Incredible Book World Records

There’s something very sweet and nostalgic about World Records. Novel, entertaining, and honestly, rather silly; I like reading up on them for the simple reason that anything that offers relief from the pressures of everyday life in 2022 is a gift. Pondering random and humdrum things such as; “What’s the longest book ever written?” Or “What’s the largest litter of puppies ever birthed?” is a playful and healthy time out from adulting.

So in case you are like me, and you need a palate cleanser from mainstream news, I happily present to you some pretty cool Book World Records. Besides for simple entertainment, these will likely be of no use real to you-which is exactly the point. (Unless you are at your local pub’s trivia night and the category just happens to be “wacky book world records”, in that case, you are most welcome!)

The First eReader

The Rocketbook was the very first eReader created by Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning in 1997. Rocketbook has the distinction of being the first eReader, but in the late 1990’s many others were getting on board, such as EveryBook’s “EveryBook Reader” and launched “the Millennium eBook”, launched by Librius.(goodereader.com) 

The screen was 5.4″ (320×240) and was able to be calibrated and orientated to all four directions. One needed to use  a serial cable (not USB) to load content onto the 4MB or 16 MB of Flash storage. It did not have a card slot. It allowed for underlining and adding notes, as well you had the option to bookmark and change font size.

Smallest Books in the World

The delicate “Flowers of four seasons” book measures just 0.74 x 0.75 mm (0.0291 x 0.0295 in). According to Guinness World Records, only 250 copies of it were printed by Toppan Printing Co., Ltd Printing Museum (Japan), from April to December 2012.

“This microbook… presents twelve flowers found during the four seasons in Japan with sections for each of spring, summer, autumn and winter, and the pages feature pictures of flowers together with the corresponding names. There are four types of characters used in this book. These are Japanese hiragana and katakana characters, Chinese characters, and Roman characters. On four of the book’s pages, extremely small hidden text is printed within the picture. The width of the lines of this text is just 10 microns (one micron is one-thousandth of a millimeter). This is probably the smallest text that has been printed.” (Toppan Printing Co.)

Another notably cool tiny book is the world’s smallest Qur’an.

This amazing Qur’an measures in at 1.7cm (0.66 in) long, 1.28cm (0.5in) wide and 0.72 cm (0.28in) thick. This palm sized version was published in Cairo, Egypt and is currently kept in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. In 2004, the owner, Dr. Beebani, a Pakistani physician, was honoured by the Guinness World Records, as reported by Arab news. This edition is remarkable in not only for its beauty, but that it’s a fully functioning book. It’s 527 pages long, and each page has 18 lines delicately scribed by calligrapher Ali Usman. To enjoy this treasure, all one needs is a really good magnifying glass and the ability not to accidently squash it when to reading.

The Most Expensive Book ever sold (Private auction)

According to historian Kathleen Scott, the Sherborne Missal is an “unrivalled masterpiece of English book production in the fifteenth century.” Created at the Sherborne Abbey in Dorset, UK, in the early 15th century, this richly-illuminated liturgical text was sold for $24,560,000 US dollars to the British Library in 1998. According to Guinness World Records, the British Library was able to acquire this rare gem when Ralph Percy, the 12^th Duke of Northumberland, needed to sell the manuscript from the families personal library as part of a deal to settle the taxes due on his late father’s estate. According to records, this massive book sale didn’t cover all the taxes, but it did make a good-sized dent in the dept. Please forgive my ignorance, as I don’t own an “estate”, or books worth millions of dollars, but I can’t help but wonder if owning a property which accumulates taxes over $25,000,000 is a good investment after all?

The Largest Pop-Up Book in the World

At 4.52 m x 5.51 m (14 ft 9 in x 18 ft 0.8 in) the largest pop-up book  was achieved by the Literature, Publishing & Translation Commission (Saudi Arabia) and Riyadh International Book Fair 2022 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on 2 October 2022.

“The Literature, Publishing & Translation Commission and Riyadh International Book Fair wanted to break this record in order to shed light and emphasize the importance of books in the educational world. They broke the record inside the Book Fair at the kids area to attract children’s attention on books. The book serves as a remembrance of the Kingdom’s ancient heritage as well as the traditional ”Ardha” dance. The Book Fair wanted to showcase this book as a symbol of power and a tool for kids to be more interested in traditional history and culture.” (guinnessworldrecords.com)

The Most Expensive Comic Ever Sold

 

The most expensive comic ever sold was Action Comic #1. In 2011 this particular copy which belonged to actor and comic book collector Nicolas Cage, was sold for 2.16million dollars breaking the two million dollar mark with its “astounding CGC rating of 9.0, this comic sets the bar for the highest price ever paid for a comic.” (dacardworld.com) This comic is iconic as it was the official debut of cherished superhero-Superman as well as setting the stage for Superman’s home planet of Krypton.

The Book that’s not a Book

 

ONEPIECE is part conceptual art project and part publishing stunt. It reimagines and reconfigures Eiichiro Oda’s 25-year running Japanese manga of the same title and was launched on September 7th 2022. Created by artist Ilan Manouach, “ONEPIECE exists only as an object of pure speculation.” According to the Smithsonian, Manouach wanted to create a sculpture that comments on “the commodification of comic books”. Essentially, this project was to highlight how today’s comics exist as products (The Guardian).

This limited edition single volume of the long-running manga sold out within days. Only 50 signed and numbered copies were made and sold for $1,893 (€1,900) each.

Art is subjective, and it’s obvious this piece was coveted by the buyers who rushed to get a copy. Regardless of your impression and stance on conceptual art, and this piece in particular, its clear Manouach created something original here, and inadvertently offered an answer to a question no one thought to ask; “When is a book no longer a book?” Answer: when it’s impossible to lift, gives you carpal tunnel to hold, and costs more than your monthly rent?