advantage (live almost two years longer on average). [Science Direct]

Did we forget something?

If your favorite fact about books didn’t make the list, let us know what it is in the comments below!

About Zach H 15 Articles
Zach does marketing stuff for AnyPromo. His favorite food is Fettuccine Alfredo.

4 Comments

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