Customer Reviews

The Top 10 of Everything 2007 (Top Ten of Everything)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is the type of book that cures the curious George in all of us. Interested in movies? Learn which are the top studios. Still want more? Find out the Top Ten movies for each major studio. What films won the most oscars? Which films were nominated for the most? It's all here and then some. You get the picture. The information is wide open and global in it's scope with chapters entitled The Universe and The Earth(aren't we a part of the universe, just wondering), Life on Earth, The Human World, Town and Country, Culture, Music, Stage and Screen, Commercial World, Transportation and Tourism and Sports. Anywhere from seven to twenty categories are within each subject chapter with Sports toping the list. I found this book to be very entertaining and educational as I learned many things that I was unaware of; it is good to have all this type of information in one convenient place. You can straighten out some misconceptions or errors in what you believe to be true. For example, I was under the impression tha Mexico City was the largest city(and capital city too) in the world and it is not; Tokyo, Japan has that distinction. Who has the largest defense budget? You guessed it, the good old U.S.A. This book may especially be helpful for students and in some cases may stimulate further learning about certain subjects. For example, most people might guess that Bill Gates is the man with the most personal wealth but who is the richest woman ? Turns out it is a woman by the name of Liliane Bettencourt from France. Her source of wealth is L'Oreal, she's worth sixteen big ones, that's billions! A young girl might want to do a research paper on this woman for a class after learning initially about her wealth. There really is alot of cool information here. Considering this is the eighteeth year of annual publication "The Top Ten of Everything" has hooked upon a successful market. I think this book is good for students both young and old. Many schools dedicate a shorter period after lunch to reading and this book would be excellent for that quick read. Middle school to high school age students can benefit greatly from the information found in this book. It is conveyed in snapshots or snippets of information which requires very little reading and is made for skipping around from subject to subject by whatever catches your fancy. The color photographs are nicely done and appeal to the pop culture lust so many people seem to possess. However, the photgraphs of other cultures, nature and animals are also well done to present an overall stimulating visual appeal. Recommended for young curious minds that want ot know more about the world we live in.

We have all enjoyed reading segments of this book. The lists are surprising and very enlightening. Many vast areas of knowledge compiled in this terrific book. A great gift!

This is a sensational collection of facts on the top ten of everything from top selling music artists to tallest buildings. Sport results, movie takings, deaths by various animals, guns, crime and everything else are inside. Highest mountain, longest border, population and other demographic info is also ranked. This book is full of colour photographs and illustrations as well. It does come out before the year mentioned (ie this 2007 edition was published in 2006 (The 2008 version is about to released as I am writing this review in November 2007) so obviously the book is not entirely up to date for the year on the title. It is still great though and an excellent source of trivia questions or answers to friendly bets. I have previously owned (and reviewed) the 2005 edition and a lot of the lists especially historical ones are still the same so depending on the lists or trivia you're interested in you may be better off buying a much cheaper previous year volume. If the latest stats such as highest grossing movie, latest sporting stats and so forth are more your thing I'd wait for the Top 10 of Everything 2008 to come out in a few weeks.

It is important to note as well that this book also is released as specific country editions (eg Australian, UK edition and so forth). It's mostly the same lists, there's a few country specific ones though such as Rugby League and AFL stadium crowds which I'd be guessing replace US sport crowds. The bonus of the country specific versions is that where the top ten countries of whatever the list is are ranked, your specific country and its info will be in italics under the list if it didn't make the top ten. Also of great benefit, the metric system is used and local currency (ie not US dollars) is in the specific country released versions. Although Amazon is a global seller and website, being that its distribution warehouse is in the states you'll probably end up with the US version no matter where you live if you purchase it from this website.

If you're a teacher, trivia night fundraiser question writer, interested in history or just plain interested in what is the highest, longest, top selling, top performing, oldest, largest capacity and a heap of other achievements of a number of different topics from nature (eg deadliest animal to humans), man made structures (eg highest bulidings), sport (eg most wins) economic (eg most expensive countries to buy a Big Mac), poverty (eg highest unemployment rates), agriculture (eg top ten list of various crop producing countries), natural resources (eg top ten list of various mineral producing and also consuming countries), disasters (eg worst passenger deaths from ferries), largest ports, oldest subways, busiest airports, these lists and more covering a vast range of interesting topics mean this is the book for you!

The book is very US-centric; many of the lists are specifically for US top tens. But more troubling than that, the book is riddled with inaccuracies and contradictions. For example, Arabic, which--depending on the source--is either the second or the fourth most spoken language in the world, doesn't even get a mention among the top ten. Or, the number of marriages in China would be by far the highest in the world according to one list, but doesn't make it to the top ten in another related list.

There are many good almanacs and other sources for this kind of information; I wouldn't waste my money again on this series.

I have used the content of this book mainly for transition during my classroom training. I ask the learners to guess about the top 10 or 5 of list I preselected to look at. It is fun and helps the learners to refresh the mindset. It helps me to get learners attention back!

Very entertaining and covered about every subject matter under the sun. This book was well researched and presented in an easy to read manner.

It is perhaps a bit unfair to criticize a work for 'hyping itself' when exaggeration and outdoing are part of its very subject. i.e. I would maintain that there are very important areas of life in which making lists of top - ten are absurd i.e. the ten top kindest people in the world. There is also the fact that in most things 'listing a top ten' means making a kind of subjective judgment. Consider choosing the top ten writers of all time. The English - speaking world would have no trouble with the first one, Shakespeare. The French would hear nothing of this .The Russians or some of them might agree. But a candidate for the number two position of world's great writers, and arguably the greatest novelist mankind has known, Tolstoy could not stand Shakespeare considered him immoral.

This reservation aside the 'Top Ten Book' can be a lot of fun if not taken too seriously. It can also provide a lot of information .It does try to be more 'factually based' than most works of this kind. It is certainly not among the most Top Ten reference- books of all time, but may well be among the 'Top Ten books' whose subject is the 'Top Ten of Everything'