The Book of Lists

by Irving Wallace and Amy Wallace David Wallechinsky

Paperback, 2005

Status

Available

Call number

031.02

Publication

Canongate Books Ltd (2005), Edition: Revised, Paperback, 480 pages

Description

The first and best compendium of facts weirder than fiction, of intriguing information and must-talk-about trivia has spawned many imitators - but none as addictive or successful.For nearly three decades the editors have been researching curious facts, unusual statistics and the incredible stories behind them. Now the most entertaining and informative of these have been brought together in a long-awaited, thoroughly up-to-date new edition.

User reviews

LibraryThing member relah

I freaking love this book. I "borrowed" it from a church library when I was ten and have got hours of entertainment from it ever since. Ever wondered wanted to know 15 famous events that happened in the bath? Vincent Price's 10 favourite dinner guests from all history? 7 famous men who were full or

part time virgins (John Ruskin is a personal favourite)? This is your book. Arch, entertaining and clever, this book assumes the same of it's reader. True, it's dated but that just makes it even more awesome. Somewhere in my copy OJ Simpson is the number one American hero.

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LibraryThing member Spoonbridge

This book has a special place in my heart. If I recall, I discovered it in 5th or 6th grade and quickly acquired all of the series that I could. Even then, in the ‘90s, the book was hopelessly out of date and a few of the lists had to be taken with a grain of salt but, as I did not yet have

access to the internet, this was one of the finest sources of random trivia and bizarre facts available to me. I loved every page of it (with the exception, I suppose, of the chapter devoted to sports) and poured over each list, taking down notes and lists of my own. Divided into sections by topic, Crime, Literature, Nature, Art, etc., there were all sorts of tidbits to blow my eleven year old mind. I remember bringing them everywhere so as to be able to look up amusing facts for friends and classmates at short notice, at one point dropping a copy into a mud puddle at recess and having to painstakingly dry the thick little paperback.

Compiled by a father, sibling team, the lists reflect the time period they were written, but have a witty, casual style and, in addition to lists of facts like the ten countries where the highest percent of men and women live to 85, there are lists consisting of the opinions of famous people such as the ten worst movies of all time (circa 1977). Whether it was the five most hated people in history (1970-1976), the nine dog breeds that bite the least, or fifteen authors who wrote best sellers in prison, I learned a lot (particularly in the section on sex). In the end, I feel that there was definitely an influence there on shaping my interest in organizing knowledge and sparking my eclectic, multidisciplinary interests in learning as much as I could.

Reading it today brought back this feeling of awe at the endless variety of weird stuff in the world throughout time, and I smiled as I remember being amazed or shocked by various facts that I now remember having been confirmed or questioned in my later education. The yellowed, slightly brittle pages still have that nice, slightly sweet tinge of a ‘70s era paperback, redolent of library book sales and middle school classrooms. The Books of Lists are probably entirely redundant now, what with new lists of bizarre, random amusing facts being posted by the hundreds daily on websites such as Cracked and BuzzFeed. How much influence have these books had on the other 20 and 30 somethings who make these online compilings? I wonder.

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LibraryThing member AlexTheHunn

Interesting lists of various things, often by quite imporatant and reknown compilers. The concept of the book is praiseworthy.

LibraryThing member MerryMary

This whole series was a lot of fun. The lists are out of date now, of course, but overall worth keeping in the bathroom for random reading.

LibraryThing member andyray

this is the 1977 version, and it has been updated since. The lists are many and varied. The more interesting items to me is when the editors take individuals knowledgeable in their fields and ask them for their "top 10" of whatever. For instance, Irving Stone has list of "the losers. 10

presidential canidates that lost that would have made better presidents than the winners." There is a ranking, too, of the top 31 presidents, in which John Kennedy's appears nowhere on the top 10 of the great and nearly great. In fact, it doesn't appear anywhere. Makes the whole book suspect to me.

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LibraryThing member Heather19

Not really my cup of tea. These kind of books usually are, so I don't think it's the *book* per se, but the fact that it was written so long ago. Probably 80% of the lists in here had to do with shows/people/events that I've never heard of. I guess these kind of list books do get outdated

eventually.

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LibraryThing member TadpoleAngel

Addicting and charming. I've spent too many hours idly leafing through this book. As reviewer relah says, who would have though O.J. Simpson would top the 1976 list of boys' and girls' top 10 heroes and heroines.

LibraryThing member drmaf

I really cant put into words how much this book affected me when I first read it as a teenager in the late 70's I had always had a thing for lists, I used to compile things like lists of crew for imaginary ships and carefully detail what each's duties would be. Then suddenly I discovered a book

that was nothing but lists and I was in hog heaven! I remember taking it on the school bus and reading the more salacious lists to my friends, who were duly appreciative. But I also remember consuming in my quiet time all the other lists, the quoting of which would immediate signpost you as a hopeless geek. Lists of history, geography, politics, literature. I loved all of them. I've been a compulsive listmaniac ever since, and can be guaranteed to purchase on sight any book with "list" in its title. I have probably read now more than 200 list type books, but this one will always remain No. 1 in my heart.

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LibraryThing member MiaCulpa

The original still the best when it comes to weird lists. It's almost as if authors Wallechinski and Wallace (x2) realised that this would be the perfect book to usher me into teenagehood. As a very callow youth I read this, and wondered who the hell William Carlos Williams (to name just one

person) was, why the hell a protest against an English actor would lead to riots and deaths, and where the hell was Praslin Island?

Once I finished (and read over again and again), I went searching t answer the myriad questions I had from reading this book, and thus I can probably link "The Book of Lists" to my prodigious knowledge of useless trivia.

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