The World Almanac

The greatest almanac of the all is The World Almanac and Book of Facts, which has been published since 1868. Each year it grows thicker and the print becomes a mite smaller or I need new glasses.
     It is advertised as the best selling reference book in the United States. Without a doubt this volume should reside beside every author's computer as it is easy to use and accurate when you just want the facts in a condensed version. You have no need to open another window when you want to be accurate in describing the time of day the tides move in and out of Boston's harbor.
     It isn't even necessary to replace it every year. I bought a new 2015 to replace the 2007 on my shelf, but as yet I haven't disposed of the old edition.
     Each year when I was working as a librarian I designated its purchase price as the first item of the new book budget. It was an investment that repaid itself many times over as the first reference tool I'd used to answer patron's questions. Seldom did its pages let me down and by the time arrival of the new edition the pages of the old volume were held together with a rubber band.
     When I was teaching GED classes in a night school I used The World Almanac to teach research and essay writing skills by having each student pick a state or a country to develop their outline. I told one young man he did a perfect job, he looked at me and said, "Miss Black, you taught us to do that in the sixth grade." The adult had no physical relationship to the little boy who was in my earlier class, but it's wonderful to learn skills you taught stayed with someone for a lifetime.
     This valuable writing tool is available from Amazon and other online sources, besides being nearly everywhere books are sold.