Guinness World Records 2009 (A Comparison of Editions)
Posted by: Rebecca Vnuk
Among the most requested of all books, and by far the most popular of reference books, in my Hamilton Middle School Library is Guinness World Records 2009 (published by Guinness World Records Limited in 2008). Hamilton has about five copies of the dazzling hardcover edition that you might have seen prominently displayed near a checkout line at Wal-Mart. Dazzling? I was leaning towards green, but my wife more accurately describes the cover as “a starburst of metallic chartreuse.” Exploding from the center of the starburst in silver on black is the additional information “With All-New 3-D Photography” (3-D glasses are included). Because this is the rare reference book that I allow to circulate (and for two weeks!), there is rarely a copy on the shelf. Ten copies would not be too many for our school.
Because Guinness World Records 2009 is (for a while still) the latest, most up-to-date edition, I was somewhat taken aback when, several months ago, a student refused it after I placed it in his hands.
“Don’t you have the red one?” he asked. He was referring to the 2008 edition, of which we also have several well-circulated copies.
“But this is the latest edition, ” I answered. “It’s more up-to-date.”
“But the other one is better.” I should have asked for details, but my suspicion is that some of the pictures were better. I have not done a survey, but I suspect it is a combination of the colorful, often sensational photographs and the colorful, often sensational records that so appeal to today’s youth.
How my mind has wandered back to the small but information-packed paperback Guinness World Records of my youth. Back to when Paul Anderson was the strongest man in the world. Or, a bit later and measured in different terms, it might have been the Soviet weightlifter Vasily Alekseyev. Or Robert Wadlow was the tallest man who ever lived.
So I was very pleasantly surprised when I discoverd recently that the small paperback edition continues to be published (by Bantam). I bought one immediately for myself. It is the same thickness, half the width, about two-thirds as tall, and twice the number of pages as the hardcover edition. In almost every respect I can remember, it resembles the Guinness Book of Records (as I have often called it, perhaps inaccurately) of my youth: the fascinating facts and black-and-white photos on newsprint.
The most glaring difference in the two 2009 editions is the much larger photographs, in color, of the hardcover; only a very small percentage require the 3-D glasses. The complementary table of contents and indexes (by subject and by superlative), text, and photos (excepting the size and color) are virtually identical in each edition. The paperback cover is also “a starburst of metallic chartreuse” but proclaims, instead of a 3-D feast, “Featuring Thousands of the Most Exciting New and Updated Records from Around the Globe!” A major advantage of the hardcover is the ease with which two young adults might share the wonder simultaneously.
Guinness World Records 2009 is truly a reference book. But in my experience it is browsed for pleasure much more frequently than consulted for specific bits of information. Learning takes place along the way. The layout of photos and text differs in the two editions: it is a more linear affair in the paperback. And Robert Wadlow is still the tallest man who ever lived.
