Utterly compelling!
Barbara Ann Kipfer has elevated the list to high art and bestselling pleasure. A foremost expert of classification, in The Order of Things, she does for life what her previous books do for happiness and wisdom—organize it in a way that is brilliantly conceived.
The The Order of Things is practical, entertaining, eclectic, and impossible to put down. Beginning with Earth—Smog Alert States, Rain Forest Layers, Coal Sizes— and ending with General Knowledge and Philosophy (the I Ching's 64 "chapters," Ludwig Wittgenstein's four-step Method of Overcoming Puzzlement), it is a 14-chapter taxonomy of the world as we know it:

• The Seven Hills of Rome, the Seven Deadly Sins, the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, the Seven Dwarfs—check.
• The belt degrees of karate and judo, weight classes of professional and amateur boxing, flower names of the golf holes at Augusta—check.
• The hierarchy of the FBI, publication order of Shakespeare's plays, cuts of beef, Freud's divisions of the human psyche, order of rank in world armies and navies, Jupiter's satellites, ships' bells, traditional and modern wine measures, blood-pressure levels, fastest animals—check.

A completely indispensable reference—check.

An eclectic, surprising, and utterly entertaining compendium, The Order of Things compiles a very astonishing diversity of information—the natural, the social, the mathematical, the mystical—into hundreds of charts, systems, lists, and hierarchies. From Barbara Ann Kipfer, who mastered the art of the list with her bestselling 14,000 Things to Be Happy About, this is a book for browsing, for research, and for the sheer pleasure of learning new things.


Preface
The Earth
The Natural World
Transportation & Technology
Mathematics & Measurements
Religion
World Rulers
Government & Military
Society & Social Institutions
The Arts
Business & Economics
Home Life
Sports & Recreation
General Knowledge & Philosophy
Index

Barbara Ann Kipfer is the author of more than 35 books, ranging from 14,000 Things to Be happy About to Roget’s International Thesaurus, 6th Edition. She holds numerous degrees, including a Ph.D. and M.Phil. in linguistics, a Ph.D. in archaeology, and an M.A. in Buddhist studies. She serves as the chief lexicographer for Dictionary.com, Thesaurus.com, and Reference.com. She lives in southern Connecticut.

Publisher: Workman Publishing Company
Distributor: Workman Publishing Company
Publication Date: 11-22-2008
Pages: 615
Measurements: 5.98in X 4.04in X 1.53in X 0.69lb