The Economist Pocket World in Figures,
2011 Edition
£10.99 PROFILE BOOKS
How's this for an interesting statistic: China produces more wheat, rice, tea, meat,
fruit, vegetables, lead, zinc, tin, cotton, coal, aluminium and gold than any other country in the world. Or how about this: Iceland has the world's highest car ownership per head. Or
this: Qatar has the most crowded roads.
Such are the gems of information to be found in the latest edition of The Economist Pocket World in Figures. This annual treasure trove of statistics has become essential reading for anyone who takes pleasure in discovering the facts and figures that underpin our world. One imagines that Stephen Fry must have a copy
on order every year.
The latest edition has been updated and expanded with new rankings on topics such
as internet use, the minimum wage, car production, the Winter Olympics (amazingly, Australia has won more medals than Denmark), robberies and school class sizes.
This is the kind of book that's made for dipping in and out of. Did you know, for instance, that nowhere can you register a new company more quickly than in New Zealand? Or that Hartsfield-Jackson, Atlanta, is the world's busiest airport? Or that France is the most popular country for tourists? Or that the Czechs are
the world's champion beer drinkers? There's a diamond on every page. 10/10
BUY IT HERE: Pocket World in Figures 2011
Just My Type
by Simon Garfield £14.99 PROFILE BOOKS
Before personal computers came along, type was something we tended to
take for granted. But,
as Simon Garfield points out
in this thoroughly entertaining romp through the history of typography, today the previously obscure word "font" is one we trot out on a regular basis. Garfield knows a good story when he sees one, so the anecdotes come thick and fast. There are plenty of surprises, too, so expect to see the world in a different light by the time you get
to the end. 8/10
BUY IT HERE: Just My Type: A Book About Fonts
The Innovation Secrets of Steve Jobs
by Carmine Gallo
£12.99 McGraw-hill
Carmine Gallo is the author of the best-selling The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs, so one imagines it didn't take too long to come up with the idea for this follow-up. The Apple god's secrets number seven in total, apparently, including "Do what you love", "Sell dreams, not products" and "Create insanely great experiences". Jobs's career is truly an inspirational one, so if you're looking to unleash your inner Steve, you could do
a lot worse than study
this book. 7/10
BUY IT HERE: The Innovation Secrets of Steve Jobs: Insanely Different Principles for Breakthrough Success
Why Can't Elephants Jump?
edited by Mick O'Hare
£7.99 PROFILE BOOKS
A&C BLACK
Following on from Why Don't Penguins' Feet Freeze? and Do Polar Bears Get Lonely? is this latest compilation of questions and answers from
the New Scientist Last Word column. So if you really want to know why frozen milk is always yellow, where on the planet is the furthest from the sea, or whether you can float on jelly, then this is the book for you. And if there was a prize for
the strangest question, it would almost certainly go to this one: do mosquitoes get malaria? 8/10
BUY IT HERE: Why Can't Elephants Jump?: and 113 more science questions answered: And 113 Other Tantalising Science Questions
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