I mean, I read the dimensions before I ordered it: 16.9 x 13 x 2.2 inches, 14.6 pounds. Yeah, yeah, big book. Got it.
But I think I could crush walnuts with this thing. It’s huge. Several coworkers have commented on it already, several of them from across the room.
I’m also fairly certain it’s the single most massive book I own. I’ve got an atlas or two that might win for height or width, but aren’t nearly as heavy. (624 pages! Oof!) 14.6 pounds is the equivalent of almost 9 copies of Deathly Hallows. (Thanks, Sensible Units!)
What’s the largest book in your library? For purposes of the thread, “largest” would be the most massive overall, and “book” means one single bound volume. Encyclopedia sets don’t count.
Either Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by Shirer or Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows 1946-Present 9th Edition by Brooks and Marsh. Both paperbacks, but over 1,000 pages. I think the TV book is bigger than the Hitler one- after all, TV’s had more history!
Biggest individual book is my Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary that I got for $20 about 30 years ago, and have been lugging around the country ever since. It’s bigger than my CRC Handbook, and measures about 14" X 8" x 6"
The biggest area book I’ve got is a Plan for New York City, published by MIT Press. I lucked out and got a complete copy, with slipcase. I measures about 3’ X 3’ X 3.5"
It;'s actually six volumes, all the same height and width, one per borough plus an overview volume. Nobody seems to hasve a picture online.
Probably my giant OED dictionary that used to be my parents’ from the 60’s. One volume for the entire alphabet, little black tabs on the right edges of the pages for each letter. Probably about 7 inches thick, and the size of a 17" monitor.
I’ve got a single-volume edition of Malory’s Morte D’Arthur which must be around the same size as Interrobang!?'s Warhol book … all the Aubrey Beardsley illustrations … Lovely book, but it’s a bit too large to hold in one hand.
The largest book that’s just mine is probably my Complete Works of Shakespeare- from the Barnes and Noble sets of complete works, with the gold edging. But now that I think about it, the Gourmet cookbook, in all its yellow glory, might be larger.
I think the largest book in the house, by weight, is either the very old Webster’s Dictionary (at least I think it’s a Webster, it was “removed from the field of play” due to it falling apart when you looked at it and I haven’t seen it in awhile), or my brother’s World War Two book, which weighs a lot not just because it’s probably 11" by 14", but because it’s all glossy paper.
Damn! I wish you’d shown me that when I was in Oxford.
Although maybe it’s just as well you didn’t. I can see myself drooling over it, and that’s a bad thing to do to a nice book.
It depends on what way I want to measure thing. My Collected Paintings of Norman Rockwell probably wins the perimeter award. My Family Bible would take the Sheer Mass prize.
Although I don’t have it in my own library, I do get to see this book at the University of Minnesota’s Andersen Library every once in a while. It is Bhutan: A Visual Odyssey Across the Himalayan Kingdom; 112 pages, 130 pounds, 5 feet wide and 7 feet high.
As for our own collection, the largest in size in a reprint on Audubon’s Birds of North America. I can’t recall how big it is (perhaps 24" tall) although it is considerably smaller than the original, and much cheaper as well.
Probably The Official Military Atlas of the Civil War (about the best $20 anybody who likes Civil War history at all can spend). It’s a reprint of the 19th century maps/etchings/miscellaneous plates and it’s 16.5 inches (42 cm.) long, not sure how wide, and I’d guesstimate about 10 lbs… I shelve most of my books horizontally instead of vertically since you can usually fit a lot more on the shelf that way, so this one has to stay on a closet shelf when not in use as it can’t fit vertically and to lay it on the bottom would require moving every book on the shelf.