The World Almanac and Book of Facts 2004 (Paperback)

by Editors of World Almanac (Author) "I was on an escalator in B. Altman's Department Store in New York City when I heard that President Kennedy had been shot..." (more)
Key Phrases: major intl, newspaper circ, urban aggr, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
"Every household needs a copy." -- ,Richmond Times,

"The biggest bargain on the shelf." -- Review

"The most useful reference book known to modern man." -- ,Los Angeles Times,

Review

“It’s mind-boggling the amount of stuff you can find in this book. And it’s the kind of thing one needs every year, too, because the world keeps changing.”
- Knoxville News-Sentinel

“Every household needs a copy.”
- Richmond Times

“The most useful reference book known to modern man."
- Los Angeles Times

“The biggest bargain on the shelf.”
- Esquire

"It's mind-boggling the amount of stuff you can find in this book. And it's the kind of thing one needs every year, too, because the world keeps changing."

(Knoxville News-Sentinel )

"Every household needs a copy."

(Richmond Times )

"The most useful reference book known to modern man."

(Los Angeles Times )

"The biggest bargain on the shelf."

(Esquire )

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 1008 pages
• Publisher: World Almanac; 2004 edition (December 5, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0886879108
• ISBN-13: 978-0886879105
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.5 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #536,968 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Best Reference Book and Best Book Bargain, December 31, 2003

By	David Lee (RI United States) - See all my reviews

Both in terms of usefulness and value, this is still one of the most astonishing reference books ever. For the cover price of $11.95 you get over 1,000 pages of facts relevant to almost any topic. It's extremely USEFUL when you need information and extremely FUN when you just want an enjoyable book to browse. As to the comment on Amazon.com regarding the book no longer containing the World Series results, I too used to enjoy that in the book, but the date of the last Series game is a lot closer to Halloween than it used to be. At some point any book has to have a deadline, and this one contains facts from later in the year than you would expect from a book available for sale as a Christmas gift. This currency is a great achievement of the editors. I'm always amazed to find such recent information in a reference book. This year, John Ritter's death on 9/11 made it into the celebrity birth/death section. How many other books refer to an event a mere 3 months ago? A GREAT BOOK and AMAZING VALUE!

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The standard in almanacs, November 13, 2003

By	Brian Melendez (Minneapolis, MN United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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; contains a directory of the entire Federal government, including Congress and all congressional committees, every executive department, and every court and judge; 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.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars No home should be without one, April 15, 2004

By	James Ferguson (Vilnius, Lithuania) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This is my favorite almanac. It is compact, easy to use, with well organized information. I think it is more complete than other almanacs, offering extensive coverage of the US Presidents, elections, and a state by state breakdown of Presidential elections since 1952, even going so far as a county by county breakdown in the hotly contested 2000 election. It has excellent sports coverage, as well as arts and entertainment. It presents the US Constitution in its entirety, along with brief synopses of landmark Supreme Court Decisions. This almanac also provides a short history of the National Anthem and the contentious Pledge of Allegiance, which had "under God" amended to it in 1954. It is packed with other vital information such as a breakdown of membership of religious groups in the US, the location of these religious groups headquarters, and a record of Easter Sundays up to 2100, so that you can plan ahead for this ever-shifting holiday. There is a very good section on health and nutrition, including dietary requirements for children and other salient information on how to better maintain your health. And, there is a comprehensive section on the nations of the world, including many timely statistics that will clue you into the demographics of the vast multitude of people. In short, everything you need to know to keep abreast if this ever-changing world we live in, as well as help you solve the NY Times crossword puzzle.