The List Of Lists

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My quest for other websites that pay contributers led me to some of the big list-writing / reading sites. I had modest success with The Daily Heckle until it folded earlier this year without warning or explanation. Luckily I saved my work from there. I checked out a few other list sites – Cracked seems to largely in-house and predominantly American contributors. ListVerse pays very well but only accepts three articles a day from everything sent in by anyone so regular work there is nigh on impossible. This is a list I wrote for ListVerse that they rejected. The List Of Lists People have kept lists since ink was first applied to papyrus. Shopping lists, to do lists, lists of favourites, right up to present day bucket lists. What follows is the story of literary lists and our place in it. 10/. Gazetteers An early Mariner’s version of the Hitch-hiker’s Guide To The Galaxy. A Gazetteer was a list of countries, towns and cities, usually with a short summary of the main features, latitude and longitude location details, population statistics, and the main tourist attractions, history, etc. There would also be warnings of where not to go and local laws to avoid breaking. 9/. Early Almanacs Really practical lists of forthcoming events, such as when the next Bank Holidays start or end, the equinoxes, and solstices and the phases of the moon. Such information is often given now in the supplementary pages of diary year planners – the bits no one reads any more. Almanacs really are among the earliest of human writings, dating back to 2,000 BC. 8/. Whittaker’s Almanac Now having been published annually since 1868 this almanac expanded enormously on the original almanac concept and includes summaries of global events over the year just gone, including famous deaths, and major inventions, Nobel Prize Winners, etc. A great book to smuggle into pub quizzes before the cell phone was invented. 7/.Encyclopaedias A list, usually alphabetical, of the most important knowledge required, and the basis of the career of the Encyclopaedia salesman who knocked on doors throughout the land, reciting obscure facts about Benjamin Franklin and the invention of the Seed Drill before the internet killed off his career. Pre-Wikipedia, The Encyclopaedia Britannica was the standard root of all wisdom. 6/. Music Chart lists from Billboard 1940 Radio stations started playing the most popular records sold in any given week in the 1940’s with track by track countdowns to the best-selling hits to keep listeners excited. It was always a system open to abuse with some musicians and record companies buying up hundreds of copies of their own hits until such practices were restricted. Books listing music charts over the decades began to come out in the 1970’s but the fragmenting of charts into separate listings for Indie bands, Country music, etc. caused confusion. Commercial stations ran different charts to those set by the BBC and other big chart companies. Nowadays the charts are so splintered that a record can hit number one with just a few hundred sales rather than a million. Questions like how did Brian Adams keep his Robin Hood Theme at number one for 16 weeks in 1991 and how did The Spice Girls chart at all will now never be answered. 5/. The Guinness Book Of World Records A comprehensive collection of useless information on the highest mountains, which never change, and the fastest runners in athletics which changes every Olympic year, Commonwealth Games year and each time a winner is stripped of his or her medals for using steroids. Various TV shows were made to show off record holders and for people to try breaking records on screen. While we admire Roger Bannister’s 4 Minute Mile record, no one really cares who ate fourteen kilos of mushy peas in five minutes any more. 4/. David Wallechinsky- The Book Of Lists A mammoth collection of lists first published in 1977, with its annotated lists ranging from nuclear war themed science fiction novels to the Ten Commandments, and the Seven Dwarfs. This book really started the trend for modern pop-culture list works way ahead of the internet. It remains a valuable and entertaining reference work. Various sequels and spin-off books were produced and many other authors jumped on the bandwagon. John Stephen Fink’s Cluck from 1981, which I have a copy of, is just a long list of movies featuring scenes involving chickens. Without Wallechinsky’s ground breaking work you might not be reading this list of lists now. 3/. Wikipedia The main source reference for lists of everything from kings and queens of England to the movies of John Wayne. Wikipedia is essentially a giant list collection and often the first port of call for many a lazy researcher or student in a rush to complete an essay since 2001. Almanacs, dictionaries and encyclopaedias were suddenly obsolete for many from the day Wikipedia was launched. 2 Bucket lists / to do before you die book lists A social trend of the Noughties, with many older people eager to visit major cities, sky-dive or visit brothels before Death crosses them off his own list. The trend spawned a 2007 movie called The Bucket List with Jack Nicholson that few will regret not seeing before they die. The things to do before you die books sparked a series of oversized over-priced coffee table books on comics to read, films to see, and places to visit before you die. Many people fail to complete their lists from being too busy reading and compiling such lists. If a Things To Do Before You Die tome falls on your head, you will die. 1/. Internet List Sites There are a few sites like ListVerse, Cracked and the late lamented Daily Heckle. They prove that it isn’t the list alone that matters but our justifications for what we include or exclude from them that matters. A list of the greatest movies ever that includes Big Momma’s House and omits Citizen Kane is going to have its work cut out. Arthur Chappell