The Library of Babel
Jorge Luis Borges
Borges imagined a universe of books containing every arrangement of letters. In a place with so many answers, how would you recognize the one you needed?
Explore Borges’ libraryPossible
Book.
Discover the Library
Somewhere in all these books,
there are your words.
The promise you made. The thing you wish you had said. The first sentence of the book you might one day write.
Imagine a library with room for every possible arrangement of letters. Most pages are a jumble. Hidden among them are words that mean everything to someone.
Find your page Step inside the idea
An enormous idea. A personal discovery.
Every combination.
One that matters to you.
Put letters together in every possible order and something remarkable happens: alongside the nonsense, you make room for every sentence that can fit. A wedding vow. A birthday wish. A letter never sent.
Every Possible Book gives this idea a place you can visit. Our digital Library has a fixed alphabet and a repeatable way to turn each book’s address into its pages. Your search finds a location containing a simplified reading of your words.
You can preview the full page, choose the one you love and keep a printable PDF with a private record of its location. The address brings you back to the same text.
See how the Library worksFollow the idea further
A story that keeps opening doors.
These books and projects explore the wonder, and sometimes the unease, of a library that seems to contain everything.
A Short Stay in Hell
Steven L. Peck
A man must search an immense library for the book of his own life. Peck turns the scale of the idea into a deeply human question about time and meaning.
Discover Peck’s bookLibrary of Babel
Jonathan Basile
Basile’s interactive website lets you browse and search a digital Library of Babel. It is another way to experience the strange feeling of finding familiar words among the unfamiliar.
Visit the Library of BabelThese are independent works and projects. Every Possible Book is not affiliated with their authors or creators.
Bring something of your own
What words would you go looking for?
A few words are enough to begin. Preview your page before deciding to keep it.