33 1/3 (Thirty-Three and a Third) is a series of books, each about a single music album. The series title refers to the rotation speed of a vinyl LP, 33 1/3 RPM.

History

Originally published by Continuum, the series was founded by editor David Barker in 2003. At the time, Continuum published a series of short books on literature called Continuum Contemporaries. One-time series editor Ally-Jane Grossan mentioned that Barker was "an obsessive music fan who thought, 'This is a really cool idea, why don't we apply this to albums'. PopMatters wrote that the range consists of "obscure classics to more usual suspects by the Beach Boys, the Beatles, and the Rolling Stones". In 2010, Continuum was bought out by Bloomsbury Publishing, which continues to publish the series. Following a leave, Barker was replaced by Grossan in January 2013. Leah Babb-Rosenfeld has been the editor of the series since 2016. Several independent books have been spun off of the series. The first, Carl Wilson's 2007 entry on Celine Dion's Let's Talk About Love, was expanded for a 2014 Bloomsbury reissue with material not specifically pertaining to the Dion album and retitled Let's Talk About Love: Why Other People Have Such Bad Taste. Joe Bonomo, at the invitation of Barker, expanded his 33 1/3 proposal on Jerry Lee Lewis's Live at the Star Club, Hamburg album into a full-length book about Lewis, the album, and his career titled Jerry Lee Lewis: Lost and Found, published by Continuum in 2009. A rejected proposal from writer Brett Milano for an entry on Game Theory's 1987 album Lolita Nation was instead expanded by Milano into a biography on the band's leader Scott Miller; that project, titled Don't All Thank Me at Once: The Lost Genius of Scott Miller, was released by 125 Books in 2015. In August 2017, Bloomsbury announced the launch of 33 1/3 Global, an extension of the 33 1/3 series to popular music from around the world. The first two sub-series launched were 33 1/3 Brazil, edited by Jason Stanyek, and 33 1/3 Japan, edited by Noriko Manabe. The first book for 33 1/3 Brazil was Caetano Veloso's A Foreign Sound by Barbara Browning. The first books for 33 1/3 Japan were Supercell ft. Hatsune Miku by Keisuke Yamada and Yoko Kanno's Cowboy Bebop Soundtrack by Rose Bridges.

Published titles

, 189 books have been published in the main series.

Main series

33⅓ Japan

33⅓ Brazil

33⅓ Europe

33⅓ Oceania

Anthologies

Genre: A 33⅓ Series

Forthcoming titles

Main series

With release date Without release date

33⅓ Japan

33⅓ Europe

33⅓ Oceania

33⅓ South Asia

Genre: A 33⅓ Series