FAQ

The number of books is designed to cover a broad range of categories and attributes. The inspiration for the particular supply of 4,500 is derived from the sum of each of the Dewey Decimal Classification indices: 000 (Generalities) + 100 (Philosophy & Psychology) + 200 (Religion) + 300 (Social Sciences) + 400 (Language) + 500 (Pure Science) + 600 (Technology) + 700 (The Arts) + 800 (Literature & Rhetoric) + 900 (History & Geography) = 4,500 Various Books.

There are an additional 100 books reserved for our archives, project contributors, and future donations. This brings the theoretical size of the collection to 4,600, but we wanted exactly 4,500 publicly mintable books.

There are a number of properties inherent to each book—things like color of the cover and spine, page count, format, condition, and “publisher.” We’ve built individual probabilities for each of these as part of the selection algorithm. A separate line of logic drives a substantial range of unique choices in word pairings and title structures. Given the subjective and at times ambiguous nature of language, we also imagine a layer of interpretive rarity via word, color, and combinatory associations.

You can browse the calculable rarity of a book’s given attributes using our Attributes and Rarity Checker. “Antiquarian” is a tally of the rarest attributes: Oversized, Perfect, Publisher 1 (triangle), Multicolor, and 7 word title. Title format reflects word selection: A = Adjective, N = Noun, J = Join (and/of), P = Preposition, T = The