How long is a book

[Little.Egret]

Originally Posted by HarryT

What's in it if not words or images?

There was a series with Titles such as _The Wit and Wisdom of President {Nixon}_

All the pages were blank.

[JSWolf]

A book is as long as it needs to be.

[fjtorres]

I grew up with pbooks. And I have paperbacks in the 50-125 page range.
So yes, a book is as long as it has to be.

This is one of my all-time favorites.
http://www.amazon.com/Day-The-Giants.../dp/B000PXUV7O

128 pages with large margins and print.
http://www.amazon.com/Day-Giants-Les...mm_kin_title_0

[murg]

My bookie is about 5' 10"

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by murg

Nothing.

Are you talking about some kind of blank notebook, for writing in? That's a book, certainly, but I'm not sure it's what we're discussing here.

[DrNefario]

I've read several perfectly respectable books with fewer than 200 pages this year:

John le Carre's first novel, Call for the Dead (159p)
Why Didn't They Ask Evans? by Agatha Christie (192p)
The Death of Grass by John Christopher (195p)

I read all three of those on paper. I suspect the latter two could have been longer in a smaller format.

And many collections are fairly short:

The Green Hills of Earth by Robert A Heinlein (180p)
The Custodians by Richard Cowper (144p)
Saint Rebor by Adam Roberts (175p)
Stranger Things Happen by Kelly Link (189p)
His Last Bow by Arthur Conan Doyle (156p)

If I had to put a number on it, I'd probably be thinking about 120 pages, which would also allow a couple of pairs of novellas I've read.

I guess a book is whatever a publisher thinks it can get away with charging money for.

For my own accounting purposes, I just count anything I have picked up separately as a separate item, and I also split omnibuses because I don't tend to read them in one go*. This means that some of my listed "books" are standalone short stories of under 20 pages, but my average is 287 pages, so I think it balances out.


*The tricky part, then, is books that are part omnibus and part collection, like the Baen Murray Leinster volume Planets of Adventure. This contains two novels and a random handful of shorter works. I've decided to split it into three, with one entry for each novel and one "collection" for the rest.

[RobertDDL]

http://portal.unesco.org/en/ev.php-U...CTION=201.html

A book is a non-periodical printed publication of at least 49 pages, exclusive of the cover pages, published in the country and made available to the public.

P.S.:
"published in the country" refers to national book production statistics -- books may also be published in towns

[theducks]

Originally Posted by HarryT

What's in it if not words or images?

Ever hear of a 'Blank Book'?, Notebook?

They are sold blank, and the purchaser uses them for Diaries, Journals, Lab Notes.
Wen I went to work as a tech at BNR, I was issued a bound, serialized, BNR Lab Notebook to write down project notes, ideas and project test results. These are legal documents that may be needed in Patent proceedings.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by theducks

Ever hear of a 'Blank Book'?, Notebook?

They are sold blank, and the purchaser uses them for Diaries, Journals, Lab Notes.
Wen I went to work as a tech at BNR, I was issued a bound, serialized, BNR Lab Notebook to write down project notes, ideas and project test results. These are legal documents that may be needed in Patent proceedings.

See my post #20 above.

[murg]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Are you talking about some kind of blank notebook, for writing in? That's a book, certainly, but I'm not sure it's what we're discussing here.

Nope.

Professionally published, at least 20 years ago. Nice dust cover. Not a notebooks, although I guess it could be used as one (as could any blank piece of paper).

I can't find it at the moment, it's probably behind some triple-shelved books.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by HarryT

See my post #20 above.

What I get for replying before getting to the thread end

[Pulpmeister]

In the p-book world, it depends on what the publisher thinks will sell. Consider Maigret novels, usually around 40,000 words. They were originally marketed in France in a sort of magazine format. When Penguin picked up the series in UK, they normally put two of them together, because a 40,000 word paperback book was too slim to sell at a profit; productions costs were almost as high for a 40,000 word book as a 80,000 word book. Solution: Penguin would put two Maigrets in each book to make an 80-90,000 word volume, roughly what the public expected from a book.

Perry Mason books, oddly enough, are usually not much longer than Maigrets. Around 50,000 words, just enough to survive alone, if you increase margins and leading a tad to reduce the number of words per page, and maybe use a slightly thicker paper stock to bulk it up.

In the e-world, this is less visible; you can't pick up an e-book, riffle the pages, test its heft, and decide there's enough book for the buck. And if they're going for 99c, well, I'll pay 99c for a good short story by itself, say, Fred Pohl's "The Tunnel Under the World" which as a stand-alone book wouldn't cut it in the p-book world.

(Publishers usually work in wordage rather than pages, because wordage is independent of production and layout.)

Having said that, in recent years Penguin put out a whole run of very small-wordage p-books, as independent books, which seemed to sell okay. It's all about markets and marketing.

Some best-selling "non-fiction" (well, more or less) p-books have a lot fewer than 50,00 words though: "1066 And All That" (21,000 words), and "Parkinson's Law: or the Pursuit of Progress" (27,000 words), both humour, are notably short on words but big on value.

[crich70]

I think it all depends on the audience it's meant for. If your audience is small (like those who suffer from a disease like diabetes) or are young (like early readers) then a book can be fairly short. On the other hand someone going to college or wanting a longer fiction read will expect a longer book.

[crich70]

Originally Posted by Little.Egret

There was a series with Titles such as _The Wit and Wisdom of President {Nixon}_

All the pages were blank.

A political statement!

[BenG]

These are books:
The Shepherd by Frederick Forsyth at 66 pages.

Lyra's Oxford by Philip Pullman at 49 pages.

Xeelee: An Omnibus: Raft, Time-like Infinity, Flux, Ring by Stephen Baxter, a book containing 5 novels.