# What is a book?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-book/167049>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [April 7, 2003, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-book/167049 "2003-04-07T13:13:45Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\
**Post date:** [April 7, 2003, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-book/167049/1 "2003-04-07T13:13:45Z")

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I am looking at my something-a-day calendar and today’s entry says:

> [@](#):
>
> The Yongle Dadian (thesaurus of the Chinese Yongle reign) is the longest book ever written, containing 22,937 chapters in 11,095 volumes. More than 2,000 Chinese scholars worked for five years to complete the book.

How can this be called “a book”? Sounds like lots of books to me. Is the Encyclopaedia Britannica “a book”?

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**Author:** ![Phlosphr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c68b51/32.png) [@Phlosphr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Phlosphr)\
**Post date:** [April 7, 2003, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-book/167049/2 "2003-04-07T13:22:55Z")

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Well it’s a ‘set of written sheets, forming a long literary composition’ doesn’t have to be in one singular bound work…right. Doesn’t have to be long either.

But those Chinese like to make huge record breaking things. They seem to have a preoccupation with walls and such…

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**Author:** ![RM\_Mentock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e274bd/32.png) [@RM\_Mentock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RM_Mentock)\
**Post date:** [April 7, 2003, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-book/167049/3 "2003-04-07T14:05:06Z")

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The Lord of the Rings Trilogy is actually made up of six books, if you believe Tolkein.

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**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\
**Post date:** [April 7, 2003, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-book/167049/4 "2003-04-07T14:07:00Z")

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I thought it was one book that was published in three volumes.

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**Author:** ![El\_Marko](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/58956e/32.png) [@El\_Marko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Marko)\
**Post date:** [April 7, 2003, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-book/167049/5 "2003-04-07T14:53:47Z")

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Close **friedo**. It’s actually a single book (although, maybe story is a more proper term), published in serial in 6 volumes, hence the subdivision into 6 “books” as they are refered to in the actual text. Tolkein himself said that the reason it was published this way was mostly for simplicity and financial reasons - both his own and the publisher’s. I don’t think the publisher was willing to outlay the $ it would take to put the whole book out all at once. Instead, they put it out a little at a time to be able to gauge the public’s reaction. Interesting beginnings for one of the most popular works of fiction ever written. 😃

Sorry for the hijack, btw. 😉