Thursday, February 14, 2013

Eight Pounds


The 25th anniversary edition of John Crowley's Little, Big is a labor of love. It's a subscription project, where early supporters paid up front but don't get a copy until the project completes. I subscribed long ago and have been waiting mostly patiently since then. It is finally approaching completion, with publication expected late spring or early summer. There are still copies available, if you're curious.

Today I was rummaging through the web site for any status updates and noticed this data point: the finished edition is estimated to weigh just under 8 pounds. That seemed like a large number for a book of 750 or so pages. So I took a copy of Anathem and weighed it. That 1000-page hardback with reasonably good paper came to three pounds, 14.5 ounces. Little, Big will be eight pounds.

Eight pounds for a book about 3/4 the page count of Anathem.

Eight pounds.

I'm almost frightened.

Eight pounds.

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