Guinness World Records 2009 continues to build on the intriguing, informative, inspiring and instructional records and superlatives that have made Guinness World Records one of the most famous brands and an annual best-seller around the world. This year, we've created a revolutionary new design and filled it with more records than ever before. And the 2009 edition will have two gatefold spreads...
New for 2009—The World Almanac and Book of Facts includes the complete 2008 U.S. election results, and World Series statistics. Every family needs this New York Times best-selling reference book.The World Almanac is the #1 best-selling American reference book of all time. It is the source for essential and authoritative facts for entertainment, reference and learning. The book contains thousands...
One of the world’s most beloved and bestselling writers takes his ultimate journey -- into the most intriguing and intractable questions that science seeks to answer.In A Walk in the Woods, Bill Bryson trekked the Appalachian Trail -- well, most of it. In In A Sunburned Country, he confronted some of the most lethal wildlife Australia has to offer. Now, in his biggest book, he confronts his grea...
When it was originally published in 1987, An Incomplete Education became a surprise bestseller. Now this instant classic has been completely updated, outfitted with a whole new arsenal of indispensable knowledge on global affairs, popular culture, economic trends, scientific principles, and modern arts. Here’s your chance to brush up on all those subjects you slept through in school, reacquaint ...
Think Magellan was the first man to circumnavigate the globe, baseball was invented in America, Henry VIII had six wives, Mount Everest is the tallest mountain? Wrong, wrong, wrong, and wrong again.Misconceptions, misunderstandings, and flawed facts finally get the heave-ho in this humorous, downright humiliating book of reeducation based on the phenomenal British bestseller. Challenging what most...
Uncle John's Unsinkable Bathroom Reader is jam-packed with over 500 pages of humor, history, science, pop culture, and more. This all-new 21st edition in this popular series is divided into short, medium, and long sections that explore topics including: Breaking the Mayan Code, Cycads: The Most Ancient Plants on Earth, The History of the Library of Congress, Return to Chernobyl, An Untold Story of...
History isn't always made by great armies colliding or by great civilizations rising or falling. Sometimes it's made when a chauffeur takes a wrong turn, a scientist forgets to clean up his lab, or a drunken soldier gets a bit rowdy. That's the kind of history you'll find in The Greatest Stories Never Told.This is history candy -- the good stuff. Here are 100 tales to astonish, bewilder, and stupe...
A Complete Revision and Thorough Updating of the Ultimate Reference from the Newspaper of Record Whether you are researching the history of Western art, investigating an obscure medical test, following current environmental trends, studying Shakespeare, brushing up on your crossword and Sudoku skills, or simply looking for a deeper understanding of the world, this book is for you. An indispensabl...
Drawn from the popular weekly segment, Late Show Fun Facts is a collection of unusual, little-known--and sometimes even true--bits of trivia assembled by the Federal Bureau of Miscellaneous Information....