The Book of Lists

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A spin-off from the childhood obsessions thread. Apparently a book that a lot of ILXors obsessed over. It even had a SEX chapter! I reread it from cover to cover the last time I visited my parents, still a great read.

― n/a (Nick A.), Thursday, 11 November 2004 16:21 (twenty-one years ago)

Very much a highlight of life -- there were three total and I read/owned them all over time. Mind you, speaking of the SEX chapter, I did always wonder why my grandparents' copy had that chapter snipped out of it...

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 11 November 2004 16:27 (twenty-one years ago)

Some of the pages of mine were stuck together. No, not the sex chapter, although that was absolutely fascinating, but because it had gotten wet during a flood. The pages were heavy and clumped together. I remember the chapter about words: the longest ones, the most used, the most pleasant ("chime" is one I can recall).
Are there new editions all the time?

― oops (Oops), Thursday, 11 November 2004 16:27 (twenty-one years ago)

wasn't there something about famous people throughout history who died while doin the wild thang?

― oops (Oops), Thursday, 11 November 2004 16:27 (twenty-one years ago)

(It should be noted that the books were prone to retelling stories not necessarily true -- on the flipside, its genius was that the editors commissioned a slew of people to contribute their own lists and explanations about a number of things, which made it an interesting read. One of my favorites was Clifford Irving, perpetrator of a notorious Howard Hughes fraud, talking about his own favorite scam artists over the years. He included himself in the list, and it concluded by saying that the best scam artist ever in history is unknown, simply because -- of course -- the scam has yet to be uncovered!)

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 11 November 2004 16:29 (twenty-one years ago)

wasn't there something about famous people throughout history who died while doin the wild thang?

Yes.

The same people put together The People's Alamanac, which I don't remember ever reading. What was that like?

― n/a (Nick A.), Thursday, 11 November 2004 16:40 (twenty-one years ago)

I don't remember much about it, but I did rent this from the library -- possibly more than once -- and it was very exciting. But show me an ILXor who doesn't like lists...

― Casuistry (Chris P), Thursday, 11 November 2004 19:05 (twenty-one years ago)

I liked the most boring books list. And obv the sex chapter.

― adam (adam), Thursday, 11 November 2004 19:32 (twenty-one years ago)

Did anyone have "the 90s edition"?

― Eric H. (Eric H.), Friday, 12 November 2004 00:54 (twenty-one years ago)

I was totally obsessed with this book(s). I liked the part about stupid criminals

― A Nairn (moretap), Friday, 12 November 2004 01:05 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm going to dig up it now to read.

― A Nairn (moretap), Friday, 12 November 2004 01:06 (twenty-one years ago)

I still have Book of Lists and Book of Lists II! A classic of bathtub literature. I was truly obsessed throughout childhood/adolescence. Never heard any outside mention of it until now...

― roxymuzak (roxymuzak), Saturday, 13 November 2004 03:53 (twenty-one years ago)

five years pass...

A big "me too" to whole thread. Btw, its importance seems to have been somewhat officially recognized (by a tiny slice of the world) -- in the 2009 European Quizzing Championships, it was deemed sufficiently well-known that one question of ninety in the grand final for national teams (UK vs Belgium) was "Name one of the father-and-son team that wrote the classic Book of Lists".

Wallechinsky's Olympic tomes are total riots btw, with perfect balance of cold fact vs anecdote (ie deluge of latter, deluge of former).

― anatol_merklich, Sunday, 31 January 2010 02:33 (sixteen years ago)

one year passes...

I was totally obsessed with this book as a kid and for some reason I've been thinking about it for the last few days. Just bought it on Amazon for a penny!

― nate woolls, Wednesday, 18 May 2011 10:54 (fifteen years ago)

How odd to come across this thread. I too was obsessed with this book (and the People's Almanac) in my early teens, particularly the sex chapters. I think there was a list of the most prolific lovers in history, which boggled my virginal mind. Their evidence for this was dubious though, based as it was on claims such as "I must have a man in my bed every night". Also loved the list of the worst movies ever, which included Ghengis Kahn starring John Wayne. Must revisit this list and see how many I've seen.
The People's Almanac had some interesting stuff such as a counter-history section where various historians speculated on what might have happened had the Confederates/Nazis etc won.
I'm not sure how big these books were in the UK - I think my folks must have picked them up on a trip to the US in 1979. So for a Scottish kid in the early 90s, I knew a lot of useless information about American history. Must revisit them when I'm next at my mum's.

― Count Palmiro Vicarion (Stew), Wednesday, 18 May 2011 14:54 (fifteen years ago)

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/0/01/BookOfLists.jpg/200px-BookOfLists.jpg

Amy Wallace wrote a fascinating book about her involvement with a cult that Carlos Castaneda had going during the nineties in la

― dell (del), Wednesday, 18 May 2011 15:08 (fifteen years ago)

I've a copy of this book by Wallechinsky and Wallace, highly entertainingm even if I suspect a lot of it is bs. Guy de Maupassant certainly seems to be a bit of a character.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41nUD%2BP7-9L._SL500_AA300_.jpg

― Cluster the boots (Billy Dods), Wednesday, 18 May 2011 15:19 (fifteen years ago)

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