In the entire history of BookTube, I don't think I've ever seen both Hellboy and Shakespeare discussed on the same video 😂. Mr. Vaughn is officially the BookTube 🐐.
I have a copy of that Annotated Shakespeare. It is a prized possession, just a beautiful thing. I've always wanted to find an ornate wooden pedestal and just leave it out, open to random pages.
I’m not a comic reader, but that monster sized Hellboy looks fantastic. My Oxford Complete Shakespeare is big, but not that big. My book that is too big: Bottom’s Dream by Arno Scmidt 1496 pages 12.95 pounds 11 x 3.75 x 14 inches
I suspect I would struggle with most of these, less on account of their physical dimensions than because of the smallness of the print. They probably would've been easier for me pre-stroke when I could at least physically handle them more easily, but even so.
I love the e-readers for that reason. I have so many huge files on my Kindle, that I could never have in physical form. My biggest book is the Riverside Shakespeare. Similar to the Annotated. I don't carry it around. I leave it on my desk so that I don't even have to take it off my shelf. I am doing a intensive Shakespeare read this year.
Love a chunky boy! My largest book is a complete illustrated & annotated Shakespeare. My Big book of Pulp Crimefighters is also pretty big and don’t get me started on those George R.R. Martin coffee table editions 🙈
My, "This book is too &*@$##@$ big!" epiphany came when I started having back pain from carrying around The Way of Kings in my backpack. It wasn't the sole cause of it. But it really did aggravate the problem. Generally, if I can't hold the book open and read while standing on a crowded moving train, without holding on to a pole, then it's too big. I'm usually able to do that. (Sometimes while holding a commuter mug or water bottle!) But with a big hardcover, it becomes impossible. This is one of the things I do love about ereaders. It's SO much easier!
This has me thinking about the giant chess board. The ones that have real people as pieces. Change that to a giant book. Where you have to climb on a podium that is the right height to read the book, and have 2-3 people ready when you ring the bell to turn the page. That would definitely too big for most people. Especially since you could probably have a car built into the book if you need to move it around alot. Most people won't even have a back yard big enough for that book. Much less a front. Though it does raise the question, what book would people want to read this way? Think mine would be the Lord Of The Rings Trilogy One Volume.
At the time I read LOTR, I owned the trilogy in one volume and I owned Two Towers as a paperback. It was much nicer to read the TT paperback. The one volume book weighs 3.5#. I am NOT a fan of Tolkien’s works so this was pure torture to carry as well as read.
I too, have a big complete Shakespeare and a few other crazy-sized books. Some are antiques, andI suppose those were meant to be on a desk or table tobe studied. I could see having some of the bigger books in my car, as for years I waited to pick family members up from work, school, practice, etc. I would not do that with the Hellboy. You brighten my day.
I agree, that Hellboy is big, about 10 pages bigger than the DC Jack Kirby Bronze age omni which is my biggest omni and that does come with a dustjacket (and has not ripped off yet). I wonder if anyone will ever bring out a 2000+ page omnibus. The biggest book I have is probably the Mad artist edition which is near impossible to lift. I think back in the 18th century they did turn out pretty massive books as well, not exactly the same thing though. Yes, books can be too big and I prefer that I can read them on the bus / train (but as you say, there are e-readers) And Clark Kent would obviously be giving himself away if he was seen walking around with that Hellboy book (what about Bruce Banner though)
Your poor mail carrier deserves a tip! Or at least a heating pad. True story: I used to buy work bags/backpacks according to the size or quantity of books I was wanting to lug around at that particular stage of my life. Back issues (and no outside the home job for years) have put an end to that. And so I'm left with a bunch of nice backpacks/bags I really don't use anymore. It's sad.
I was just on vacation in Miami. During dinner I put on a suit and I enjoy a book at the bar or a book with dinner. I had two options. The first was the complete works of HP Lovecraft. Very big and bulky. The second was Raymond Chandler’s Farewell, My Lovely, possibly one of my favorite books of all time. I picked HP Lovecraft because I felt a good short story would be better and suffice to say there was almost an incident due to the size of the book. It was too big for the table and the bar especially with food. The Raymond Chandler would have been the better option. Some books are just too damn big.
I definitely am more of a "book as useful technology" guy but I also think that books are multipurpose. There are book-objects that are designed to be read, like mass market and trade paperbacks, kindles, and the average hardcover. Then there are book-objects that are designed to be seen on bookshelves, like Riverside Shakespeare's and your giant Hellboy book. So ultimately, to each their own...
I couldn't help but wonder why such a book the size of the Annotated Shakespeare would have such an apparently small font. I would have thought it would have been the opposite.
I was trying to "eyeball" the size of that giant Hellboy, and I think it may be approximately the size of the bound medieval manuscripts I've seen that were kept chained to the shelves in the Magdalen Library, Oxford. These large books were not designed or meant to be carried around. But it's the content and size of the print that should really dictate the size of any book. The largest books I have, besides an old compact OED, are Shakespeare-related -- a documentary life, the Harvard Concordance to Shakespeare, my old favorite Rockwell Kent-illustrated complete Shakespeare, and my newest purchase, a used copy in great condition and well-made facsimile of the First Folio. And oddly enough, I never have any desire to tote them anywhere...
We in the library trade call large hardback volumes "turtlecrackers" (because they're so heavy you can crack a turtle's shell with them). A book is only too long when it's unnecessarily so. Being heavy enough to crack a turtle is not a bad thing. An example of a book that's just as long as it needs to be is the first volume in Frank Herbert's "Dune" series and Victor Hugo's "Les Misérables". Can't think of anything I'd cut that wouldn't hurt the overall story. Examples of books that are overlong are every single one in Robert Jordan's "Wheel of Time" series and Salman Rushdie's "Midnight's Children", both of which needed editors who knew how to perform bibliosurgery and say "no". I'm no pro and even I can see that, as Ambrose Bierce once said, "the covers are too far apart." JK Rowling's Potter series also got overlong as the series progressed. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone : 76,944 words (first book) Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix: 257,045 words (fifth book) Rowling defends the length of the later books by saying she had so much essential story to tell, which is a lame excuse: dammit, Jo, just break the story down into two books. Or were you in a hurry to write those awful Cormoran Strike novels that'd never seen the light of day if they weren't written by you? I know many SFF fans love big books and they cannot lie, but I like mine shorter if possible. "The Left Hand of Darkness" is 89,745 words and tells an epic story because LeGuin was just that good. Speaking of overlong: nobody's reading to the end of this comment so I'm bailing out of it now.
Clancy was the same way. The Hunt for Red October was the right size, and so was Red Storm Rising (though long) and Patriot Games. But later, after becoming "successful" he had so much extra material in his books, I eventually gave up on reading him. A strong editor could have preserved my readership. The trend towards longer books does not impress me. I would rather read Starship Troopers any day than anything written after 1990.
@@RHampton Agree 100% on both Clancy and Heinlein. Publishing houses and editors had more control over their star authors in Heinlein's era, but we lovers of le petit roman need to make our voices heard, because publishers are convinced that readership is overwhelmingly in favor of big ole doorstops. And while we're at it: "The Goldfinch" by Donna Tartt desperately needed an editor's red pen. There's brilliance buried in that bog.
I read it all! I'd have to disagree on "Les Misérables". I loved having read it. But yegads, I could've done without the detailed descriptions & histories of this and the street and place. Get on with the plot, before I forget what the heck is going on! "Turtlecrackers" - What a fantastic term!
@@Yesica1993 I used to hate Dickens because I felt he rambled on, but over time, I came to appreciate how the detail built a world for the reader. Hugo wrote pre-movies/pre-television, when readers wanted detailed descriptions.
I was waiting for you to talk about “The Big Damn Book of Masculine Manliness”, but that book does not compare the what you put on display. I want more monster sized books.😁
I keep thinking about getting Monster Sized Hellboy, I have the trades and I'd like to upgrade but I don't really like the felt covers on the library editions. Great review, Michael!
A good subject. I own the Colossal Conan which is about the same size. I purchased the monster even though I already owned the original content in floppy and Hardbacks because, well I am obsessed with owning every freaking thing I can find concerning my favorite literary creation. Im not a Hellboy fan, but still might pick this up just because I know it is so darned cool and will likely not be reprinted.
The monster book itself probably not, but the content will absolutely be continually reprinted. Also Hellboy is a great read but funnily enough it's sister series BPRD would be even bigger if all of it were put into one volume.
When I was a kid my parents weren’t that fond of me wasting money on comics so when I got some I read them in the bathroom. I got used to that well into my adult life and for a while I was conflicted in wanting to read a comic against how f7king heavy it was - and even if nowadays I read comics anywhere else I see a Omnibus or that Hellboy monstrosity and it’s a hard pass for me. Most comics, even arsty Bande Dessine, are supposed to be fun reads, not big damn medieval bibles on a podium. On the other hand when it’s books if it’s fiction I want to be able to carry it - I just read them and it’s unusual I find a fiction book I’ll want in hardcover. But when it’s something like that wonderful Thucydides Landmark I already know I’ll read it on a desk because I’ll be making notes and stuff.
I don’t think I would take anything much bigger than a regular paperback out of the house. I have been known to go on vacation with large books in my luggage, but they didn’t leave the place we were staying once we got there. Since I read a lot on my Kindle, if I’m out for commuting type trips, I’d actually be most likely to use the Kindle app on my phone. If it’s going to be longer than a couple of hours, I’ll bring the Kindle itself because it’s more energy efficient. As far as books to big to read or own, thankfully there is no such thing.😅
I've thought about this a lot. I don't have a good answer, but it's a constant battle between practicality (I like to read my books without enacting elaborate reading motions) and ideation (I love big books, the bigger the book the better it must be!). In the case of Hellboy, I opted to keep my omnibus editions. I guess Infinite Jest is my mark of demarcation. If a book is thicker then Infinite Jest, I would just prefer multiple books. That's my limit.
There comes a point when a book is impractically big, but context matters, too. A good dictionary will need its own stand. Some dictionaries need bookshelves. Long ago, I made sad concessions to soulless electronic devices. I still like a paperback dictionary for my backpack, though.
Books can be both too large and too heavy. To some extent it depends on your age. When I was in my late fifties, I used to write and translate in the mornings from 8-to 11, and read in the evenings. I had a big comfortable chair with a chair board to put my books on, and I would read until late in the night. Frequently as I got older, I'd drowse off. If the book was heavy it would fall out of my hands and worse still I would lose my place. Now, a quarter century later, I don't read much at all although I still buy books, and I'm so slow waking up that I have to work on my writing and translating. from about 11 to 3 in the late morning and early afternoon. .Such is life.
A thousand page ebook without an active TOC is unwieldy in its own way. I accidentally lost my place while reading The Cave Girl in a thirty book ERB collection. Fortunately, a new character had just appeared, so I could search for the name.
That Hellboy book looks awesome. I need to get to Hellboy…..love the films. Haven’t read any yet though…great subject for a video. I love finding books I want that are in little cute corgi editions or similar shapes and sizes.
if you wanted hellboy in a large premium format without the big page count, the library editions are the best option. this new big hellboy book is not the largest I have ever seen, Blackest Night Omnibus by DC is 1664 pages long.
Well you just have books and you have table books. I've carried around big books as well, and i still will if needed haha. I don't mind looking eccentric 😉
Surely the Annotated Shakespeare could be put into volumes and sold in a box as it is already been published in volumes as I can't imagine anyone needing a book that big.
Oh my, you went an got it .. thats a whopper. Yeah, thats waaaaay too big for me, I prefare my omnis under 800 pages if possible, like Golden Age Wonder Woman for example, many omni I won't buy because theyre crazy big .. looking at you Blackest Night, and you War of Realms, way too big. I have developed a physical problem that has encouraged me to keep away from big books, its safer for us both. My biggest book is an absolute, its taller but lighter than an omni. Epic Collections, trades, standard hardbacks of novels and comics, thats my comfort zone. Got some chunky hardbacks, standard sized just very thick omni editions, weight is my kryptonite.
I made this joke last night.... The complete Oxford dictionary alone is 20,000+ pages ... I have a text that is 3200 pages. They are both a touch too much.....😅😊😂
I was wondering when I saw the title of the video what you meant by "too big." I was like, as in too big too carry, or was it just too long and could've used some editing. lol I don't think I got enough sleep.
I find a book’s readability is based on both size and on its written content. How? Monster-sized Hellboy is tough to read, but at least it’s a reasonably quick read. “Infinite Jest” by David Foster Wallace is a big book that reads with extreme difficulty because the prose requires three minutes a page plus there is constant flipping to the footnotes at the rear of the book. Ugh! 😮😅
I've always been a physical reader. Some of the really big books that I have are comic omnibus. Some of them are massive. Frank Miller's Big Damn Sin City might be my biggest. I've read some of them on the couch, but it was difficult. They're definitely not a take somewhere type of book. They stay at the house and get read at a table. But sometimes, at least with comics, you can't beat the price for the amount of material you get. And you can knock out a full run in one go which is nice. But with space getting tight, I'm thinking of asking for an eReader for Christmas. Do you know of a good one for color comics reading thats also good for book reading and is easy on the eyes?
@@MrStrangermoon Titan is releasing the original Savage Sword omnibus's and hopefully finish what Marvel failed to finish, they are also gonna be releasing the original Barbarian run from Marvel as well but Marvel finished that run. I believe they will start coming out next spring.
