I purchased this book for my 13 year old Granddaughter and she was thrilled with it. Her Step-Father and younger Brother immedietly snatched it up and had their noses buried in it for hours.
I ordered it and it came within a week. The book itself is well presented in a hard cover, a nice looking book.

I purchased this book for my 8yr. old son for Christmas. He spent hours Christmas day simply looking through the book and sharing some of the facts that he learned. I am a firm believer that reading enriches the mind and why not give them something to read that is knowledge based and interesting facts that he can tell his friends.

I would recommend this book to the young and old.

My 9 year old daughter had an old 1999 paperback copy of a Guiness Book Of World Records. She read it all the time, so I thought this would be a great gift. I couldn't have been more right! The 3-D pictures are really cool. She carried that book around all day showing pictures to everyone. I think it was her favorite Christmas gift, even beating out the Wii game she got!
The only thing negative I can say is that it was hard to find the 3-D glasses (they are within the pages of the book) and they had to be put assembled (they are cardboard). It's not that big of a deal though.

Kids love this book, no doubt about it. It's packed with all sorts weird facts, lots of photos - a far cry from the Guinness I knew as a kid.

Parents should know that there are some entries that are weird and/or gross - and a few that might be considered objectionable (e.g., Largest Augmented Breasts - pictured, mostly covered). By the time I flipped through the book, my son had already seen it in the school library. Oh, well...

I liked it OK because it didn't have very much action as I was
hoping for says my child Grant. I hope this is all the info you
were imagining to get.

Linda

This is a great book to pick up when you have just a few minutes "to kill". The articles are all short enough to read intermittently. Very interesting subjects. I didn't realize that they actually travel around the world to be present when these records are broken.
I highly recommend this book as a gift.

It's a good book, the ones you should leave in the bathroom and everyone that goes there kind of goes through it every page in a while. Very curious stuff

I have bought a copy of, Guinness: World Records, for my son every year for Christmas since 1995. We love reading the records.

This is one of those annual collections that I await each year. I love publications like this, where trivia of interest proliferates. One feature of this version--for better or worse--is the inclusion of 3-D lenses which can be used on certain of the entries. There is some context for the book at the outset, although not in great detail. For example, see a couple paragraphs tucked into Page 6. Context does show up on pages 4-15. For instance, contacting the website to check out how to set or break records--Page 10). The work jumps right in to the first entries--America's tallest person (7 feet 8 inches [I'm surprised that there is no one taller!]), the world's longest crawfish boil (What's that?) by Paula Deen.

There are a series of sections--from Space to Living Plant to Being Human to Gatefolds to Human Achievements to Spirit of Adventure to Modern Life to Science & Engineering to Entertainment to Sports to Gazetteer.

One of the things that I like to do is to randomly flip from one page to another. Here are some observations on the content. . . .

Page 36. Largest crocodilian--over 23 feet long in India. Page 51. Lowest mammalian body temperature--26 degrees Fahrenheit for the Arctic ground squirrel. Page 109. Furthest drive by a car using alternative fuel--23,697 miles from Cologne, Germany to Leipzig, Germany in 2006-2007, using natural gas.

Page 161. Best-selling video games--Call of Duty 4 (7.13 million). Whatever happened to "Pong" (the first video game that I ever played) or "Space Invaders? Page 178. Most parachute descents by a woman--Cheryl Stearns, 16,000; most freefall skydives by a man--Don Kellner, 34,000. Page 204. Largest margin of victory in a major tournament--Tiger Woods (2000 US Open by 15 strokes). Page 219. Most consecutive wins in World's Strongest Man competition--Bill Kazmaier and Magnus Ver Magnusson, 3 times each). Page 245. Most US singles on the US music charts--Elvis Presley (151 hit singles). Page 253. Fastest time to pluck a turkey--1 minute 30 seconds, Vincent Pilkington of Ireland.

And so it goes.

If you are familiar with this book, it's yet another hit. If not, it's a rip, lots of fun, and you might want to check out the experience!

My grandson is 10 and he fell in love with this book as soon as he learned to read. He gets one every Christmas and will sit and read for hours.

Purchaed this item for my son for his 13th birthday. He spent the first couple of weeks looking at it daily. I think my daughter liked the 3D even more, but it was a great buy and I will continue to get updated editions for him.

I bought this book my eleven year old grandson. He checked out last year's book from the library, read through it over and over and loved it. So I knew hands down this gift would be a hit.

This is a cool book. Not only do you get the up-to-date list of the latest world records, but 3D photos as well (always loved that 3D glasses stuff when I was a kid). Some of the bizarre things people do to set world records never ceases to amaze (or amuse) me.

I must admit I'm a bit of an adict when it comes to records and statistics of any kind, and I've always loved this series of books. I buy a copy every few years and I'd rate this one (especially with the 3D glasses) the best edition yet. Have fun and have a read. Good stuff.

This is perfect for ages 7 to .... well 70, I guess - especially for those hard-to-buy for boys around 3rd to 5th grade. My son and his friends will spend hours pouring over this.

Good service and product.

Thank you, Bill

this is simply a great book. I believe I am the first person in Nigeria to obtain a copy, which in itself should qualify me for a record entry in the next edition of the guinness book of world records

It's a good book,I like it! But for me ,it's too hard,I have to read it with a dictionary by my side :)

The book contains spectacular pictures of Jupiter.
There are other curiosities like the world's smallest
hippo. The fastest growing tree is shown in full
color. A gigantic mantis is depicted. In addition,
a grotesque picture of a man with highly elastic
or stretchy skin is shown. A beautiful rendition
of the Arabian Desert indicates that the terrain
is quite sandy compared to other environments.

Overall, the acquisition would be a substantial
curiosity with the 3D photography.

The 2009 version comes complete with 3D glasses to view some of the pages. Material is divided into Space, Living Planet, Human Achievements, Science and Engineering, Sports, and more. Four thousand records are summarized in the book, out of Guinness' 40,000 in their database; 2,707 are new in 2008.

Interesting facts such as the temperature in the center of the sun (28 million), pressure (250 billion times that at sea level) - created by fusing 600 metric tons of hydrogen into helium every second; the largest liquid mirror - 6,613 lbs. of mercury spun to form a 19' 8" concave mirror for astronomical observations (clever), the deepest dive by a seal (5,017'), most destructive insect (about 2' long, the desert locust found in Africa, West Asia, and the Mid-East eats its own weight each day; a "small" swarm of 50 million eat enough each day to feed 500 people for a year), tallest flying bird - cranes, at 6' 6", the heaviest pumpkin (1,689 lbs), innumerable sports records (eg. covers Bret Favre's first year - 0/4 attempts, the fastest average speed in the Tour de France - Lance Armstrong's 25.9 mph), most millionaires per capita - Norway, with 1 in 86, excluding their main residence, farthest-leaning tower (the bell tower in the Protestant church in Suurhusen, German leans 5.19 degrees, vs. the Leaning Tower of Pisa at 4.0), loudest noise (Krakatoa in Indonesia on 8/27/83 - heard 3,100 miles away, largest city population (Tokyo - over 35 million), largest badger tunnel network (2,883 feet with 50 chambers and 178 entrances.

Definitely will keep you busy!

I have bought the Guinness: World Records since 1978 for my son's birthday gift. He is now 42 and still looks forward to receiving it. He has two teenage boys loving it as much as he did and still does. A perfect gift for a male or female at any age!

This was for my 9 year old son, he is totally into these Guinness books and believe it or not books. He loves it.

I still buy and read the Guinness Record book every year, because it's become like an old friend that I like to catch up with, but I have to disagree with Birch East. I like the way it has changed and brings out a fresh look each year. The changes, like holograms, 3D whatever, make it fresh every year. My nephews also are big fans of the 3D gimmick.

I do agree with the recommendation for Getting into Guinness: One Man's Longest, Fastest, Highest Journey Inside the Most Famous Record Book, the new book by Larry Olmsted about the history and culture of the Guinness World Records book. After reading his review I snapped up a copy and it is great--very entertaining and a fun read! I have read the record book for years but never stopped to wonder where it came from (Guinness Beer!), how it got so big, and how large a role it has played in pop culture, and just how crazy some of the record holders seem to be. Getting Into Guinness is the story behind the records and a fun, well researched, adult read.

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 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. About two weeks ago, I saw a book profiled in USA Today titled GETTING INTO GUINNESS by Larry Olmsted. Olmsted is a journalist as well as a 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 about 16 bucks! 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 Most Famous Record Book