Clicking for the Classics

Anonymous Patron writes “A WSJ.com – Real Time column on the “Complete Collection” from Amazon. The Penguin Classics Library Complete Collection, consisting of 1,082 books. List price: $13,317.74. Discount price: $7,989.99. Never has a 40% discount seemed quite so weighty. From Edwin A. Abbott to Emile Zola, the 1,082 titles in the Penguin Classics Complete Library total nearly half a million pages–laid end to end they would hit the 52-mile mark. Approximately 700 pounds in weight, the titles would tower 828 feet if you stacked them atop each other–almost as tall as the Empire State Building. “

June 27, 2005 by Uncategorized 4

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4 Responses

  1. Cyberpunk Librarian says:
    June 27, 2005 at 8:12 pm

    I love this stuff

    …the titles would tower 828 feet if you stacked them atop each other–almost as tall as the Empire State Building.

    I love comparisons like that, you know, apples and oranges type things. They sound impressive but mean little. I mean, what in the hell does anyone really care how high books would be if you stacked them? No one. Unless you start bringing in the sheer enormity of the verticle edifice which, in the conclusion, hasn’t got a fiddlefart to with books.

    However, these things can be useful in arguments for some reason. When discussing patron application shredding policies, I brought up that, after a quick (and real) calculation I discovered that we retained enough patron applications that, if laid end to end, would stretch from our main library out to one of our far flung branches. (MapQuest has uses no one considered.) The scary thing? I think this actually influenced a decision.

    Reply
  2. djfiander says:
    June 27, 2005 at 10:49 pm

    Re:I love this stuff

    I did the same thing once, when figuring out the amount of stuff that we were sending to the off-site storage facility. I think that the “stacked up” comparison is valid, but the “end-to-end” one isn’t. “Stacking up” the books is exactly the same as “unfolding” all the shelves of storage into one long shelf. Now, nobody shelves everything on one long shelf, but it can be surprising how much (linear) space fits into even one wall covered with shelves.

    Here are some assumptions:

    • One shelf is three feet long;
    • Shelves are fourteen inches apart, giving 1 ft of usable space and a couple of inches for hardware;
    • One shelving unit is seven feet tall, giving six shelves per unit.

    So, 828 feet of books is 276 shelves, or 46 shelving units. That’s probably too much for the average apartment dweller, but would fit easily into a house.

    Reply
  3. teaperson says:
    June 28, 2005 at 6:05 am

    Almost as tall?
    According to several sources (including the New York Public Library), the Empire State Building is either 1472 feet tall (to the top of the antennae) or 1250 feet tall (to the observatory on the 102nd floor).

    Using the smaller figure, 826 feet is 2/3 as tall as the Empire State Building. It’s slightly taller than the Jiali Plaza in Wuhan, China (87th tallest building in the world.

    Still, it would make it very difficult to get one of the books out from the bottom of the stack.

    Reply
  4. Anonymous Patron says:
    June 30, 2005 at 4:16 am

    Re:I love this stuff
    An update Monday says the 828-foot tower would be made of books stacked end-to-end—not like you’d shelve them, but as if they were in one very tall one-book-wide shelving unit.

    That’s still a hell of a lot of paperbacks, though.

    Reply

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