The longest book in the world is for sale, but you can't read it

one piece photo
(Image credit: BEHROUZ MEHRI / Contributor/ Getty Images)

A limited-edition single-volume collection of the manga One Piece is being hailed as the longest book ever, as reported by The Guardian.

Clocking in at a whopping 21,450 pages, the tome is physically impossible to read and is more of an art piece than an actual book. One Piece has been serialized in Japanese magazine Shōnen Jump weekly since 1997.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

When asked if they were worried about copyright infringement, JBE Books, the French publisher behind the artwork, said, "This piece is about Manouach's work around ecosystems of comics, here as a sculptor who uses online dissemination as source material, not reading copyrighted content." Indeed, "ONEPIECE exists as an object of pure speculation," the publisher insists on their website.

A representative for JBE further told The Guardian that the book "unreadable sculpture that takes the shape of a book — the largest one to date in page numbers and spine width — that materializes the ecosystem of online dissemination of comics." The limited edition printing of 50 copies sold out quickly after its premiere on Sept. 7.

Explore More
Theara Coleman, The Week US

Theara Coleman has worked as a staff writer at The Week since September 2022. She frequently writes about technology, education, literature and general news. She was previously a contributing writer and assistant editor at Honeysuckle Magazine, where she covered racial politics and cannabis industry news.