Customer Reviews

The World Almanac and Book of Facts 2004 (World Almanac & Book of Facts)

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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!

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.

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.

This is by far the best of the many annual American reference books (and it is better than its equivalents in the UK as well). This is because it is so comprehensive - I have been using it as a writer for years, because it gives all that you could possibly want to know and a lot more besides. It covers politics, business, sport, literature, music, what happened on what day in the year before, science... Well, you can get the picture. Since it is a stand alone publication it does not have any particular ax to grind either, so is as objective as you can expect. I buy it every year and have done so for years - do the same and you will get as hooked as I have these many years past. Christopher Catherwood, author of CHRISTIANS MUSLIMS AND ISLAMIC RAGE (Zondervan, 2003)

"The World Almanac and Book of Facts 2004" packs a lot of information into its 1008 pages. The book is well organized and easy to use. Included are three separate indexes: an extensive general index, a quick reference index, and (on the back cover) a quick thumb index. The book covers information in many different areas: the U.S. government, world history, religion, science and technology, sports, etc.

The almanac is full of interesting and timely features, such as the following: a review of the top news stories of 2003; profiles of major party U.S. presidential candidates; a special section on the "Baby Boom Generation"; and a year in review chronology. Internet surfers will find a treasure trove in here; the book includes Web addresses of U.S. government departments, international organizations, sports organizations, U.S. and Canadian religious groups, major U.S. business corporations, and much, much more.

There is also a color section with maps and pictures of the flags of the world. Other interesting features: a glossary of computer and Internet terms; a special section on Antarctica; a sidebar article on the seven wonders of the ancient world; a list of words new to the English language; and much more. I consider this book to be an essential reference source for work, school, home, and library.

Where do I begin with this monumental publication???!!! It covers a wide array of information on different topics. The book is ideal for students and trivia buffs. I find it fascinating and I look forward to it coming out year after year. Topics in this edition include: Profiles of 2004 Presidential Candidates, Presidential Caucus Dates of 2004, a year in review about some of the top news stories of 2003, an overview of the United States Government under the Bush Administration, Historical Anniversaries, Vital statistics such as birth and death rates, Notable US Assassination attempts, Environmental statistics, Speeds of certain animals ( I didn't know a jackal could run up to 35 miles per hour!) There's a section on notable writers of the past and present, a list of the original names of selected entertainers, Education statistics, A selected list of 2002 Grammy winners, a list of Nobel Prize winners from 1901 to 2002, a section noting highway speed limits in the USA by State, A section on world history, Flags of the world, Origins of the names of US States, United States history, the words to the Declaration of Independence, Listings on Disasters, Energy, National Defense, Magazines that are best sellers in the United States, Religion, Telecommunications, Aerospace, Taxes, Social Security, Travel and Tourism, Sports (including baseball basketball football racing, fishing , winter and summer olympic records, and much much more!!! If you want a book your whole family can enjoy, you will want to add this one to your home. It is also an ideal book for any office, or other establishment.I'd love to be able to read this book while in the waiting line at a fine restaurant. Did you know the Rolling Stones hold the number 1 position for grossing the most amount of money for an American since 1985? Or that the Eagles "Their Greatest Hits 1971-1975 has sold more albums than any other in history? Or that there were only 249,441 enlisted personnel in the Army in 1940? Well, I knew about the Rolling Stones, but not about the Eagles and that about the Army. And there is so much more in this wonderful publication to read. I highly recommend it. I own several copies myself, and look forward to getting more. If you want a book that is a best seller and if both fun and informative to read, you can't hardly beat this one!!!

Open this 1000+ page book to any page and find something fascinating. Save for maybe the dictionary, I can say that about few books. For raw staticstics the only book on par with this is the Statistical Abstract published by the US government. However, the abstract weighs in at nearly 7 times the cost of the world almanac. This book is clearly the best value going. I buy one of these every couple of years and it continues to be fresh and full of interesting facts about our world.

An updated edition of this handy title is always a welcome edition to my library. This is a very useful tool that could lead to even greater erudition in a myriad of subjects.

I have for years been a purchaser and reader of the World Almanac. As a child I loved to read 'facts' and this provides much reading of that kind. Consider for instance its lists of distinguished writers painters spiritual figures. Or consider its country portraits with statistics on basic characteristics of political life and economy. My sense however is that with the coming of the Internet the ' Almanac ' is not quite as vital a tool as it was once felt to be. My sense is that the Information given in the Almanac can be found in the Internet in a quick search. And that for those people who sit and work with their computers a good part of the day , the Almanac would be much less looked at. This does not mean it should be discarded and that many including myself will not continue to purchase it. It is after all much more pleasant to shlep around with a book than with a computer. But the Internet and the 'Information Age' have made ' facts cheap' and made much of this information so easily available and readily duplicable that the resource simply is not the kind of special value it used to be.

The problem with reviewing a version of an almanac is that, by the time you get around to figuring out whether it's truly great or not, the next year's version is already out. So I will simply say this: this is, for my purposes (just general information), the best of all the almanacs out there. This book has almost all of the statistics you could ever want, in every field imaginable, and points you (simply look at the sources) to where you might find more.

I buy a World Almanac about every other year, and the 2004 version has seen some positive changes since 2001. It has brief bios of all the major presidential candidates (useful in an election year). Also, many of its tables have shaded the information every fourth or fifth line to make reading easier - a great improvement

What I SEVERELY dislike about this edition (editors, take note) is that it has moved the General Index to the back of the book, which is seriously annoying since that's the first place I almost always turn. I also wish they'd include election statistics for current US Senators, even when they didn't have an election in the last year. Biographies of current US Supreme Court justices would be a hit: since they seem to be arrogating more and more power these days, it'd be nice to know more about our dicta...er, "justices." Better statistics on per capita income by state (including where they rank) would also be nice.

Rush Limbaugh calls himself "America's Truth Detector." Being a conservative, I don't disagree with him that much; but if America needs a truth detector, a good almanac is always the answer. It gives you something to reach for everytime some politician or writer makes some silly assertion you're sure isn't true.