Customer Reviews

The World Almanac and Book of Facts 2009 (World Almanac & Book of Facts)

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As a purchaser and frequent user of THE WORLD ALMANAC for over thirty years, this is the first time I can recall being so disappointed and annoyed with this wonderful compendium of facts. Following is why.

The 2009 WORLD ALMANAC has made some major changes in the U.S. population, zip codes, area codes and metropolitan area rankings data which are included. This is all information I use frequently and among the first I checked.

1. Previous issues included U.S. population statistics by state for Places 5,000 Population or More (i.e. by town). Last year, data by town included 1990 population, 2006 population estimate, area code and zip code. Instead of updating with 2000 census data compared to the 2007 estimate, the entire section was eliminated.

2. Re zip codes, the only ones included are for Outlying Areas only such as the Northern Marianas and Guam. Useful to be sure, by some, but much more useful to most would be zip codes for the 50 states. Not an unreasonable expectation since most of those purchasing this book live in one of those 50 states.

3. Re area codes, the only ones provided are sorted by the area code itself followed by the state to which it is assigned. Not very useful if one wants to find the area code for a specific city or how many area codes exist for a particular state. One must conduct a time-consuming search through all columns and to find them all, making notes along the way. Area codes were included this was way last year, however it was not such a big deal because they were also available categorized by state and town. It is a big deal now because this is the only area code information provided.

4. U.S. Metropolitan Area population rankings were also eliminated. This was very useful since it provided populations for 1990, 2000 and the 2006 estimate. Importantly, it also ranked the Metros by population. A great tool and metro growth indicator. These rankings were replaced by an alphabetical listing of Metropolitan & Micropolitan Statistical Areas. This replacement section does provide updated population statistics but limits data to two years and would be more appreciated if it were available in tandem with a metro ranking.

For my ALMANAC uses, I must now keep both the 2009 and 2008 issues readily available. Last year's slightly dated information is still better than 2009 with its omissions.

No longer will the WORLD ALMANAC be my default almanac purchase. I will now check the others to see which ones best suit my needs. This is one very annoyed formerly loyal user.

Each year, I look forward to this volume. I love the masses of trivia and minutiae contained within the pages of this book. I literally find it fun to rifle through the pages and see what tidbits are there. For those unfamiliar with this publication, it provides facts and figures on all manner of things--from the state of the economy to election results to sports to flags and maps to historical facts (e.g., the roster of American presidents) to science and technology (e.g., disasters) and so on. A cornucopia of facts and factoids.

One things I do when I first receive this is to literally randomly select pages and see what is there. For this review, I'll do something similar. The first page that I came up with was the results of Congressional elections in 2008 (Pages 13 and following). Another page that popped up? Pages 95 and following, speaking of portraits on treasury bills and other products from the government (Did you know that George Washington shows up on $50 savings bonds? I did not.). Or that Abraham Lincoln is on $1,000 treasury notes? Imagine how popular one might be at a cocktail party with such trivia!

Pages 246 and following focuses on "Writers of the past." Of particular interest to me is a family legend. One branch of my family came from Varmland in Sweden and some bore the name Lagerloff. Needless to say, some in my family claimed the Nobel prize winner Selma Lagerloff as a family representative. True? I don't know, but many families enjoy thinking of a luminary in the family tree.

On pages 295 and the following is the category "Awards, Medals, and Prizes," including--oddly enough--Nobel prizes. I get another chance to luxuriate in the family legend, with Selma Lagerloff having been the 1909 literature winner. Also listed are Pulitzer Prize winners, Miss America winners, Emmy winners, and the like. It's simply fun to go through the winners over time and recall some of one's special favorites. It often triggers wonderful memories!

An odd subject that showed up in my random walk through the pages of this 1000+ page work--taxes. There is discussion of recent tax legislation, meeting with your tax preparer, income tax rates and brackets, and state tax rates. On pages 524 and following, there are mini-biographies of American Presidents from Franklin Delano Roosevelt onward.

I cheated when I randomly came upon state and county populations. I checked out my home county, Henry County in Illinois, to see how things stood. Bummer. A decline of about 1,500 souls from 2000 to 2007.

Enough. The point is well made by the preceding. If you are interested in data and information, to get a better handle on the world around you, this is a fine work. Each year, I await the arrival of the latest volume and am seldom disappointed. This year was not a disappointment!

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, though: 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 county (or parish or division) and county seat, and detailed population statistics; contains a directory of the entire Federal government; 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.

The 2009 edition does differ in a few important respects from other recent editions -- sometimes for the better, sometimes not. For the better, the 2009 edition did not go to print until early November, and so contains complete results from the U.S. Presidential election and the World Series. (The preceding year's news had been ending earlier and earlier in recent editions: in the 1999 edition the last entry was 3 November 1998, in the 2004 edition it was 16 October 2003, and in the 2008 edition it was 12 October 2007.) On the down side, the 2009 almanac dispenses with the longtime feature listing every community with a population over 5000, with its ZIP code and area code.

Overall, though, the 2009 World Almanac continues to set the standard, and is well worth the price. No other single volume offers such a wealth of information on such a variety of subjects.

If an alien landed in Idaho and wanted to learn about the strange place it had dropped in on, this is the book it should start with. After picking up a pair of reading glasses.

The typeface is definitely on the small side, but don't let that stop you. This book is amazing. It has more information stuffed into it than you'll believe, it fits easily into your hand and it's not too heavy. It's way smaller than a Harry Potter book, and has about a million words.

My favorite sections are at the beginning of the book, with the top news stories of the year, and good coverage of the election. A page called The World at a Glance is fascinating. For example, did you know the world's most popular tourist destination? France, with 91.9 million annual arrivals. Did you know that in 2008 U.S. farmers grew less than half the quantity of tobacco they grew in 1990? Did you know that Game 5 of the World Series was the first World Series game ever suspended due to rain?

Everything is in plain old black and white, except for three color sections: The Year in Pictures (divided into two parts) and a collection of world maps and flags. Even the pages with just black ink have lots of photos, and tables and lists galore.

You can even download a "quiz night kit" at the book's website so you can use this book to prove that you are the smartest person in the room. It has dozens of questions in seven different categories, game instructions, even signs and invitations to advertise your party. What a blast!

Here's the chapter list:

Special Features
* Top Ten News Topics of 2008
* The World at a Glance

Election 2008

2008: Year in Review
* Chronology of the Year's Events
* Obituaries
* Offbeat News Stories
* 2008 Time Capsule
* Historical Anniversaries
* Notable Supreme Court Decisions
* The Economic Crisis of 2008
* The Year in Pictures

Economy, Business & Energy
Crime
Military Affairs
Health & Vital Statistics
Personalities, Arts & Media
Science & Technology
Consumer Information
U.S. Government
U.S. Facts, History & Elections
U.S. Cities, States & Population
World History & Culture
Sports
Directory
General Index

This book was a great disappointment to me. The type was so small that it was almost unreadable to me. I have to say that I do not have impaired vision and this is the first time I have run into this problem. I think that the when this book is ordered a warning should be told to the person ordering this book.....
arline saul

Being a trivia and crossword puzzle nut, I look forward to getting a new almanac every year. It's absolutely loaded with information you never even knew you needed or wanted.

World Almanac and Book of Facts This book of up-to-date facts is a reference every home should have. It has been published annually , for over a century but now has a website that is updated very frequently to keep the latest edition even more up to the minutes. You can find facts about history, famous people, politics, economics, sports, geography, weather, and so much more. And the book has many photos and highly readable text, making it fun to peruse. And what you remember from your times of reading it make for very interesting conversations. Keep informed in the easiest way by keeping this book of facts at your fingertips.

Very good reference but I note that the listing of colleges is n o longer in it. Big Mistake.

A sizeable block of pages in the Almnac are bound into the book upside down, making use very awkward for several subject categories.

The 2009 Almanac does not contain college and university information that was in earlier editions. This is the reason I bought it.