Guinness 2000 Book of Records: Millennium Edition (Guinness World Reco

Összefoglaló

The last truly great Guinness Book was in 1998, and the 1999 edition was so-so, and the 2000 edition is a sorry affair. I have never seen a book drop so quickly from a world class work to something so shameful. It was a huge, huge disappointment to me. Entire categories of records were dropped, such as: trees, birds, prehistoric life, and language. Other categories were butchered beyond recognition, such as: botany, pets, gardening, astronomy, geology, mathematics, zoology, and many others. Too much space is devoted to trivial sports records, driveling nerdy technology (especially computers), and records of trivial transient interest. When the McWhirter brothers used to edit the Guinness Book, they stuck to records of lasting, universal, and appealing interest, and they were also uncompromising in quality. Guinness has since departed severely from those great guidelines. Gone are the neat tables full of interesting facts, the neat classic categories, and well organized format that had, in years past, made the book so appealing. I had in fact ordered copies of the 2000 edition to give to loved ones as a great Christmas gift, thinking the book would be good, but I was so utterly disappointed that I felt terrible shame to give them as gifts, so I sent them back to amazon.com for a refund---I don't want to shortchange my love ones, for they know good quaility when they see it. The book is not worth the time or money to read, and unless Guinness goes back to the old ways(1998 and earlier), I will not be buying anymore of their editions.