The World Almanac and Book of Facts

My dad always bought me The World Almanac when I was a kid. No matter what the topic was, research for school assignments always found me first reaching for this volume for orientation. The information found in the Almanac lets you hold the whole world in your hands.

This is a book that we get annually. It makes great reading anywhere and at any time. We especially like to keep it in our private area as we can get little bits of information in a short time.I reccommend it to anyone who likes facts that change annually.

The book is not only full of numbers, statistics, and percentages covering education, science, sports and entertainment, among other subjects, but is a useful reference tool covering not only the years top stories from 2005, but has a great world history section as well as U.S. history, including documents like The Declaration of Independence and The Constitution. A great reference book for students of all ages. You are sure to find something interesting, informative and fun in this book.

When I was a boy I fell in love with the almanac. It was always so captivating to explore all the facts contained in the book. I could read about the various countries, learn about their geographic size, the population size, their per capita income, GDP, major industries, history, and more. Then I could look them up on the maps and their flag (who doesn't love looking at all the flags?) in the middle pages. There is similar information about each of our states, a year by year summary of the history of our country. There are sports records and information on health and medicine. There are handy conversion tables. The amount of information seems nearly endless. If I tell you that I used to carry a copy of this book with me in school everyday, does that give you some idea about me? It was really for when I got bored in class, or wanted to check something that was said by the teacher or another student. This book is something you can dip into almost endlessly and fine something new. While the publishers would like you to update your copy every year, I found that every couple of years is often enough. You can't get more good information at a better price than your trusty almanac, and this one is my favorite. The editors seem to know what to keep and what to change to keep it up to date and relevant. Fabulous!

With the advent of the Internet, you would think no one would need a book like this, but there are many people who are not fortunate enough to have a computer. Plus those of us who do use computers, find many uses for the facts and figures in this book. As a writer, I have found answers to questions in the Almanac that I could not find elsewhere. And it's fun to look up a particular subject and to stumble on some other intriguing subject that stimulates my imagination. It's a valuable tool for any profession and I recommend it highly.