This is topic The World Almanac And Book Of Facts in forum Books, Films, Food and Culture at Hatrack River Forum.


To visit this topic, use this URL:
http://www.hatrack.com/ubb/main/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=2;t=031194

---

Posted by digging_holes (Member # 6237) on :
 
When you're moving (which I will be this coming Friday), you dig up alot of old stuff that you haven't touched, or even looked at, in ages in order to pack it.

When I turned eleven, my parents gave me the Where In The World Is Carmen Sandiego? computer game. Along with it came the 1993 World Almanac And Book Of Facts. I barely even looked at it, and it ended up in a box, buried under the stairs. Then, the other day, as I was pulling all of those old boxes out to re-pack them, I found a box of my old stuff, and the Almanac was in it. I ended up staying up till quite late last night perusing it.

I must say, it is quite interesting. It is basically a self-contained encyclopaedia about... well, everything. It's a handy reference tool for all that near-useless trivia and statistical stuff that you always want to remember and never can (like populations of major cities, Academy Award winners, and all that kind of stuff.)

I must admit I was a bit amused at an publication primarily concerned with the U.S. calling itself a World Almanac. I found the 1993 edition to be slightly out of date by now, so I went and bought the 2005 one.

Is there anyone else who uses these things? Any die-hard fans who have every one all the way back to 1908 carefully conserved in their basements? Anyone who despises them so much, this thread makes you sick?

EDIT to add link.

[ January 24, 2005, 04:04 PM: Message edited by: digging_holes ]
 

---

Posted by Megan (Member # 5290) on :
 
My parents buy my brother one every single year for Christmas. I like them well enough, but don't enjoy them quite the way he does.
 

---

Posted by Lost Ashes (Member # 6745) on :
 
In a recent attempt to find bedtime reading, I grabbed a copy of the 2000 World Almanac. You know, it's kind of interesting if a wee bit out of date.

Longest river? Check.
Gross Domestic Product of Sri Lanka? Check.
Real names of celebrities? Check.
History of North Dakota? Check.
Useless trivia to bedevil my wife with as she tries to go to sleep? Booyah!!!!!!!!!
 

---

Posted by digging_holes (Member # 6237) on :
 

quote:

---

Useless trivia to bedevil my wife with as she tries to go to sleep? Booyah!!!!!!!!!

---

 

---

Posted by Jay (Member # 5786) on :
 
Now you can just look everything up on the net!
 

---

Posted by digging_holes (Member # 6237) on :
 
But the internet doesn't smell like paper.
 

---

Posted by James Tiberius Kirk (Member # 2832) on :
 

quote:

---

Where In The World Is Carmen Sandiego?

---