Some books are simply too good to put down. At the Woodland Park
library one book is too big to pick up.
At 133 pounds, the book, printed on one continuous page, is the
size of a football field when fully opened. A show stopper that
takes two people to turn the pages, the book is the largest in the
world and one of only 500 copies printed.
At $10,000 a copy, the book, titled “Bhutan: A Visual Odyssey
Across the Last Himalayan Kingdom” was donated anonymously to the
library in 2004 and is on display at designated times in February
and March.
“It took four of us to get it into the building,” said Rita
Randolph, the library’s communications manager. “We’ve had it
stored in Florissant for the past two years.”
The book is the story of Bhutan in photographs. “Bhutan is a
beautiful country, very colorful. There’s only a sentence on each
page so as not to distract from the photos,” Randolph said.
A project of Michael Hawley of the Media Lab at Massachusetts
Institute of Technology, the book captures the character of the
country from dance festivals to its ancient architecture and
mountainous terrain of the Himalayas. As well, the book reflects
life in one of the smallest countries in the world located between
Nepal, Tibet and India. In capturing the essence of Bhutan, Hawley
and his team combined a scientific field study with
photography.
Unveiled Dec. 15, 2003, at the Explorers Club in New York City,
the book is sold as a fundraiser for Bhutanese schools and
educational programs through the nonprofit, Friendly Planet.
The exhibit kicks off in celebration of Library Lovers Month at
2:30 p.m. Feb. 1 at the Woodland Park library. Subsequent showings
are at 2:30 p.m. Tuesdays, 6 p.m. Thursdays and 10:15 a.m.
Saturdays through February and March. The book may also be shown by
appointment if scheduled one week in advance.
Article source: http://www.ourcoloradonews.com/tellercounty/news/bhutan-book-kicks-off-lovers-month/article_d39e8688-8ba9-5e33-b7f7-1dd605ef58d4.html