14 Fascinating Book Facts
This week whilst whiling away some time on the internet, I discovered some interesting and in some instances ludicrous book-related ‘facts’ that have not previously made an appearance here on my blog. Before I share them a quick reminder about my book prize draw (ends Apr 15th). Further details can be found at the bottom of this post. Without further ado here are the facts:
Ever wondered which is the most banned book in America? The Harry Potter books are said to be the most banned in America. This is due to religious complaints, primarily from Evangelical Christian groups.
It transpires that there is a use for Mills & Boon novels after all. The M6 toll road was built on 2.5 million copies of pulped Mills & Boon novels.
The most expensive book ever is allegedly Codex Leicester by Leonardo Da Vinci. According to Business Insider Bill Gates paid $30.8 million (half an hour’s salary) for a copy.
It has been claimed that the first book written on a typewriter was Mark Twain’s Life on the Mississippi
President Theodore Roosevelt read at least one book per day. The same number as the present incumbent has read in a lifetime then.
The top 3 most read books in the world are: The Holy Bible, Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-Tung and the Harry Potter series.
As of mid-2017, there were an estimated 134,399,411 total published books in the world. That is a lot of books. No wonder us authors have such a hard job selling them.
Have you ever wondered how all those Gideons Bibles end up in hotel rooms? I certainly have. They are distributed by Gideons International, an organisation set up with the sole purpose of distributing Bibles. Gideons are said to have distributed over 2 billion Bibles at a rate of 2 Bibles per second/7,200 per hour. Staggering. Not to mention bad news for the World’s tree population.
Prior to Bill Gates’s book spending splurge, the most expensive book ever was allegedly the 1640 Bay Psalm book. It sold at auction for $14.2 million
The Powell’s City of Books bookstore in Oregon takes up an entire city block (1.6 acres/68,000 square feet) of retail space. (see picture below).
Aristophanes’ play Assemblywomen contains the longest word in Greek – 171 letters. It is the name of a fictional food dish. Here it is translated into English – Lopadotemachoselachogaleokranioleipsanodrimhypotrimmatosilphioparaomelitokatakechymenokichlepikossyphophattoperisteralektryonoptekephalliokigklopeleiolagoiosiraiobaphetraganopterygon. I am so pleased I was never given the part that has this word in the school play.
Did you know that books often used to be chained to shelves in libraries, in order to prevent borrowing stealing?
The slowest-selling book ever is reputedly a 1716 translation of the New Testament from Coptic into Latin. The last of its 500 copies was sold in 1907.
The first book described as a ‘best-seller’ was Fools of Nature by Dan Alice Brown (1899).
Enter my prize draw and win a rare, signed, first edition copy of Chuck Palahniuk’s Haunted (Worth: £122.21/$170.70) + more dark humour book prizes must be won. Click Here to Enter.
