How much do we know about the books themselves and their authors? We have collected the most interesting and curious facts about books. The most expensive, longest, readable and unusual books in the world.
Google has counted the number of all fiction, journalistic and scientific works in the world. It turned out that the total number of books on Earth is 129,864,880.
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One of the most unusual books in the world is Dante's Divine Comedy, written by the Benedictine monk Gabriel Chelani on a sheet of paper measuring 80 x 60 cm. map of Italy. Chelani spent four years on this work.
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One of the largest royalties was paid to the poet Oppian by the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius. For each line of his two poems about fishing and hunting, he received a gold coin. The total number of lines in the two poems was twenty thousand.
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One of the most expensive books in the world is the Code of Leicester by Leonardo da Vinci. This scientific treatise on "water, earth and celestial bodies" is printed in mirror type, therefore, in order to read it, you must be sure to arm yourself with a mirror. The owner of Codex Leicester is currently Bill Gates, who purchased the book for twenty-four million dollars.
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The most expensive book is currently considered the unique "Apocalypse", published by the Frenchman Joseph Fauré. The book is valued at 100 million old francs. She is exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in Paris.
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"The One's Deepest Secrets of the Art of Medicine" is the title of a sealed 100-page book that was found among the belongings of the famous Dutch doctor Hermann Boerhave after his death in 1738. The book was auctioned off for $ 10,000 in gold. After the seal was opened, the pages were found to be blank. Only on the title page was the inscription: "Keep your head in the cold, your feet warm, and you will make the poor man the best doctor."
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Literary scholars estimate that in Shakespeare's books the word "love" is mentioned 2,259 times, while "hate" is pronounced only 229 times.
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Among the most read books in the world, the first place, undoubtedly, belongs to the Bible. Its total circulation is six billion copies. In second place is Mao Zedong's quotation book, and third place went to "The Lord of the Rings".
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When you read about yawning, you start yawning yourself.
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In the past, books were stacked the other way around, with the spine against the wall and the front edge facing out.
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Research shows that 4-6 years is the most favorable age for teaching a child to read. After 6-7 years, it is more difficult to teach to read.
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On average, people spend 6.5 hours a week reading.
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According to a Yale University study, three-quarters of students who can't read well in third grade will stay that way in high school.
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It takes an average of 475 hours to write a novel.
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Among the books that were written or conceived behind bars are Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes, The Pilgrim's Journey by John Bunyan, Prison Confessions by Oscar Wilde, The Sovereign by Nicolo Machiavelli.
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In public libraries in medieval Europe, books were chained to shelves. Such chains were long enough to take a book off the shelf and read, but did not allow the book to be taken out of the library. This practice was widespread until the 18th century, which was due to the great value of each copy of the book.
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On average, a bookstore shopper spends eight seconds looking at the front cover and 15 seconds looking at the back.
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Half of all books sold today are bought by people over the age of 45.
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Adults who regularly read literature are more than two and a half times inclined to engage in volunteer or charity work, and more than one and a half times inclined to take part in sports events.
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Most readers lose interest in the page 18 book.
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The longest group reading aloud marathon lasted 224 hours and was concluded by Milton Nain, Silvina Carbone, Carlos Anton, Edith Diaz, Yolanda Baptista and Natalie Dantaz at the Mac Mall in Paysandu, Uruguay, September 13-22, 2007.
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Penguin paperbacks were created to make books as accessible as cigarettes, and the first “Penguin” paperbacks were distributed in the church.
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A biblioleptomaniac is a person who steals books. One of the most famous biblioleptomaniacs is Stephen Bloomberg, who stole over 23,000 rare books from 268 libraries. Bloomberg used a variety of methods to put together his collection, which is estimated at about $ 20 million, sometimes sneaking into the library through a ventilation system and even an elevator shaft.
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The term bookworm comes from tiny insects that feed on the spines of books.
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Not only humans were prisoners of the Bastille. Once the famous French Encyclopedia, compiled by Diderot and D'Alembert, was imprisoned. The book was accused of harming religion and public morality.
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The largest dictionary in the world is Deutsches Wortetbuch, begun by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm in 1854. It was completed in 1971. The dictionary, which amounted to 34519 pages, was published in 33 volumes. Today the dictionary is worth 5425 German marks. The largest dictionary of the English language is the 20-volume The Oxford English Dictionary. It has 21,728 pages.
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The oldest printed work is the Dharani Scroll, or Sutra. The text was printed from wooden blocks. The scroll was found on October 14, 1996, in the foundations of the Bulguksa Pagoda in South Korea. The sutra was found to have been printed no later than 704 AD.
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Most valuable letter: On December 5, 1991, the Historical Portraits Museum in Beverly Hills (USA) purchased a letter written by Abraham Lincoln on January 8, 1863 at Christie's in New York for $ 748,000.
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The longest novel, People of Goodwill, by Louis Henri Jean Farigoule, aka Jules Romain (France), was published in 27 volumes in 1932-1946. In English translation, the novel was published in 14 volumes in 1933-1946. This 4959-page work was published by Peter Davis. The novel contains approximately 2,070,000 words (not including a 100-page index). And since 1951, Sohachi Yamaoka's novel Tokugawa Iayasu has been published in Japanese daily newspapers. If published now that the novel is complete, it will be a 40-volume edition.
