Amazon.com (ISBN 0553578952, Mass Market Paperback)

Big Snow, the largest chicken on record, weighed 23 pounds, 3 ounces. Sheena, a barnyard bantam, flew 630 feet, 2 inches for the longest known chicken flight. And at 25 years, Wil Cwac Cwac of Wales holds the title for world's oldest duck. It's astounding how much time one can waste with the Guinness Book of World Records, and how genuinely absorbing hitherto overlooked questions of trivia can be. Guinness covers more than paltry poultry profiles. The 1998 edition contains more than 10,000 records of hobbies and transportation, technology and humanity, sports, arts, commerce, and nature. Curious about the biggest severance check ($58.8 million), the longest snake (a 32-foot, 9.5-inch python), the greatest distance cycled in one calendar year (75,065 miles), or the most prolific mother (a Russian mom who gave birth to 69 children from 1725 to 1765)? Want to beat the record for heaviest ice-cream sandwich (you'll have to top 830 pounds) or most expensive wedding (the 1981 nuptials of Mohammed and Princess Salama in Dubai cost $44 million)? Whether you seek specific facts to back up an essay or support an argument, need backseat entertainment for cross-country car trips and squirrelly passengers, or wish to browse eclectic facts whilst seated on the throne, the Guinness Book of World Records is a ceaseless source of interest and diversion. --Stephanie Gold