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The Book of 365
Hugh Brazier, Jan McCann

The Book of 365

If you lie awake at night worrying about the maximum speed of a metronome, or how many dimples there are on a golf ball; if you’ve ever wondered why the shipping forecast is broadcast on 198 metres long wave; or if you find yourself puzzling over what is really going on in the 273 seconds of John Cage’s most famous composition – then this is the book for you.

The Book of 365 consists of 365 entries, using every number from 1 to 365 as a starting point for a brief exploration of the world around us, taking in a broad sweep of science, history, art, literature, medicine, and popular culture.

Every number has a story to tell, and The Book of 365 contains 365 of their stories. But this is no dry-as-dust mathematical treatise. In fact (with one exception) you will find no mathematics in this book. What you will find is a dazzling array of intriguing facts and little-known stories, each one connected in some way to one of the numbers from 1 to 365.

The Book of 365 covers topics as diverse as romantic poetry and steel mesh, archaeology and chilli sauce, un-birthdays and barcodes.

For example, did you know that:

  • Both roses and starfish display 5-fold symmetry?
  • Code 39 is a type of barcode symbology?
  • Coleridge’s poem Kubla Khan has just 54 lines – but why does it stop so abruptly?
  • When George Washington borrowed one particular library book, it was not returned for 221 years?
  • 358 prison mesh is a type of high-density fencing, very hard to climb or cut?
  • The number of un-birthday presents that Humpty Dumpty might receive is exactly equal to the number of gifts in ‘The twelve days of Christmas’?

And no book called The Book of 365 would be complete without a bonus 366th story, in honour of the leap year.

Book Details:

  • Author: Hugh Brazier, , Jan McCann
  • On Submission
  • Rights Sold
    • UK: Square Peg
    • Lithuania: Sofoklis
Hugh Brazier,

Hugh Brazier,

Hugh Brazier was born in Bristol, and grew up there and in the Black Mountains in south Wales. He has a first-class degree in English from the University of Cambridge, and an MA in Library and Information Studies from University College London. He worked for many years as an academic librarian in Dublin, mostly in medical libraries, before moving to York and becoming a freelance editor in 2002. He specialises in medicine, zoology, and sailing books, and his regular clients include Cambridge University Press, Wiley-Blackwell, and HarperCollins. Hugh is a birdwatcher, a dinghy sailor, and an...
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Jan McCann

Jan McCann

For many years, Jan McCann worked by day as a bookseller, while by night she was a jazz saxophonist. Since 1999 she has worked as a freelance copy-editor, proof-reader, and book reviewer, specialising in travel, geography, art, and natural history. She started writing in 2009, and is the co-author of The Book of 365. She has recently completed the manuscript of a book on the American artist Walter De Maria, and is now planning her next book ‒ about ice as a source of inspiration for artists. She has a PhD and first-class BA in Art History and a BSc in Geography. She lives within a seagull&r...
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Book Reviews

  • "Anyone looking for that quirky gift or unusual literary present this Christmas may find it in the brilliantly fastidious The Book of 365… This really is a unique and fascinating book that will give you material enough to outwit even the most ardent of quizmasters."
    We Love This Book
  • "Anyone looking for that quirky gift or unusual literary present this Christmas may find it in the brilliantly fastidious The Book of 365 … This really is a unique and fascinating book that will give you material enough to outwit even the most ardent of quizmasters..."
    http://www.welovethisbook.com/