The World Almanac and Book of Facts 2021

The print is too small to read easily. Disappointed with that but the book is full of info.

As great of a resource as the Internet can sometimes be, there is still nothing like personally owning and browsing through a single, authoritative, well-organized, tangible compendium of essential information about our world. It is easy to get lost in all the information on the Internet, but browsing through the "World Almanac" can be an enjoyable, educational, linear-path "guided tour" of much of the most important and relevant information about many aspects of the world, including economics, politics, geography, nations of the world, United States cities and states, sports, entertainment, science, and history.It is thoroughly updated this year as it is every year (including 2020 U.S. election results as of the Saturday after election day), but the type of content included is very similar to previous years. Given that it is pretty close to what I would consider an optimal use of 1008 pages for a concise collection of general facts about the world (with somewhat of a U.S.-centric perspective), and that these days most major changes made by reference works remove valuable information in favor of new dumbed-down features, I view the consistency in the World Almanac's content as a good thing.The size of the print in the paperback version is fine for me, but it is larger in the hardcover edition if that is a concern. There do seem to be a couple of small issues with the printing in this year's edition (obscuring a few words on pages 239 and 791), but otherwise it is an excellent book as usual.

Was going to return because of the small print. So I am about to cancel my return and get me some reading glasses.

People who have used this almanac for years, even decades, know how good it is. But frankly, it suffers in Kindle format. Getting from one section to another is a bit of a hassle, whereas in hard copy, you can flip one page, or two pages and 50 pages in a breeze. For me, this format doesn't work at all.

My dad started buying this book every year when I was growing up, and I’ve continued the tradition, since he got me hooked on this publication! I enjoy reviewing the previous year’s news, the news and sports photography and the plethora of information, stats, and references this book offers. One of my favorite sections is the summation of the previous years sports Championships, in particular the World Series.Anotgher great sections is the science area. Need to know about our solar system and it’s planets? It’s here. The sun? It’s here. Periodic Table of Elements? It’s here. I could go on, but you get the idea.Everything thing is summed up nicely and briefly but without being too simplistic and uninformative.

I’ve been buying this book every year for about 50 years. My only wish is that it had more in it.

I bought this for my son, he requested it. He's currently a inmate and he said it's the best way to keep up with the world on the outside while being on the inside. Anything to make him connected to the rest of us.

Excellent content and very useful, worth having it at home for general facts and and consultation. There are some of the statistics dated up to 2019, some others up to 2020, however it’s very complete.Also found two pages that had some printing issues making a couple paragraphs illegible.The font size is small, a little hard to read sometimes.I’ll live to see some improvements regarding more color printed illustrations, flags, and better maps.Overall it’s a good buy to have at home.

It is ok is you want to know how every parish in every state in America voted between 1946 and 2020.It is overwhelmingy American and goes into minute detail about all aspects of American life.Example: 10,705 people live in the little town of Smithville,Mississippi.The last third of the book is more international but still vastly inferior to Wikipedia.Ok if you are applying for American citizenship and need to brush up on your Americana.It will become an unread ornament on my bookshelf.

Disappointed to much information on America not enough on great britain

This, the US version of Pears Cyclopadia has so much material, that casual dippers will enjoy for ages.

This was the book that I always used for my facts in the pre-Internet era, and it's still faster using this book for reliable facts than wading through all of the misinformation on the Internet. I hadn't bought one since university, but am pleased to s that it's every bit as useful now as it was then

As usual, if you are a nerd for facts, it is the book for you.