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by Chinyere Nwosu

October 10, 2021

You must have read the interesting facts about books and interesting facts about Harry Potter here a few weeks ago. Here are more lovely facts about some of your best stories you will be happy to know.

10 Interesting Facts About Books You’ll Be Happy to Know

1.     There was a Harry Potter character before J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter.

The first Harry Potter character was published in a literary magazine in Poland on March 19, 1972. The author is Jan Rostworowski, a Polish poet and short story writer. His text was published 25 years before the first J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter book – Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. Rostworowski’s Harry Potter is a teenage boy who did not receive a Hogwarts letter and led an ordinary life just like other muggles. He worked as a shopkeeper and suddenly vanished in the end. It is worth mentioning that it is unlikely that Rowling borrowed the name from this Jan Rostworowski story. Rowling was only seven years old and lived in Winterbourne near Bristol when Rostworowski published his work in Poland. (Malopolska, Ebook Friendly).

2.The oldest continually operating library is in Egypt

The oldest operating library in the world is in a monastery by Mount Sinai in Egypt. This library is second only to Vatican City when you speak of ancient manuscripts collection. It also has the oldest complete Bible (345CE) called the Codex Sinaiticus. This library was established in AD565. (Oldest)

3. The youngest person in the world to write a book

Dorothy Elmhirst Straight is the youngest person to write and publish a book. She wrote her book How the World Began in 1962 when she was 4years and 3months old. This book was written within one evening in response to her mum’s question, “Who made the world?”. It was published 2years later in. (En. Wikipedia)

 

4. The country that reads the most is India

India is credited as the country that reads the most. BOP World Culture Index 2005 says that an average Indian dedicates 10hours a week to reading. Thailand is second with a 9.24 average reading time per week per individual and China 8hours. (Indy 100)

5. Fifty Shades of Grey and Twilight Fan-Fiction

Fifty Shades of Grey featured in Twilight fan-fiction website as Master of the Universe. It was episodic, but currently, it is a known international phenomenon. It has been rewritten and extended into three parts – Fifty Shades of Grey, Fifty Shades of Darker, Fifty Shades of Freed. (Business Insider)

6. The book you can read in multiple ways

A German 16th-century religious book printed in Germany can be opened and read in 6 different ways. The volume cleverly encases six books bound separately, each book enclosed with its own clasp in one. This type of binding is known as “dos-a-dos”. This method of binding books was common in the 16th and 17th centuries and used to bind related books. (Ebook Friendly)

7. Alice in Wonderland

The story – Alice in Wonderland is based on a real 10year old girl. Her name was Alice Liddell. The author Lewis Carroll (formally known as Charles Dodgson), was a close friend to her family. While on a boating trip from Oxford to Godstow, she had asked Lewis to tell her story. Alice in Wonderland is a children’s classic. A classic that began as Lewis Carroll’s way of keeping his friend’s children (Alice and her two sisters) entertained on this trip. He named his protagonist Alice and Alice was taken by the story. To fulfill Alices’ wish, Lewis sent her a manuscript titled Alice’s Adventure Under Ground. This was in 1862. Seeing that the children of another of his friends – George McDonald loved the book, Lewis Carroll revised and retitled it Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. (The Atlantic)

8. The Lord of the Rings

Do you remember the story about living for eternity and staying forever young as long as you had the ring? Yes, The Lord of the Rings. The trilogy ) was typed by the author – J. R. R. Tolkien, with just two fingers. Tolkien said the only way he learned to type was with just two fingers, so he made a story of over 1200 pages ((The Hobbit and The Lord of The Rings) using that skill. (Digital Imprint)

9. The greatest library of the ancient world

The library of Alexandria is located in Alexandria Egypt. The library is known as the greatest library of the ancient world. It was one of the largest libraries that existed and housed books from different parts of the world. Every book that came into the port of Alexandria became the property of the state. Books were submitted to the library by travellers and tourists to be copied. The library kept the original, and the owner took the copy. The library had 400,000 scrolls (by estimation) before it was destroyed by fire. So many histories and cultural documents were lost to the fire. (Wikipedia)

10. Medieval Books came with curses

In Medieval times, the literate were mostly the clergy. The monks, therefore, handled writing and transcription. Handwritten books were seen as a scribe’s lifework. Monk-scribes placed curses at the beginning and end of the handwritten tomes to protect valuable tomes. Examples of such curses include ex-communication from the catholic church, books turning into serpents, and demonic swords gouging the eyes of those that borrow the tomes but do not return them or do so timely. (Atlas Obscura)