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HB wordcount

how many words in the Halfbakery?
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Statistics on how many words there are in the Halfbakery compared to a book you have read. At first I wanted to suggest 'the Bible' as a unit, but that is something I haven't read myself completely. You should be able to choose something you can relate to.

With that knowledge you can then for example ask yourself the question: what is better for me, reading 'À la recherche du temps perdu' by Proust or the entire Halfbakery? (BTW: which of the two works is easier to summarise?)

Perhaps the words for the ideas and annotations should be seperated in the count.

rrr, Mar 29 2006

Award for getting 1,000,000 words into the halfbakery 1_2c000_2c000_20Word_20Keyboard
[DesertFox, Mar 30 2006]

[link]






       I like the idea of a standard unit of word-number. Perhaps a bible is a bit large (similar in size potentially as a Quixote).   

       Perhaps using a 'Wodehouse' would be more appropriate since most of his books were of similar size, from memory.
zen_tom, Mar 29 2006
  

       or the length of songs...   

       <grits teeth> anything but James Blunt.
po, Mar 29 2006
  

       My guess? 10,000,000 words.
wagster, Mar 29 2006
  

       how do you get that? I've been working on an average per idea x idea divided by Farmer John and plus a missing thumbwax...
po, Mar 29 2006
  

       Don't forget to carry the vernon...
methinksnot, Mar 29 2006
  

       Roughly 30,000 ideas x average of 100 words per idea x average twice as many words in annos as in idea = roughly 10,000,000 words. Error margin +/- 5,000,000.
wagster, Mar 30 2006
  

       I've started printing out each individual word on a separate piece of paper and numbering them. It's the only way to be sure, and someone has to do it....
xenzag, Mar 30 2006
  

       The bible is not quite as defined as you may think [Brau]. There is still a lot of debate over which books of the apocrypha are/aren't really a part of the bible, not to mention the discrepancies between various translations.
wagster, Mar 30 2006
  

       (at risk of unnecessarily turning this innocent idea into an unfortunate religious debate) The Bible we use hasn't changed in 400 years... but point taken.
david_scothern, Mar 30 2006
  

       German? The Essenes spoke German? Well I never...
wagster, Mar 30 2006
  

       No no no... it was King James English, silly.
RayfordSteele, Mar 31 2006
  

       Can anyone tell me what is wrong about this idea, what could be improved? How to interpret the negative votes?
rrr, Mar 31 2006
  

       For starters, the wordcount would just be yet another useless statistic.   

       You also seem to be drawing some inference between the amount of writing on the halfbakery and its quality as reading material. It may indeed contain more words than the works of Shakespeare, Dickens or Steinbeck but by no means would I consider it "better for you", as you put it.
hidden truths, Mar 31 2006
  

       The hidden truth would be that the statistic might help you determine what to read, Halfbakery or something else with more 'quality per word'. Eventually, such a statistic might get meaning along the way. Perhaps not, but I would like to see the statistics first.
rrr, Mar 31 2006
  
      
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