My, What Big Books You Have…

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Hello Bloglandia!

I like big books and I cannot lie…

Sorry, couldn’t resist.

Anyway, this post is all about LARGE (or are they just big-boned) books, including the biggest, the longest, and a ginormous (sort of) new release by yours truly.

So, yeah, a little entertaining, a little educational, and a little bit self-serving. The perfect mix…unlike my sad attempts at rewriting rap lyrics.

The Biggest Book

I don’t even know if “big” is a big enough word to describe the largest book ever created.

It was written, illustrated, and put together in Hungary by 71-year-old Belga Varga, and was titled “Our Fragile Natural Heritage” (except in Hungarian, obviously)

This thing required all sorts of special equipment to put together and is even more impressive because it was entirely handmade using traditional bookbinding methods.

Maybe Belga was really into large print books, because the book measures 4.2 meters by 3.8 meters, which is 14 feet by 12 feet; it weighs 1420 kilo, or just over 3100 pounds; and six people are required to turn the pages using a special tool.

But don’t worry, it won’t take long to read, because it “only” has 346 pages. And I bet a lot of that is taken up with pictures since the book is all about the animals, plants, and geology of Begla’s small village.

The Longest Book

What will take you a long time to read is what’s been deemed the world’s longest book.

This is the romantic tale Artaméne, ou le Grand Cyrus (Artamene, or the Big Swan) and was written in the 17th century by Madeline de Scudery who apparently had a lot of time on her hands.

It’s so long it couldn’t be bound into a single book, and was instead put into ten volumes of romance novel splendor…no word on if Fabio was on any of the covers.

Okay, so how long is it? It’s a whopping 2.1 million words. To put that into perspective, the average novel these days is about 60 to 80,000 words, and the massive tome War & Peace is about 550,000 words.

So, are you ready to tackle Artamene? Well, you’re in luck because the book is in the public domain! But fair warning before you dive in, it does only get a 2.9 star average on Goodreads.

A New(-ish) Really Big Book

I’m probably not going to set any world records with this one, but I’ve just recently released my own BIG book.

The Complete Box Set of the Osteria Chronicles includes all six books of my historical fantasy series that brings the myths of Ancient Greece to life as you’ve never seen them before.

And, as if that weren’t big enough, the tome also includes a crazy amount of bonus content that will take you even deeper into the series.

So how big is this? Well, if you had it in paperback format, it would probably be around 2000 pages. Which is why it’s not available in paperback. Sorry, paperback fans. : (

Now, because a certain store named after a South American river refuses to pay fair royalties on ebooks priced over $10, this collection is NOT available there.

Note: The individual books – ebook and print – are on the Big A and will always be unless the Big A gets really weird about things.

So where is this massive collection available at?

Pretty much everywhere else!

You can find the set on Kobo, Barnes & Noble, Apple, my own Payhip Bookstore (for a slightly lower price), and pretty much every other major retailer because they aren’t jerks about their royalty schemes.

And really, even though the collection does cost more than $10, it is a pretty darn good value compared to buying the books individually.

Of course, if you want to read all six books of The Osteria Chronicles for free, you can always ask your local library to add the set or the individual books to their collection…librarians usually love getting tips about what their patrons want.

By the way, if you haven’t tried the series yet, you always can grab the first book (The Trials of Hercules) for free from most retailers. The ebook, that is, not the paperback…I’m not that generous.

Last but not least, if you’re curious to learn more about the series, just pop on over to The Osteria Chronicles page on this website. : )

Anyway, that’s it for me.

Have a great rest of your week! 

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