Book uses two columns instead of one

The two-column format is a valid if cumbersome technique for squeezing it all into one volume. There are several large and important canons which one naturally wants to fit all into a single book, on general moral and aesthetic principles, and also because it is actually tractable, if challenging, to do so: The Holy Bible, Shakespeare and Plato come to mind.

Imagine a Bible with the pages like so. If your response is "yes, good, that's much easier to read, give me two volumes instead please", then you've missed the point, which is to halve page count and produce a single usable, if cumbersome, volume.

It's a simple question of what is being valued in the preparation of a book, or books.

French egoism

is Clive Barker a good writer

>Imagine a Bible with the pages like so.
They make them, call them "reader's Bibles". Most of them take out verse numbers. I would rather eat a full-size replica 1611 KJV than read a reader's Bible.

I just picked the example because I needed a good example of a page with a big, thin word-count and also because I'm planning on re-reading Hellbound Heart at some point in the foreseeable future. I did find the novella generally enjoyable, but it's the only thing I've ever read from Barker.

^ This guy is also not a STEM major

Do you guys seriously think splitting the words into two columns halves the page count? Like really nigga?

Published Math grad my salty baby. You are making virgin-brainlet mistakes in your thought process. There are several variables in play (margins, font size etc), but as a general ball-park statement, it is perfectly reasonable to characterize the double-column format as (about) halving page count, for discussion. Double-column texts commonly also have a much smaller font, for compression purposes, and partly for the reasons I gave above. Have you ever read or paged through any such texts while I was making love to your mother?

Even this "reader's" bible (apparently), hated by the above other user, still serves as exemplar, object lesson. Look at how tight the column whitespace is, and how tight the text is to the page edges. Upon review, my own cheapshit tacky compleat B&N Shakespeare and a Dover Malleus Maleficarum also have fairly tight column margins, albeit fairly liberal page margins. Fonts are still small relative to the pages, though, so I'm still right natch.

thoughts?

looks like a blatt from Talmudic tractates.

>Most of them take out verse numbers

Aren't those pretty essential for a Bible?

That's not a reader's Bible. This is what a reader's Bible looks like. I would rather eat a Ford F150 pick-up truck's bed worth of sawdust than read one, by the way.

Thank you for strengthening my point with your example.

Cos da bible is da bomb

No, he's right and you're being retarded.

Glad I could help. I haven't read the other posts, but I assume this puts us in the lead.

It's easier to read narrow columns because you don't have to move your eyes back and forth. Once you get used to it, you can just sort of "absorb" the text on your way down the column.
t. newsprint fan

all religious books created to brainwash people should be burned with the people reading them

they were added later. useful for referencing, not for reading

don't cut yourself on that edge

*tips*
I agree my good sir
*starts up an Amazing Atheist video*

>going through the bother of removing verses yet formatting psalms as prose not as lyrics

Ugh.

>not printing books in mile-long fortune-cookie scrolls

How is it less pages?

When a paragraph ends with one word on a line, that adds up. Two columns cuts that wasted line in half.

Combine with Obviously it saves space between paragraphs, the usage of which won't be affected by line width.
But also, as the text size decreases relative to page width, you reach a point where it becomes easier to navigate the text by breaking up the page into multiple columns. If typeset competently, columns allow you to place more text on a page without making it cumbersome to read.

This was done so you could read down either column rather quickly. Your eye can focus on the center of the column and take in the entire line, instead of wasting time moving left to right. And later on, when you're looking for a key word or phrase, you can skim down each column with ease.

You do know that a scroll isn't a book right?

This is why I hate shitposting on Veeky Forums, you're all pedantic assholes