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94. Getting Into the Guinness Book of World Records
2013-09-06
The Guinness Book of Records was first published in August of nineteen fifty-five in Britain. The idea came from Sir Hugh Beaver, then managing director of Guinness Brewery. He could not find the answer to what seemed like a simple question: What was Europe`s fastest game bird? He thought other people might like a book that could answer such questions and settle arguments.
Today the name is just Guinness World Records.
BARBARA KLEIN: The Guinness book is one of the most widely read books ever published. More than one hundred million copies have been sold in almost forty languages.
There are records in areas like most married, longest hair, fastest talker and biggest hands. Some records appear in almost every edition of the book, like the oldest man and woman in the world. But as much as eighty percent of the content is new each year.
CHRISTOPHER CRUISE: Why do people try to get into the Guinness book? Guinness says a world record is not simply a fact but a way to measure ourselves. Knowing "the biggest, the smallest, the fastest, the most and the least," it says, helps us understand our position in the world and how we fit in.