Time Almanac 2012: Powered By Encyclopedia Britannica [Paperback]

To keep up with the events of the past year, and to have as a ready reference those pieces of history that I continually need to refer to in the upcoming year, I always supplement my library every year with a new almanac. This year I considered procuring a copy of the Time Almanac,which is written in collaboration with the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Fortunately Barnes and Nobel bookstores permit you to sit on one of their chairs to read, read over a book that they hope you will buy.

With a clipboard in hand to jot down notes when reviewing the new collections of Almanacs for the year 2012 of what I thought would be items, facts, and other pertinent data that I feel I will need for the upcoming year I collected a stack of some half dozen various Almanacs and sat down to review them before making my selection.

As a retired military intelligence officer I like to have a current almanac, which I feel will give me the most up to date data collected by the various publishers of these Almanacs. I have never before purchased a copy of the Time/Encyclopedia Almanac. So this was at the top of the stack of Almanacs I sat down to review these reference books.

In addition to my other needs, are statistics. Statistics, when published, should be backed up by cold hard facts to give the reader the impression that the publisher has done their homework, and has backed up these statistics with references as to where and what source they got these statistics from.

Yearly Almanacs and Yearly Books of Facts that currently are in my library include such titles as published by the World Book Almanac, the New York Times Almanac, the CIA World Fact Book, and the Cambridge University Book of Facts. To me the Time Almanac would represent a different book, if for no other reason that it would show people who would review my library that I never have a yearly Almanac that is produced by the same publisher every year. I feel variety in reference books like yearly Almanacs gives a person a different perspective.

As I sat in Barnes and Nobel reviewing the Time/Encyclopedia Britannia Almanac I began to see facts and statistics that were just not right. Since I was already familiar with the above-mentioned books I currently have in my library, I started to take notes on the statistics that were in the Time Almanac for 2012, and these notes and statistics were far, far off from those published in the other yearly reference Almanacs.

In searching the Time Almanac for references as to where they came up with these figures, there were either none whatsoever, or references that were so vague as to render them totally suspicious.

Finally after more than an hour of shifting through the Time Almanac for 2012 alone, and comparing notes and statistics with the other 2012 Almanacs I had collected from the store shelves, I had no other choice than to deduce that many of these statistics were made up, pie in the sky numbers. Granted these statistics were close, and could give the reader a `ball park' figure as to the actual numbers, but Almanacs are NOT supposed to give you `ball park' figures, they are supposed to be as close to bona fide numbers as is humanly possible. And these bona fide numbers are certainly at their fingertips if they so choose to investigate the sources. But the publishers obviously did NOT bother to investigate these figures, but seem to merely publish these figures by past growth percentage figures.

For a publication that is supposed to be a book of `Accurate' facts, the Time/Encyclopedia Britannia Almanac is far too inaccurate to be taken seriously.

Finally after an hour and a half of comparing the Time/Encyclopedia Britannia 2012 Almanac with the facts published in the World Book Almanac, the CIA World Book of Facts, and the New York Times yearly Almanac I have deduced that of all the yearly Almanacs published the Time/Encyclopedia Britannia one is by far the weakest. Made up with (as I mentioned earlier) with statistics and facts that seem to be just made up by the editors.

Yes the contents of the Time/Encyclopedia Britannia Almanac has a different approach to each subject, and the publishers go on and on to expand certain subject matters that are not as extensive in other Almanacs, and that in itself could be a contributing factor to add this book to my library, but the sheer number of facts and statistics that are `pie in the sky' and just plain inaccurate make this publication one which I would NEVER put into my library.

So the bottom line here is to stick with those Almanacs that have consistently published facts and statistics that are accurate, from the published sources from which they came.

And those publications that are to stay in my library for the near future are yearly copies of the World Book Almanac for general information, with the New York Times as a secondary reference, and finally I could recommend the CIA Book of World Facts if someone REALLY wants to see what the true situation is in countries around the globe.

Every yearly Almanac gives updates to `Countries around the World', but the CIA Book of World Facts is the best. After all the CIA means just that; the collection of intelligence (facts) for every country around the globe. They just don't represent a series of spies, but accumulate for the government of this country every possible fact for every country on the globe, in addition to areas of the world that are un-inhabited, like the Antarctic, and the many, many different un-inhabited lands across the face of the map, world wide.

Keep the Time/Encyclopedia Britannia Almanac where it belongs, on the book store shelves.

I use almanacs like most other people do ,I guess. I use them as a statistical abstact. For this, I usually buy the World Almanac and Book of facts. I couldn't find it at a couple of Wal-Marts, but I found this one in a bookstore and bought it. Flipping through it, it looked OK, but this is a bad buy. When I want statistics, I expect them to be there, and easy to find. This book doesn't measure up on either count. I don't recommend this. It's a waste of money.

We ordered and received the Time Almanace 2012: Powered by Encyclopedia Britannica on time in new condition. This title is a great addition to our library collection. Thank you so much.

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