Bhutan: A Visual Odyssey Across the Last Himalayan Kingdom, created by MIT professor Michael Hawley, Ph.D., is certified by Guinness World Records as the world’s largest published book, weighing 133 pounds and measuring 5-by-7 feet.
Teams from MIT and Friendly Planet took over 40,000 photographs on four expeditions across the country of Bhutan. Local students joined these ambitious trips and helped with the photography. Approximately 100 images were chosen and loosely follow these journeys. Portraits of people are life-size (or bigger). Panoramas convey some of the staggering sweep of the mountains and the awesome ancient architecture. "Bhutan" begins with an atlas of the country, created by renowned artist and author David Macaulay expressly for this book.
Bhutan: A Visual Odyssey Across the Last Himalayan Kingdom was officially designated the Library's one millionth volume in November, 2004 and is on permanent display in the Library atrium. The book, valued at $10,000, was generously donated to the Library by Ms. Charisse Castagnoli, a U.T. Austin Law School graduate and Vice President of business development for Layer N Networks in Austin.