# Shortest/Longest Book In Relation to Time **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 2, 2003, 7:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shortest-longest-book-in-relation-to-time/146170 "2003-01-02T07:15:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![K3v1n](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b19c9b/32.png) [@K3v1n](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/K3v1n)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2003, 7:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shortest-longest-book-in-relation-to-time/146170/1 "2003-01-02T07:15:19Z")
Not sure how this came about but here is a question that has plagued me for quite some time… What is the shortest book about the longest period of time, and conversely the longest book about the shortest period of time. I’m guessing a possible topic for the latter might be the Big Bang? ---
**Author:** ![Achernar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e274bd/32.png) [@Achernar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Achernar)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2003, 7:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shortest-longest-book-in-relation-to-time/146170/2 "2003-01-02T07:20:17Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by K3v1n \* > I’m guessing a possible topic for the latter might be the Big Bang? Although I haven’t read it, I imagine that’s exactly what’s going on in [_The First Three Minutes: A Modern View of the Origin of the Universe_](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0465024378/104-4823427-8515148?vi=glance) (203 pages) ---
**Author:** ![Trader\_of\_shorts](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/90ced4/32.png) [@Trader\_of\_shorts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trader_of_shorts)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2003, 7:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shortest-longest-book-in-relation-to-time/146170/3 "2003-01-02T07:27:40Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by K3v1n \* > \*\*I’m guessing a possible topic for the latter might be the Big Bang? \*\* perhaps " Brief History of Time" S.Hawking [Amazon link](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0553103741/002-7660784-2304013?vi=glance) ---
**Author:** ![Kezermezer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b487fb/32.png) [@Kezermezer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kezermezer)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2003, 7:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shortest-longest-book-in-relation-to-time/146170/4 "2003-01-02T07:39:01Z")
I haven’t had a chance to read it yet, but I’ve been told **The Mezzanine** by Nicholson Baker takes place during an escalator ride. ---
**Author:** ![Achernar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e274bd/32.png) [@Achernar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Achernar)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2003, 7:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shortest-longest-book-in-relation-to-time/146170/5 "2003-01-02T07:49:46Z")
In _Restaurant at the End of the Universe_ our protagonists go forward in time one hundred seventy thousand million billion (170,000,000,000,000,000,000) years, or about 10 billion times the current age of the universe. The book doesn’t cover this whole period, though, just near the beginning and the end. I imagine some science fiction covers a longer range anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Shalmanese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shalmanese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shalmanese)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2003, 10:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shortest-longest-book-in-relation-to-time/146170/6 "2003-01-02T10:23:25Z")
What about some Sci-Fi short stories which manage to cover an infinite amount of time using a recursive loop of itself? ---
**Author:** ![Dunderman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecb155/32.png) [@Dunderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dunderman)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2003, 10:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shortest-longest-book-in-relation-to-time/146170/7 "2003-01-02T10:27:11Z")
I’ve been told that the science fiction novel _StarMaker_ holds the world record for fictional time, as it covers 10 billion years in 100 pages. Haven’t read it, though. ---
**Author:** ![Zagadka](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zagadka/32/7272_2.png) [@Zagadka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zagadka)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2003, 10:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shortest-longest-book-in-relation-to-time/146170/8 "2003-01-02T10:28:50Z")
I quote from my novel, “Time Sandwich” "In the beginning, there was nothing. In the middle, there was something. In the end, there was nothing." There, infinity in 3 lines, and as much sense as this thread. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![tanstaafl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ba8739/32.png) [@tanstaafl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tanstaafl)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2003, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shortest-longest-book-in-relation-to-time/146170/9 "2003-01-02T16:20:17Z")
_Tau Zero_ by Fredrick Pohl concerns a spaceship moving at relativistic velocities which manages to outlast the end of the Universe. I think Ben Bova had a short story with a similar concept (I _think_ the title was something like “Sinner Man”). _Triplanetary_ by Doc Smith starts a few billion years in the past, before the Earth (excuse me, “Tellus”) is even formed. ---
**Author:** ![LateComer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b5ac83/32.png) [@LateComer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LateComer)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2003, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shortest-longest-book-in-relation-to-time/146170/10 "2003-01-02T16:35:27Z")
If we’re talking about non-fiction, there’s [Asimov’s Chronology of the World](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0062700367/qid=1041525489/sr=1-2/ref=sr_1_2/104-0255135-3423169?v=glance&s=books) which starts with the Big Bang and goes to WWII. Of course it’s 704 pages so it may be too long. ---
**Author:** ![Church\_Key\_Kid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Church\_Key\_Kid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Church_Key_Kid)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2003, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shortest-longest-book-in-relation-to-time/146170/11 "2003-01-02T16:46:40Z")
Not a book, but An Occurance at Owl Creek Bridge technically only spans a few seconds. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2003, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shortest-longest-book-in-relation-to-time/146170/12 "2003-01-02T18:03:21Z")
**Ulysses** takes place over 24 hours, but is over 900 pages. ---
**Author:** ![XJETGIRLX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9fc29f/32.png) [@XJETGIRLX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XJETGIRLX)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2003, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shortest-longest-book-in-relation-to-time/146170/13 "2003-01-02T18:14:27Z")
Each of the books in Piers Anthony’s [Geodyssey](http://www.piers-anthony.com/geodyssey.html) series covers just about the entirety of human habitation on the earth. Each takes a single family or group of people, and follows them throughout different eras. The same characters show up in different contintents, different decades, from neadertal man all the way up to the present. Chapter by chapter, they are ‘reborn’ into a different time and place. Quite interesting series, really. As for the length of the books, I can’t be sure but I think they’re around 300 pages each. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2003, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shortest-longest-book-in-relation-to-time/146170/14 "2003-01-02T20:37:22Z")
Robert L. Forward’s novel _Dragon’s Egg_ recounts the history of an entire species, from its first evolutionary glimmerings all the way to its expansion into interstellar exploration. The parts of the novel that recount human study of this development are shockingly amateurish, but stick with it; the story of the cheela is one of the most mind-blowing things I’ve ever read. ---
**Author:** ![Chava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f07891/32.png) [@Chava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chava)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2003, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shortest-longest-book-in-relation-to-time/146170/15 "2003-01-02T21:09:34Z")
“[The Last Question](http://jhu.simon.rochester.edu/public_html/writing-others/last-question.htm)” by Isaac Asimov, which starts May 21, 2061 and ends with the end of the universe. It’s a short story, just a few pages. ---
**Author:** ![femtosecond](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f08c70/32.png) [@femtosecond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/femtosecond)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2003, 10:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shortest-longest-book-in-relation-to-time/146170/16 "2003-01-03T10:59:50Z")
My autobiography. :groan: ---
**Author:** ![UncleBill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/d26b3c/32.png) [@UncleBill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleBill)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2003, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shortest-longest-book-in-relation-to-time/146170/17 "2003-01-03T13:39:23Z")
The Bible goes from about 4.6 Billion years ago to about 2,000 years ago, if you don’t believe the people who say is is factual. But it does have a lot of pages, and not enough pictures!