The Top 10 of Everything 2004

By Russell Ash

Book Overview

Bursting with thought-provoking and often hilarious facts -- from the world's richest people to the world's deadliest spiders -- The Top 10 of Everything 2004 is the latest annual edition or DK's... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0789496593
• ISBN13: 9780789496591
• Release Date: January 2003
• Publisher: DK ADULT
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 2.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 10.8" x 8.5" x 0.8"

Customer Reviews

Wow!! Fun to Read, Loaded with Info, this book ROCKS!!

This is the 15th edition of this book. I just went through it for the first time this week. Suffice it to say, I will be reading this book many times over in the near future. This book is loaded with cool facts. It's fun to read, and it will intrigue you for hours on end. The book is divided into the following chapters: The Universe and Earth Life on Earth The Human World Town and Country Culture and Learning Stage and Screen Commercial World Transport and Tourism Sport and Leisure Each section contains a group of lists. The cool thing about it is that the source is listed so the information can be cross referenced and verified. There's also wonderful pictures throughout. There are some omissions I wondered about. In the natural disasters section, there is no list for the most distructive tornadoes. Whatever the author's reasons, more things are included in this book than are omitted. The Music section offers interesting sections on songs and songwriters and all the basic benchmarks of best selling music. The biggest single of all time: Candle In The Wind by Elton John. Biggest album: The Beatles with St. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. The book contains more than 700 lists and many short inserts that explain more about a subject. The text is complimented by the many stunning pictures in the book. The bibliography and index are also both very useful. To top it off, the publisher spared no expense and the print quality is great! The Top 10 Of Everything 2004 is a great book filled with great info. This book can certainly be used by scholars and trivia junkies alike! Buy this book now!

More colorful than a world almanac

The appeal of top ten lists goes back in the west to at least the Bible where we have the Ten Commandments, and in the east there are the yamas and niyamas of yoga that are ten in number. Ten is the basis of our number system and ten are the digits on our hands and toes.So it is not surprising that we love things in ten. Included in the top ten reasons that David Letterman is still doing late night comedy is his top ten list. And here we have a book biz phenomenon now into its 15th Edition: The Top Ten of Everything.Well, not quite (but never mind). The emphasis here is on the famous and the popular: ten richest men (Bill Gates is #1, but Warren Buffett is closing in), ten richest women (Alice L. Walton of Wal-Mart is #1); ten biggest buffos at the box office (men: Harrison Ford; women, Julia Roberts); highest paid sports stars (Alex Rodriguez, $252-million when he was with the Rangers), popular singers, films, songs, poems (William Blake's "The Tyger" is the most anthologized, but Dylan Thomas's "Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night" is the "most popular").The top ten most populous cities are listed (Tokyo is #1) as are the top ten most populous countries (the US is #3 behind China and India). I was surprised to learn the production of corn now exceeds that of rice and wheat. The top ten list of religions has Christianity at the top with Islam second, Hinduism third and "non-religion" fourth. Atheism is #7. Some science is included. Oxygen is the most common element in the earth's crust with silicon second and aluminum third. The deadliest spider is the banana spider from Central and South America. (The black widow is fourth.) The largest butterfly is Queen Alexandra's birdwing with a wingspan of eleven inches.Every page contains color photos supporting the text with plenty of shots of movie, sports, and record stars along with animals and just plain people. The text is set off in boxes with white backgrounds for easy readability.I spent a couple of hours with this book. It's addictive, like eating chocolates. I kept turning the pages. You could just buy a world almanac and get more info, but this book is more fun and easier on the eyes.Russell Ash who heads up the team that put this book together (led by Senior Editor Nicki Lampon) asks for ideas and corrections. Here's an idea for the 16th Edition: "Top Ten Most Visited Websites"; indeed a section on the Internet would be great. (You're welcome. Just send me a copy of the new book!) And here's a correction. One page ten it is written that "Ganymede is the seventh-largest of Jupiter's moons." Actually it's the largest, and in fact (as noted in a list on the same page) it is the largest moon in the solar system.

Top 10 of everything under and beyond the sun

This book of fascinating lists is divided into the following chapters: The Universe and Earth (the galaxies, stars, continents of earth etc.), Life on Earth (all about animals), The Human World (about health, the body, etc.), Town and Country (info on the countries of the world), Culture and Learning (including fascinating information about languages), Stage and Screen (lists include DVD, video and movies), Commercial World (including websites, advertising, science an technology), Transport and Tourism, Sport and Leisure (including the Olympic Games.)The Music section offers interesting sections on songs and songwriters, record firsts, stars of the decades, all-time greats, chart toppers, gold and platinum, music genres, broadcast music and movie music. The particular lists include Most successful songwriters, Rock songs of all time (Satisfaction, Respect and Stairway to Heaven to name the first three), Most popular bands through the decades, etc. The biggest singles of all time has Candle In The Wind at number one and biggest album honours is carried by The Beatles with St. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. The book contains more than 700 lists and many short paragraph features elaborating upon important topics, like for example the first million selling record. The text is enhanced by color pictures and the book concludes with a bibliography reflecting the aforementioned chapter headings and an index. The Top 10 Of Everything 2004 is a fact-filled and up-to-date reference work and also offers hours of fun for the casual reader, no matter what their hobbies and interests are.