If you love books as a physical object, just imagine burying your nose between the pages of these beauties, massive atlases, photobooks, and tributes to the written word.

The Klencke Atlas, presented by a group of Dutch sugar merchants, led by Johannes Klencke, to King Charles of England II in 1660.

It is 5 ft 9 in (1.75 m) tall and 6 ft 3 in (1.9 m) wide when open. In 2010 it was publicly displayed for the first time with pages open.

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(via Erik Kwakkel and AP Photo/Sang Tan)

Buddhist teachings on 729 slabs made of stone, 3-ft, 6-in by 5-ft (107 by 153-cm) each, on the grounds of the Kuthodaw pagoda, around a central golden pagoda in Mandalay, Myanmar, 1860-1868.

(via Wikimedia Commons, Carsten ten Brink, Buddhist Death Project and Terry Feuerborn)

The Waynai Bible, the largest copy (43.5 in by 98 in, or 110 cm by 249 cm) of the entire King James Bible, completed by Louis Waynai in Los Angeles, California, completed in 1930 after two years of work on his homemade rubber stamp press.

The 8,048-page book weighs 1,094 pounds (496 kg).

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(via Lazarus Dodge)

Bhutan: A Visual Odyssey Across the Kingdom, a 118-page book printed in 2003, composed of photographs taken in Bhutan, created by MIT scientist Michael Hawley. It measures 5-ft by 7-ft (1.53 m by 2.13 m) when opened.

It cost $2,000 and more than a US gallon (3.8 L) of ink to produce the book, and sold for $10,000 on Amazon.

(via UT San Diego)

A 13-ft, 8-in by 12-ft, 4-in (4.18 by 3.77-m), 3130.5-lb (1420-kg) book with 346 pages and 434 images, introducing the flora, fauna, and villages of the Aggtelek National Park, Hungary, 2010.

(via Legnagyobb könyv)

A compilation of 437 featured Wikipedia articles in a 5000-page, 1-ft, 7-in (48.2-cm) book by Rob Matthews, a graphic design student in 2011.

(via GEEK)

Earth Platinum, a 6 by 4.5-ft (183 by 137-m), 128-page atlas by the Sydney-based Millennium House. 31 copies were produced and sold for $100,000 each in 2012.

(via Millennium House)

A 16.4-ft by 26.44-ft (5 by 8.06-m), 3307-lb (1500-kg) book about the life of Prophet Muhammed titled "This Is Muhammed," unveiled in Dubai, February 2012.

Bonus: The statue of Ruhnama (The Book of the Soul), a book written by Saparmurat Niyazov, also known as the Türkmenbaşy (Leader of Turkmen).

The Ruhnama gives spiritual and moral guidance to the Turkmen people, but contains many stories and the autobiography of Niyazov, as well. In 2006, Niyazov said that God told him if any student who read the book three times, they would automatically get into heaven.


(via Martha de Jong-Lantink and Begemot)
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