The first "Book of Lists" became an instant favourite of mine when I first read it, back in the dim, dark ages of the 1980s. At the time I was too young to understand many of the people or events referenced but "The Book of Lists" fired my desire to know what the hell these people were talking about and so helped me become the uncrowned King of obscure trivia.

Even if great wads of cash fell out of the book the first time I opened it, nothing could match the impact the first "Book of Lists" had on me, so naturally no. 3 was going to pale in comparison. Of course, this should not take away from "The Book of Lists 3", because where else could you find, for example, a list of "14 persons who suffered from severe depression", followed immediately by "Rating 36 home-grown vegetables"? ( )

Volume 3 in a successful series. Unfortunately, one can see that the well is drying up. Understandably, the better matieral was included in the earlier works. However, this volume suffers from this front loading of the good stuff, being left with less interesting and compelling information to caputre the reader's attention. ( )