I found this book, Literature Lover's Book of Lists by Judie Strouf, when I was weeding out my collection earlier this month. While it doesn't give much explanation and certainly no literary analysis, it is a fun book to flip through and get reading ideas from. It is literally a book of all sorts of literary lists--lots on the various types of literature and genres as well as other sorts of literary trivia. While this might be slightly dated now (the copyright on this book is 1998), I like the "est" list:
- Oldest Complete Novel in world - The Tale of Ganji (Japan, eleventh century)
- Oldest poet laureate - William Wordsworth, age seventy-three (when appointed)
- Oldest book printed with movable type - Gutenberg Bible (about 1454)
- Oldest theater - Teatro Olimico (in Italy - 1508)
- Youngest author - Dorothy Straight, age four (How the World Began)
- Youngest author-illustrator - Dennis Vollmer, age six (Joshua Disobeys)
- Youngest poet laureate- Laurence Eusden, age thirty (when appointed)
- Largest bookstore - Barnes & Noble(in NYC - 154,250 sq. ft.) I wonder if this is still true?
- Largest English language dictionary - Oxford English Dictionary (twenty volumes) no doubt this is no online...
- Largest library - Library of Congress (in Washington, DC - 532 miles of shelving containing over eighty-eight million items)
- Largest printing company - R.R. Donnelly & Co. (Chicago)
- Largest theater - National People's Congress Building in China (seats 10,000 people)
- Smallest book - Old King Cole (1/25" x 1/125" pages have to be turned with a needle)
- Smallest theater - Piccolo (in Germany, seats thirty people)
- Longest biography - Winston S. Churchill (infinished work of five volumes by Randolph S. Churchill and Martin Gilbert)
- Longest-lived poet laureate - John Masefield (nearly eighty-nine years old)
- Longest novel - Les homes de bonne Volonte by Louis Farigoule (twenty-seven volumes) Hmm.
- Longest on N.Y. Times bestseller list - The Road Less Traveled by M. Scott Peck (more than 300 weeks)
- Longest overdue book in U.S. - 145 years (in Ohio)
- Longest over due book in the world - 288 years (in Germany)
- Longest running comic strip - Katzenjammer Kids (since 1897) never heard of it...
- Longest Shakespeare play - Hamlet
- Longest-tenured poet laureate - Alfred Lord Tennyson (nearly forty-two years)
- Shortest drama review - "Ouch" (of play called Wham!)
- Slowest publishing of a book - a German dictionary entitled Deutsches Worterbuch (117 years)
This afternoon I returned a pile of books to the public library (some read and sadly, some unread). I thought I would just take a peek at the new books area, where I am always lamenting the fact that I never find anything there that I want to read (you really need to request them online). But no, staring me in the eye were Arthur and George by Julian Barnes (when it first came out I really didn't feel compelled to read it, but after my first taste of Arthur Conan Doyle, my curiosity has been piqued), and Margaret Atwood's The Penelopiad. It was really not my intention to come home with yet more books, but what can I say. I have this weird guilt complex when it comes to library books. I see them sitting there and know I cannot possibly read them all (which is why some had to go back), but I don't have this problem with my own books--no matter how tall the piles grow--I know there is no rush to get them read. So now I have started an Amazon order...so far I have two Colette books in the basket (the same two that went back to the library unread)...must think carefully about what else to choose...