Did you know?

 

Before I wrote fiction, I was a professional tech writer for Corning Glass. And before that, I wrote scores of military documentation on all kinds of topics. That kind of writing gave me a love of research and facts. So, why not turn that to one of my favorite things? Books! I wasn’t looking for anything in particular, just surfing the internet wave, making notes of interesting things as I went along. It’s entirely possible that I’m the only nerd that would find this interesting, but I thought I’d share anyway!

Book Facts…

1. In Norway, if a new Norwegian-authored book passes their quality control criteria, the Arts Council buys 1000 copies of it (1550 if it is a children’s book) and distributes it to libraries. In addition, the author makes more than the contracted royalty on these books. Books are also exempted from the country’s value-added tax. (source)
2. There is a tradition in Iceland called Jolabokaflod, or Yule Book Flood. On Christmas Eve, books are exchanged as gifts. The best part? After receiving the new book, one curls up with a mug of something hot and a cozy blanket and reads until bedtime! (source)
3. The Most Dedicated Author Award goes to Trish Vickers. She was a blind author who, for six years, wrote her book by hand on a notepad wrapped in rubber bands to form lines. When she finished, 26 pages were blank because she hadn’t known her pen had run out of ink. Local police used forensic police to help her recreate the pages. Because death was imminent and this was a dream, a local publishing company pushed to have it published within two weeks. It published the day Ms. Vickers passed away, just two hours after she was gone. (source)
4. Dr. Seuss’ book Green Eggs and Ham is the result of a bet. His editor bet him that he couldn’t write a book of less than 225 unique words, as he did in The Cat in the Hat. Seuss won with 50 words. (source)
5. The book I, Libertine started out as a hoax originated by a radio host named Jean Shepherd in 1956. He went to a bookstore and asked for a copy of a book that the clerk said didn’t exist. It annoyed him that, just because the book (which did exist) wasn’t on a particular list, the clerk was determined it wasn’t real. After talking about it on the radio, people en masse went to bookstores to request nonexistent books. This morphed into asking for I, Libertine, which didn’t exist. A publisher heard about it and decided it should be written. Shepherd wrote it and it was a bestseller. (source)
6. In the Hunger Games series, the most often used adjective was “drunk,” the most often used adverb “repeatedly,” and the most often used sentence “My name is Katniss Everdeen.” (source)
7. The current record for the most expensive book of all time is held by da Vinci for The Codex Leicester. It is a 72-page notebook containing his notes and theories and was purchased most recently by Bill Gates for $30.8 million dollars. (source)
8. Bibliophobia is the fear of books! GASP! Conversely, bibliophilia is the love of books, which I suffer from! (source 1 | source 2)
9. In 2018, 84% of book readers are between age 18 and 29. The lowest percentage are those over 65. (source)