The Library of Babel Search Browse

The Ledger

Notable Findings

The ledger holds 12 words of five letters, 1 of six, and 1 of seven. 2 carry a name.

The Ledger

Every librarian carries a pencil. Almost every page is cacophony, but now and then the cacophony breaks for a word — whole, bounded, set down by no hand. The pencil marks it. At six letters the reader is asked for a name, and the name stands beside the word for ever.

The ledger holds only what was come upon. A page reached by search, or by an address handed to you, is read and not recorded: the library will put any text on a real page, so a page that holds a word is never proof of a find. The walk is the proof.

A word of five letters falls on one page in 68. Of six, one in 1,130. Of seven, one in 21,459. Of eight, one in 500,000. Of nine, one in 20,000,000.

Plate to come