Millennium Edition? Should have been a y2k fatality

NEWLY REVISED/EDITED Please consider re-rating if appropriate

Guinness' attempt to cash in on the "millennium" hype has resulted in the near meltdown of this edition of "the world's best-ever selling copyright book" (their words)

First, this book has been transformed from the huge encyclopedic almanac-like volume that you were used to, into a hard bound (with silver foil) picture book (I am not kidding!)

They claim over 700 full-color pictures and with less than 290 pages (they had the gall to count blank and title pages) you get more than 3 per page in most cases. I wanted a reference, not a picture book. More importantly, most pictures are not there as much to supplement the record itself but more like a rogue's gallery of celebrities.

In addition, when they slimmed down this version they removed many of the records that an ordinary person could attempt to beat and left many that were just like news fillers (such as many of the salary statistics)

Probably the most telling is that my copy, personally autographed by the CEO/Publisher, Mark C. Young, was sold for significantly LESS than the $25.95 cover price!

Bottom line - This is not the Guinness Book you remembered. Please be careful when you shop.