You’ve probably already heard about Wikipedia, the worlds largest online encyclopedia that is being edited by volunteers and regular people who fill in the blanks with references… It is the most popular general reference work on the Internet.

So what do you think if that same online encyclopedia – Wikipedia is converted into real book that can be read and touched like any other book? Can you guess what size would that book be? Read on to find out and see photos of it.

Rob Matthews, a graphic design student from Brighton, Sussex, took two weeks to make the book out of Wikipedia! Although that book doesn’t really contains the whole Wikipedia content (I think that’s impossible) but as he said, he tried and selected only the best articles he could find (with best references and the most accurate ones) and he turned them into book, a huge book!

A book which is 5,000 pages long and 1ft 7ins thick.

He said: “I’m comparing the Internet Wikipedia to a traditional encyclopedia by putting it in the same format. I wanted to make a comment on how everyone goes to the Internet these days for information, yet it is very unreliable compared to what it has replaced.”

He said: “It was difficult to produce, there was a little bit of trial and error when it came to binding, as I’d never tried to produce a book of that scale before. Some of the tools that would normally be used can’t cope with producing a book on that scale.”

Rob said he had a great response and people got interested about the book, which he later hopes to sell. That’s a great idea! I’m sure he’ll get amazing amount of money because that book is not just a simple encyclopedia like any other, it will be like a unique trophy or something like that, and many people are really interested in that kind of stuff.

He said: “The reaction’s been great – it makes people laugh, which is good.”

Photos of Wikipedia Book:

[via telegraph]

[tags]wikipedia, encyclopedia, online, free, volunteers, photos, images, book, print[/tags]