Books

The Origin

The origin of the Latin word for book, liber, comes from the Romans who used the thin layer found between the bark and the wood (the liber) before the times of parchment. The English word comes from the Danish word for book, bog, meaning birch tree, as the early people of Denmark wrote on birch bark.

The Largest Published Book

The record for the largest published book is one edition of 'The Little Prince' measuring 2.01 m (6 ft 7 in) high and 3.08 m (10 ft 1 in) wide when open, and containing 128 pages. It is edited by Eidouro Gráfica e Editora Ltda.(Brazil) and it was presented at the XIII Biannual Book Fair of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on 13 September 2007.

Thickest Book Published

The thickest published book measures 322 mm (12.67 in) in width and was unveiled by HarperCollins in London, UK, on 20 May 2009. All Agatha Christie's Miss Marple stories - 12 novels and 20 short stories - are collected and published in this volume.  

Smallest Book Printed

The smallest ever printed book measures 0.9 x 0.9 mm and is an edition of 'Chameleon' by the Russian author Anton Chekhov. The book was made and published by Anatoliy Konenko, of Omsk, Siberia, Russia in 1996. Each book consists of 30 pages, has three colour illustrations and 11 lines of text to a page.  

Most Expensive Book

Leonardo Da Vinci’s Codex Leicester – $30.8 million. The Codex Leicester is a collection of largely scientific writings by Leonardo da Vinci. The Codex was purchased in 1980 by wealthy industrialist, art collector, and philanthropist Armand Hammer from the Leicester estate, and renamed the “Codex Hammer”. In 1994 Bill Gates bought it at auction for $30.8 million, making it the most expensive book ever, and renamed it the Codex Leicester.

Most Translated Book

The Bible continues to be the most translated book in the world. The following numbers are approximations. As of 2005, at least one book of the Bible has been translated into 2,400 of the 6,900 languages listed by SIL, including 680 languages in Africa, followed by 590 in Asia, 420 in Oceania, 420 in Latin America and the Caribbean, 210 in Europe, and 75 in North America. The United Bible Societies are presently assisting in over 600 Bible translation projects. The Bible is available in whole or in part to some 98 percent of the world's population in a language in which they are fluent.

Fun Facts 

There are more than 20,000 books written about the Chess.

If you stretched out all the shelves in the New York Public Library, they would extend eighty miles. The books most often requested at this library are about drugs, witchcraft, astrology and Shakespeare.  

In 1939 an author named Ernest Vincent wrote a 50,000 word novel called Gadsby. The only thing unusual about the novel is that there is not a single letter ‘e’ in the whole thing. 

There are 72,466,926 books in the Library of Congress on 327 miles of bookshelves.  

The first published book ever written on a typewriter was The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Mark Twain used a Remington in 1875. 

It took Noah Webster 36 years to write his first dictionary.

Data Source

guinnessworldrecords.com, wikipedia.org

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Dogs

Oldest Dog

The greatest reliable age recorded for a dog is 29 years 5 months for an Australian cattle-dog named Bluey, owned by Les Hall of Rochester, Victoria, Australia. Bluey was obtained as a puppy in 1910 and worked among cattle and sheep for nearly 20 years before being put to sleep on 14 November 1939.  

Smallest Dog in Length  

The dog, named Heaven Sent Brandy, a four-year-old female chihuahua measuring 15.2 cm (6 inches) from tail to nose, was awarded the title of "the smallest dog in terms of length" by the Guinness Book Of Records in January 2005.This little Chihuahua just takes the world as is unaware that she is an anomaly in a planet full of larger than life dog

Smallest Dog in Height 

The smallest dog living, in terms of height, is a long haired, female Chihuahua called Boo Boo, who measured 10.16 cm (4 in) tall on 12 May 2007 and is owned by Lana Elswick of Raceland, Kentucky, United States.  Boo boo weiged less than an ounce at birth.

The First Cloned Dog 

Snuppy was born on April 24, 2005, as the world's first cloned dog. He was created by a team of scientists at Seoul National University (SNU) in Seoul, S. Korea. The team included controversial stem cell researcher Hwang Woo-suk and Lee Byeong-chun. An Afghan Hound, Snuppy is short for "SNU" and "puppy". A total of 167 reconstructed embryos were implanted into 12 surrogate mothers to produce the three living clones in 2006-- Bona, Hope, and  Peace. They were cloned for the purpose of being Snuppy's girlfriends. Only Bona and Hope were "matched" with Snuppy.

The Most Expensive dog

The most expensive dog is an 18-month-old Tibetan Mastiff called Yangtze River Number Two, who was sold for £352,000 ($563,000) in Yushu, Qinghai, China, in September 2009.  The 18-month old, 80cm high Yangtze received a homecoming welcome fit for royalty, arriving at Xi’an airport in the capital of China’s Shaanxi province greeted by a motorcade of 30 Mercedes-Benz cars and scores of dog-lovers.

Tallest Dog

A Blue Great Dane called George that stands at nearly 43 inches tall and weighs a staggering 17.5 stone, has been recognized as the tallest dog by the Guinness Books of Records. It holds two records: tallest dog ever and the tallest dog living. This is owned by David Nasser who provides him with a massive 110lbs of food each week.Even it sleeps in his own queen-size bed. 

Biggest Dog

Hercules was recently awarded the honorable distinction of Worlds Biggest Dog by Guinness World Records. Hercules is an English Mastiff and has a 38 inch neck and weighs 282 pounds. With "paws the size of softballs" (reports the Boston Herald); the three-year-old monster is far larger and heavier than his breed's standard 200lb. limit. Hercules' owner Mr. Flynn says that Hercules weight is normal and not created by a weird diet: "I fed him normal food and he just grew".... and grew and grew. 

Longest Dog (Living)

The longest living dog is Farrell, a male Irish Wolfhound, who measures 237 cm (93.17 in) from nose to tail-tip. He is owned by Robert and Kate Fandetti of Baneberry, TN, USA. (Couldn't find its photo)

Fun Facts 

A one-year-old dog is physically as mature as a 15 year-old human. 

In Iran, it is against the law to own a dog as a pet. However, if an owner can prove the dog is a guard or hunting dog, this restriction doesn’t apply. Muslim reticence concerning dogs is perhaps due to the fact that rabies has always been endemic in the Middle East. 

Humans can detect sounds at 20,000 times per second, while dogs can sense frequencies of 30,000 times per second.

Which country has highest dog population? First place goes to U.S. and the second goes to France.

Apuppy is born without teeth. When the puppy is three to four years old, 28 teeth will beak through the gums, so the puppy will be able to eat solid food.

Hollywood’s first and arguably best canine superstar was Rin Tin Tin, a five-day-old German Shepherd found wounded in battle in WWI France and adopted by an American soldier, Lee Duncan. He would sign his own contracts with his paw print.

Sources: guinnessworldrecords.com, Suite101.com, Wikipedia.com,

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