“Bhutan”: The Book the Size of a Coffee Table

Measuring 5x7 feet and weighing nearly 150 pounds, the world’s largest book, Bhutan, is on display at UW’s Suzzallo Library.

Everything about Bhutan is extraordinary: it is printed with a gallon of ink on a roll of paper longer than a football field. The printing process takes an entire 24 hours for each copy. It weighs 133 pounds making it the heaviest book in UW’s Special Collections as well as the biggest. A new page is turned once a month.

The full name of the book is Bhutan: A Visual Odyssey Across the Last Himalayan Kingdom. It contains 114 pages of photographs capturing the people and spirit of this enchanted country. To view sample pages, click here.

Suzzallo Library
A trip to the Suzzallo Library wouldn’t be complete without a visit to the Reading Room. Measuring 65 feet high, 52 feet wide, and 250 feet long, the Reading Room features a vaulted ceiling elaborately decorated with richly colored and gilded stenciling. The oak bookcases are topped with a hand-carved frieze representing native plants of Washington state.

For info on visiting the library, see Suzzallo Library.

BTW, if you really want to buy Bhutan: A Visual Odyssey Across the Last Himalayan Kingdom at Amazon, it’ll cost you — $30,000 to be exact.