11 best world books

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Guinness World Records 2021

All aboard the 2021 edition of the world’s best-selling annual book! With this year’s fully updated edition, we want you to “Discover Your World” by taking you on a tour of the most astonishing, surprising and inspiring achievements from across the globe and beyond – everything from amazing human bodies and awe-inspiring animals to the latest entertainment and videogame achievements!

Augmented Reality

Our first chapter sends you flying through the Solar System… but with the added thrill of augmented reality! Download the FREE AugmentifyIt app to your smart phone or tablet then take a virtual tour of our planetary neighbours. As you encounter the Sun, the planets and even the most distant asteroid in the Solar System, you’ll see them come to life before your eyes.

Against the Clock

Don’t just READ about records, ATTEMPT them too! In this chapter, current GWR record breakers challenge you to have a go yourself at home. Each record is based on a time lime – 30 seconds, 1 minute, 1 hour and 1 day – so all you need is a stopwatch and some props from around your home. Good luck!

Hall of Fame

Meet the latest inductees to the Guinness World Records Hall of Fame. Featured this year are the likes of space pioneer Buzz Aldrin (first people on the Moon), environmental activist Greta Thunberg (youngest person on the cover of Time magazine) and US gymnast Simone Biles (Most medals won at the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships)

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My dad is a Rasta man. He was born in the mountains. A real, real Rasta man...

He had a marijuana farm, so we only ate when people bought our weed. And we never ate meat. Whenever we caught fish in the sea, he’d make us throw them back. There were ten of us, so we never had a big education. But he taught us to love people. And to love God. And to be happy. Sometimes after school we’d all go swimming at a place called Pirates Cave. The land was owned by a man named Dread Lion, and he had lots of dogs. We could never walk across the property so we swam the whole way there. And if Dread Lion ever saw us, we had to quickly jump off the cliffs. That’s how I learned to dive. Now I dive for the tourists and they give me tips. I save the coins in a little pan, and pick at it when the seas are rough. I’d like to buy a little house one day. And maybe have a boat. And a nice woman to take care of me. But if I don’t get all the things I want, I won’t complain. I’m going to love God the same way. And treat people the same way. And be happy the same way.

NEGRIL, JAMAICA

My husband got involved with a younger woman at work...

I was relaxed about it at first. He’s thirteen years younger than me. But then she got pregnant. Luckily through the divorce process I had the opportunity to take over this hole-in-the-wall place with no heating, which I turned into an art studio. And now I’m living my best life. Everything is for sale except the pink chandelier and the dog. Anyone is free to stop by at any time. You can eat or drink whatever you want. All the young people in the neighborhood love me. I’m the oldest person in our friend group. Everyone else is in their twenties or thirties. They call me Queen Mama. I call them my adopted kids. I always help them with their school projects and resumes and interviews. I only ask one thing in return. Each of them has to teach me one new thing every week: a piece of music, a trend, an idea. Just so I can stay up to date. Before you take the photograph, let me go inside and put on some makeup. We were out until two last night.

AMSTERDAM, THE NETHERLANDS

My parents aren’t giving me the freedom to be responsible...

Mama’s fine. But Papa is an Egyptian father. He wants me to always be in a safe, cozy home. Recently I wanted to go on an educational trip to Sri Lanka. I begged him. I said, ‘Please, I’ll be living with a family. I’ll call you ten times a day.’ But he wouldn’t listen. I locked myself in my room and cried. I wanted that experience. I wanted to meet beautiful people, and eat beautiful food, and take beautiful photos. I know my dad very well. He just doesn’t trust people. He thinks that I’m naïve. He thinks that everyone who helps you wants something in return. But that’s not why I help people. I love people. I love languages. I can even speak a little Hindi. I want to see every village and every city. I even want to work for NASA one day. I love physics and astronomy. But Papa thinks astronomy is a bad idea. He doesn’t get it. It’s not that he doesn’t understand the stars. He just doesn’t understand me.

ALEXANDRIA, EGYPT

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Reasons why you need this Atlas

National Geographic's flagship Atlas of the World, now in its 11th edition, provides maps of every country, ocean, and region of the world, as well as thematic maps and accompanying graphics showing population, environmental, and economic patterns. This atlas is a reference for schools and libraries, as well as the latest resource for home browsing and study. This volume of world maps has been completely revised and updated with visualizations of international trends and global conditions.

Accretion

When a heavy ocean plate bends below the edge of a continental plate or island arc, bits of sediment and melted mantle collect, or accrete, where the plates meet. Barbados accretes up to .45 mm of land each year.

Collision

Mountains often rise at the zone of impact where two continents collide. The Himalayan range formed when the Indian and Eurasian plates crashed into each other 55 million years ago, and it still grows a half inch a year.

Faulting

Stress builds when two plates move against each other. As one gives way, the resulting fault, or crack, triggers earthquakes. In Sumatra in 2004 a 1,450 kilometer-long fault unleashed a deadly magnitude 9.1 earthquake and tsunami.

Spreading

New ocean crust is born where tectonic plates spread apart, allowing lava to flow out between them. Along the northern Mid-Atlantic Ridge, the North American and Eurasian plates are moving apart about an inch a year.

Tracking Storms

Atlantic and eastern Pacific hurricanes and their counterparts—typhoons in the western Pacific and cyclones in the Indian Ocean usually draw energy from warm tropical waters, forming primarily near the Equator in regions with prevailing easterly winds. If a storm tracks toward the poles, it becomes extratropical but can still retain hurricane-force winds of 120–240 kilometers an hour. These storms shift heat and moisture away from the Equator, and the resulting wind and rain may cost thousands of human lives and billions in property damage.

Lightning Strikes

Thunderclouds produce lightning when frozen raindrops collide and create electrical charges. As positive and negative charges separate and connect, lightning appears and is often drawn to positive charges on the ground. Places where the climate is warm and conducive to thunderstorms experience the most lightning strikes. Lake Maracaibo in Venezuela sometimes sees thousands of lightning strikes per hour. India’s Brahmaputra Valley and the mountains of the Democratic Republic of the Congo are also among the world’s most lightning-prone places.

Extreme Weather

Extreme weather includes hurricanes, droughts, heat waves, tornadoes, and other deadly events. Scientists have tracked a significant increase in catastrophic weather of all kinds in the 21st century, with vulnerable islands and coastal areas suffering most. From 1997 to 2016, the nations most affected by extreme weather were in the developing world, including Honduras, Haiti, and Myanmar. Climate change contributes to extreme weather by lengthening droughts and increasing the intensity of hurricanes.

Calculating Ocean Health

Data from 220 countries and territories are analyzed each year to measure the overall health of the oceans, including ecological, economic, and political factors. In 2017 the global score remained steady at 70 out of 100, but many areas, especially near the coasts of poorer African nations, achieved scores of less than 50. Tourism and the production of food and natural products, including seashells and sponges, earned the lowest scores for long-term sustainability.

Sustaining Seafood Harvests

Sustainability of world seafood harvests in 2017 was low, with wild-caught seafood scoring 51 of 100 points and ocean-farmed scoring only 28. Overfishing to the point where populations of fish are not able to recover is a problem that can be solved politically and economically. Decreasing pollution and eliminating techniques that destroy habitat or have high levels of bycatch—animals caught unintentionally—can improve marine ecosystems and help feed the world’s billions.

Fishing Activity

The global pattern, or footprint, of fishing boats documented in data from Global Fishing Watch reveals that fish harvesting takes place in at least 55 percent of ocean waters and covers four times as much of the planet as agriculture. With a billion people dependent on fish as their primary source of protein, overfishing is a growing threat, especially in Asia. But regions with a light fishing footprint offer hope as conservation zones where fish populations can regenerate.

Age of the Seafloor

One large ocean, Panthalassa, and a smaller ocean inlet, Tethys, surrounded supercontinent Pangaea until 200 million years ago, when Earth’s crustal plates shifted and split Pangaea. Today moving plates create new seafloor along boundaries (lightest red areas below). As plates move apart magma rises from inside Earth and fills the gap. Older ocean crust sinks beneath dense continental crust on either side of the Atlantic and in the western Pacific. The oldest seafloor is a remnant of Tethys in the Mediterranean Sea.