The World Almanac and Book of Facts

This is an awesome desk reference for facts. It's also extremely entertaining to read. You may find yourself addicted if you start flipping through. For the price, this is GREAT!

gotta have an up-to-date almanac in the house ---- despite our habits of going to the computer (which isn't always right), gotta get the right answer from the almanac

"Almanac 2008" begins with a synopsis of 2007's top ten new stories (eg. from Iraq to the Minneapolis bridge collapse), interesting changes of the last several decades (eg. fat consumption/capita in the U.S. increased from 37.7 lbs. in 1910 to 85.5 in 2005; the trade deficit/surplus went from +$92 billion in 1975 to -$817 billion in 2006), a brief news quiz (eg. "Which Republican contender paused during an NRA speech for a call from his wife?"), an election guide, key international issues for 2008 (about the same as 2007), etc. Then its oodles of fact-filled pages to add depth to most any news discussion - except those involving Hollywood stars' latest escapades or notable murders. "Almanac 2008" then ends with short statistical summaries of countless nations - some of which I didn't even know existed.

"The World Almanac" is a great resource. Especially for people who just have to know minutiae such as (I just flipped through pages randomly to get the following): Top 20 reasons people give for visiting the ER (page 135), SAT scores by state (page 403), Hispanic voting power (page 602), names of North American Cardinals (Roman Catholic) (page 715), basic information on countries such as Malta or the Maldives or Mali (page 797), boxing champions by weight class as of October 1, 2007 (page 955). This volume has a long historical record, going back to the last century (according to the introductory comments, it has been published for 140 years). The introductory section also notes that the FBI worries that the Almanac may provide useful information to terrorists, indicating that a book that many would think stodgy has come to exemplify Post 9/11 America. There are a set of sections, each dealing with a set of related subjects, from "Economy, Business, & Energy" to "Crime" to "Military Affairs" and so on to the final section, "Sports." In short, there's something for almost everyone here. The 2008 version does not disappoint, for those who are interested in having a reference such as this. Highly recommended! And, if you're like me, a lot of fun as one randomly peruses the volume to pick up interesting and little know facts.

There are many imitators on the market, some of them quite good, but this almanac has set the standard for more than a century. The New York World newspaper began publishing an almanac in 1868, "a 120-page volume with 12 pages of advertising." The newspaper suspended the almanac's publication in 1876, but publisher Joseph Pulitzer revived it in 1886 as a "compendium of universal knowledge." The almanac has been published annually since, outliving the newspaper whose name it still bears. (The World Almanac is not the oldest almanac in publication, however: that distinction belongs to The Old Farmer's Almanac, which is "North America's oldest continuously published periodical," founded in 1792.) The World Almanac contains much useful information that belongs in any serious basic-reference set. For the world, the almanac presents basic statistics about each nation, and about the world's major religions; and summarizes the world's history, with more detailed histories of the United States and of the preceding year. For the United States, the almanac reprints the nation's organic documents, the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution; lists every community with a population over 5000, with its ZIP code and area code; lists every county (or parish or division) and county seat; presents basic statistics about each state and major city, and a short biography of each president; and much more. The almanac also contains bountiful information about education, science, sports, and many other topics. No other single volume offers such a wealth of information on such a variety of subjects.