Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Always the best, but this year I discovered something that makes it even better, 28 Sep 2008
I first read the Guinness Book of World Records when I was kid back in the 70s, and it's comforting to see it still going strong. I'll say that I definitely preferred the old school text-heavy versions from back in the day to the flourescent lime, 3D photography, picture-fest of today. It's a new world we live in now, so I guess it's hard to fault the Big G for keeping up with the times.
As much as I've long loved the Guinness book itself, I was always a little disappointed that there wasn't a good resource written ABOUT Guinness -- its history, evolution, and especially about how it became the phenomenon that inspires people to carry out such dedicated acts of nuttiness. A few weeks ago in New York, I saw a book profiled in the newspaper titled GETTING INTO GUINNESS by Larry Olmsted. Olmsted is a journalist as well as a two-time GBWR record-holder, and I gave it a try. Well, it's the perfect companion piece to the Guinness book; it puts everything into context and lets you feel like a real insider. 300 pages of fascinating real life stories about the quest for Guinness recordhood, and Amazon has it for under nine pounds. I'll be giving them together as a gift to my nephew. Buy them as a tandem (which is what I should have done) and you'd even get free shipping with Prime! Getting into Guinness: One Man's Longest, Fastest, Highest Journey Inside the World's Most Famous Record Book
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Very lame, 5 Feb 2009
I got this book for my son (14) for Christmas, thinking he would have a lot of fun over the weird and freaky things people in the world have accomplished. At first, he was thrilled as well, but that rather quickly turned into confused bafflement and dismay.
"Mum, what sort of a record is it that the polar bear is the largest carnivore in the world, or that the first plane was hijacked in 1931?" my son asked me.
It turns out that the once exciting book of cool, thrilling, crazy, freaky and awesome things people have done has deteriorated into a general natural history and science book, listing things like Afghanistan's opium production, largest desert, brightest star, closest galaxy, most southerly tree fern... I mean, there's nothing wrong with natural history books, quite the contrary - but this is not what I was looking for here. Although it also lists things like most snails on face, longest hair, hairiest face and highest slackrope walk, it has been reduced to a lame and superficial overview of nature, technology and people. Again, nothing wrong with nature, technology et al, but I buy separate books for that!
This has been a very saddening disappointment to us. Well, at least the covers look good - 1 point for that!
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23 of 29 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
No wonder this is the world's best selling book!, 23 Sep 2008
After having received Guinness World Records 2009, as a gift, I've realised just how good it is. I was in Tesco a few days ago, and flicked through it then. I thought it was good. But now I own it, it's enabled me to see the extent of just how good it is.
Saying that it's the best edition of Guinness World Records to date, and it is (no worries there), isn't really that much of an achievement. Saying, however, it's the best book I've ever read...the best book ever made...is.
And this is. It's crammed full of amazing achievements, epic engineering, fantastic feats, and much more amazing stuff to feast your eyes on.
Leaving `Ripley's: Believe It Or Not' for dead, GWR really have excelled themselves this time. It really is astonishing.
This year's edition also includes huge, awe-inspiring fold out 3D features, which are apparently obvious when you wear the 3D-glasses that are provided.
It's awesome!
- Revealed: the world's strongest man
- The record-breaking world of Harry Potter
- Inside the Hollywood Hall of Fame
- The top ten videogames of the year
- Face to face with dinosaurs in exciting 3D!
- Plus your favourite records country by country
All this can be found in the spectacular book that is Guinness World Records 2009.
I'd suggest going over to that bookshop, right this second, and buying a copy.
Guaranteed - you won't be disappointed.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
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by BBC
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by Rennie Brown (editor)
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