Ian Harrison (1) (1965–)

At over 350 pages, this profusely illustrated hard cover is a tad too substantial to fit in the glove compartment of an alien spaceship – or on a bedside table – the two places it most belongs.

But both Earthlings and Aliens will be well rewarded for reading Earth – A Visitors Guide because [speaking as a native earthling] it is one of the most fascinating and absorbing cultural histories I have read.

Although beautifully designed and visually appealing, the visual component is show more secondary to the factual information: as an arresting and intriguing overview of 21st century factoids and trivia, the book is unequalled in any Universe. show less

A beautiful book full of photographs there'd be no way you could replicate yourself without going to some serious lengths. Slightly biased toward London, but then, what isn't? As a Northerner it could do with a bit of Northern Steel to it, but otherwise a lovely reference book and something to remind you just how beautiful this country really is.

THE brain is like a room full of books and, generally speaking, most of us have only one volume in that personal library of acquired knowledge.

The more you learn, the larger your book will grow, so a primary school child would be looking at a Roald Dahl-sized missive, a matriculant will stretch to a Harry Potter, and a postgraduate should fill a Bible. Adults generally have free rein to fill our mental bookshelves with whatever subjects interest us most.

The Book of Firsts — “The stories show more behind the outstanding breakthroughs of the modern world” — is ideal for people who collect interesting, useless facts simply because, to paraphrase George Mallory on Mount Everest, they are there. With nearly 300 beautifully illustrated, well-written pages, complete with coloured fact boxes, this book is too good to languish in a reference library: it is something you will want to own.

Divided into 10 sections, topics range from Food and Drink to Medical Achievements to Communication: gourmands will start at Human Endeavour and read all the way through to Sporting Milestones at the end, but a fussy gourmet might confine himself to, say, Trade and Technology.

Everyone who has filled a Harry Potty-sized tome will know Neil Armstrong was the first man on the moon in 1969 and Yuri Gagarin was the first man in space in 1961, but this book reminds us Laika the dog was the first living creature in space, in 1957.

The English Channel was not swum until 1875, and the globe was first circumnavigated in 1522 in a journey that began in 1519.

Much of the technology surrounding us is much older than you might think, while common everyday items — such as matches and teabags — are recent inventions. The first computer programmer dates back to the turn of the 18th century and was a woman; the first laptop computer was launched in 1983.

Sir Walter Scott’s Waverly, 1814, is regarded as the first historical novel; the first detective story is claimed to be Edgar Allan Poe’s 1841 Murders in the Rue Morgue, and Jules Verne’s A Journey to The Centre of The Earth, 1864, is considered to be the first work of science fiction.

The first washing machine was designed in 1885, and the first country to grant women the right to vote was New Zealand, in 1893.

Full of fascinating, useless bits and bobs of information, this book is wonderful lavatorial literature. show less

Bought 12 Sep 2008 - Amazon

With a foreword by Andrew Marr, this is the book of the TV series he presented a few months ago. It's quite different from the TV programme though, with a fascinating section comparing archive photos of places with their current incarnations, and it provides a brilliant overview (ha ha) of the country, its transport, geology and other patterns. Although there wasn't a huge amount of text and I read it quite quickly, it had been saved up as a "treat" read, and treat show more it certainly was. show less