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Book Review, © Copyright 1998, Jim Loy
One of my hopes, all my life, has been to instantly bring up any fact that I wanted. I dreamed of living in a huge room with every book, magazine, and paper. And, I could look up my facts. The Internet brings us closer to that.
My favorite reference book has been the World Almanac And Book Of Facts. There are certainly other good almanacs. But, there are two reasons that I prefer The World Almanac. It covers astronomy better than the others. I wanted to be an astronomer. I wanted to know the sizes of the planets, and where they were, and what the names of their moons were, etc. And The World Almanac always had more accurate data. The second reason is that every issue now has "Offbeat News Stories" of the previous year, like: "In July a 23-year-old Rhode Island woman went to an emergency room with a 24-inch lizard stuck to her chest..."
I still do not have a huge room with every book, magazine, and paper. But, I still use my World Almanac (almost daily, because of my writing). If only it were available as a CD ROM, with monthly upgrades over the Internet.
The folks at The World Almanac welcome comments and criticism. They warn that they do not "decide wagers." Their email address is walmanac@aol.com.