The Top Ten of Everything - Hardcover

What's so appealing about a list? It's tidy, it's pithy, it's easy on the eyes and noggin. In this oversaturated age of information inundation, the list presents preorganized data in a format that doesn't require a lot of concentration or drain vast stores of brain wattage. Even the weariest intellect can enjoy a list of 10 data points. Ten most suicidal countries? Lithuania, Estonia, and Hungary get top billing. The bestselling postcard in the Tate Gallery is of The Lady of Shalott by John William Waterhouse, whereas the top postcard in London's National Gallery shows Vincent van Gogh's Sunflowers. And the list of top 10 countries with the most video rental outlets starts with the U.S., Pakistan, and China, and South Korea and Romania don't trail far behind.

Russell Ash provides lists on the universe and the earth, animals and vegetation, births, deaths, and political achievements. There are city lists and country lists, building lists and park lists, as well as lists pertaining to music, books, movies, theater, transportation, sports, and the commercial world, plus a special section of millennium-milestone lists to prepare us for the next century.

The top 10 reasons to get The Top Ten of Everything? It is:

1. Entertaining
   
2. Educational
   
3. Fine Bathroom Reading
   
4. An Excellent Statistical Resource
   
5. Fun to Read Aloud to Anyone Who'll Listen
   
6. Doesn't Require a V-Chip
   
7. Portable
   
8. Great Classroom Reference
   
9. Keeps the Back Seat Quiet During Family Trips
   
10. It Has Only One Adverse Side-Effect: Know-It-All-ism.

--Stephanie Gold

Special features for this edition. More than 1,00 lists give you the most comprehensive Top 10 of Everything ever. Stars highlight lists that are new in this edition. Then & Now lists pinpoint specific changes over the last decade. Nap Fact panels supplement the lists on many pages, providing additional nuggets of intriguing and unusual information. Anniversary panels are distributed throughout the book, recalling fascinating events that occurred 50, 100, or even 200 years ago. Caption lists are appended to many pictures to provide extra tidbits of data.