Talk:Empty book

Empty?

@Sandstein: - as you might see here (and in secondary coverage of the book) - Reasons to Vote for Democrats preview in Amazon and the bottom of the book description on Amazon Lefty lawyers require that we state the book is mostly blank and contains precisely 1,235 words[1] - does not only contain contain only pages that have been left intentionally blank - in fact it contains 1235 words, including: cover, title, quote from Thucydides, TOC, multiple pages with chapter headings (pages 1, 23, 43, 65, 87, 115, 127, 149, 171, 209, 255), and a backcover. (as well as possibly some more content in the back - preview ends unfortunately). As such - at least 16 pages are not intentionally left blank - it would seem inclusion on this article, based on the only criteria set above is lacking.Icewhiz (talk) 14:59, 11 March 2018 (UTC)[reply]

But the book is described in reliable sources as, well containing empty pages. Such ancillary material as you describe does not change this. But I think we could adjust the inclusion criteria accordingly. Sandstein 15:58, 11 March 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Perhaps then we should revise our assessment of purported RS who have made a clear factual error (I've yet to see such a source - but I'll take your word for it), as several reputable sources - e.g. wapo or esquire who states Is it actually all blank? There's the cover, then the title page, a quote from Thucydides' The History of the Peloponnesian War: "This is a work which is to win the applause of the moment, but as a possession for all time." Then the table of contents, with topics like the economy, civil rights, values and principles, so on and so forth, all the major political issues. Then it's approximately 250 blank pages save for the chapter header. state otherwise as does a cursory examination of the book. Surely the book contains some empty pages, but not all pages are blank.Icewhiz (talk) 16:20, 11 March 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Note that as the book contains more than just front matter (in this case - chapter headings) as well as back matter - the current stated criteria still do not include this book.Icewhiz (talk) 16:23, 11 March 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Icewhiz makes a valid point here. The writer of the cited story in Haaretz clearly never looked at the book and got it wrong. Our page describes Reasons To Vote For Democrats: A Comprehensive Guide as having quite a number of pages with brief text, and ths soruces look reliable. According to our page, A History of the Palestinian People featured one page of text, with the rest blank. Some of the other books may perhaps have similar, although the sources linked to most describe the pages as blank ( except pf the fifty shades of Grey parody, which features many pages in varying shades of grey.) I suggest that we modify the definition in the lede to clarify that these "blank books" sometimes contain material such as chapter headings, other very brief text.E.M.Gregory (talk) 11:58, 12 March 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Well, I did add something to this effect to the list section: "The books may have book design features such as front matter, a table of contents, page numbers, etc. as long as the pages are otherwise blank." Sandstein 16:56, 12 March 2018 (UTC)[reply]

That would not include chapter headings (pages 1, 23, 43, 65, 87, 115, 127, 149, 171, 209, 255) in the Reasons to Vote Democrats book as chapter headings are not book design features and nor is the Thucydides quote I believe - so it still would need to be excluded. And there is also a problem of WP:OR here - what source defines an empty book in this manner? This would seem to defy the simple lexical definition.Icewhiz (talk) 17:07, 12 March 2018 (UTC)[reply]

It ought to be in the lede, which is mis-leading as it stands. Perhaps "but whose pages have been left intentionally blank" could be changed to : "but with most pages left intentionally blank, although a few pages may include brief amounts of text, such as a quotation or chapter name."E.M.Gregory (talk) 17:41, 12 March 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Putting this in the lead would be quibbling about detail. The lead should give a concise definition, with any detail to come later in the text. What makes this distinct as an, er, literary genre is the blankness of the pages, not whether some individual examples may have "chapter" headings, etc. Sandstein 17:52, 12 March 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Is there a non-OR definition here (that would apply to the books listed)? It would seem this literary genre consists of mostly blank books but not entirely blank (it seems they all have a title at least) - we would need a SECONDARY RS that has studied this branch of literature to state this - one would prefer an academic source of course.Icewhiz (talk) 18:57, 12 March 2018 (UTC)[reply]

What about:

"everything men know about women" — Preceding unsigned comment added by הראש (talk • contribs) 12:37, 9 July 2018 (UTC)[reply]

"Wisdom of Lobo" was never sold separately but a separate book in the Lobo Slipcase Set (1991) from DC comics ISBN 10: 1563890496 / ISBN 13: 9781563890499 https://www.abebooks.com/9781563890499/Lobo-Slipcase-Collection-Greatest-Hits-1563890496/plp — Preceding unsigned comment added by 175.45.116.64 (talk) 22:01, 12 July 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Proposed merge of World's shortest book into Empty book

The articles have effectively the same topic. power~enwiki (π, ν) 00:17, 28 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

I support merging the content, but not redirecting unless there is sourcing that shows that this is a common name for empty books. ReaderofthePack(formerly Tokyogirl79) (｡◕‿◕｡) 06:17, 28 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]