- Are you a little obsessed with reading? Are you a little too obsessed? Like, afraid of running out of things to read obsessed? I’m not joking. This is an actual thing, and you may have heard of it. It’s called Abibliophobia, and literally means the fear of running out of reading material. Crazy, right? So, there’s only one question left to ask. Do you think you have Abibliophobia?
- Have you heard of the Japanese word tsundoku? If you haven’t that’s okay. I didn’t used to know either. But once you know, if you are a frequent book reader, you might just love it. Tsundoku means buying reading material of some sort and simply letting them build up in your house or on your bookshelf without ever actually reading them. Okay, I will admit: That word kinda sums up my actions sometimes. Maybe half the time. Fine. Most of the time. I probably have a whole list of books that I haven’t read that is roughly a page long. Well, if you do this sometimes, at least you know that you aren’t alone!
- eBooks may seem like modern technology. I mean, being able to have multiple books on one lightweight device? Are you impressed yet? Anyway, this next fact might surprise you. eBooks are actually around fifty years old! Shocking, but technically true. Why do I say technically? Well, the first eBook was, well, the Declaration of Independence downloaded onto a computer network of an Illinois university. This was part of Project Gutenburg, which started in 1971. The plan was to get readers to be able to access a big selection of books and literary material all digitally and all for free! So now, will you ever look at an eBook the same way again?
- Have you ever read The Very Hungry Caterpillar? Have you ever wondered how Eric Carle came up with the concept? Well, now you don’t have to! One minute Carle was using a hole punch on a stack of papers, the next minute he thought of a bookworm, and the third minute, this adorable children’s book was born! Another interesting fact about this story is that it was originally going to be named A Week with Willi the Worm. His editor advised that, since a worm might not be that enjoyable to read about, he should switch to a caterpillar instead. And out of it came The Very Hungry Caterpillar, the book we know today!
- East of Eden, a popular book, is written by John Steinbeck. Maybe you’ve heard of it, or even read it, but I’m betting you didn’t know this very interesting fact. But first, let me ask you a question. How long does it take you to use up one pencil? I’ll let you think about it for a minute. Alright, got it? Good. Your amount may or may not have been impressive, but either way it’s okay. No one here has used thirty pencils in one day, right? Um, well, maybe. If you have, hats off to you! 🙂 Anyway, where do you think I pulled that number? From John Steinbeck! That’s right, in total, his novel East of Eden took three hundred pencils! Have you used that many pencils in your life?
Alright, everybody, I hope you enjoyed this short list of weird book facts! Please comment down below if you have your own fun fact to share! I’d love to hear from you all.