Visitors to the Eötvös Loránd University of Sciences in Budapest are greeted by a perpetual book with leaves of water.

A reference to a number of consecutive pages from a book is usually noted as m–n, with $$m \in \mathbb{N}_0$$ the number of the first page and $$n \in \mathbb{N}_0$$ the number of the last page (with $$m < n$$). A reference to a single page with number $$m$$ is simply noted as m (so we never write m–m).
If the numbers $$m$$ and $$n$$ have the same number of digits, the notation is often abbreviated by removing the longest common prefix in the digits of $$m$$ and $$n$$ from $$n$$. For example, the notation 1234–1247 can be abbreviated to 1234–47 by removing the longest common prefix 12 from 1247. We can therefore easily recognize that m–n is an abbreviation, given that in this case $$m > n$$.
A reference to a number of consecutive pages from a book. This can either be a reference to a single page or a range of more than one page. In the latter case, both the long notation or the short notation can be used.
The total number of pages in the given reference. When counting pages, both the first and the last page of the reference are taken into account.
Input:
1234
Output:
1
Input:
99-103
Output:
5
Input:
1234-1247
Output:
14
Input:
1234-47
Output:
14

This staircase near the library at Lebanon's University of Balamand is painted to resemble a stack of classic texts:
Republic (Greek: Πολιτεία, Politeia; Latin: Res Publica) by Plato
The Epistle of Forgiveness (Arabic: رسالة الغفران, Risālat al-ghufrān) by Abī al-Alā al-Ma’arrī
Divine Comedy (Italian: La Divina Commedia) by Dante Alighieri
The Prince (Italian: Il principe) by Niccolò Machiavelli
Discourse on the Method (French: Discours de la Méthode) by René Descartes
Critique of Pure Reason (German: Kritik der reinen Vernunft) by Immanuel Kant
The Brothers Karamazov (Russian: Братья Карамазовы, Brat'ja Karamazovy) by Fyodor Dostoevsky
Thus Spoke Zarathustra (German: Also sprach Zarathustra) by Friedrich Nietzsche
Relativity: The Special and the General Theory by Albert Einstein
The Days (Arabic: الايام, al-Ayyām) by Tāhā Husayn
This puts them (almost) in chronological order.