Guinness World Records has answers to some of life's most burning questions –Who is the largest living cat? How long is the longest metal coil passed through the nose and out of the mouth? What is the most jelly eaten with chopsticks in one minute?
The book itself holds a record of its own: best-selling annual publication, having sold over 134 million copies in its six-decade run (it celebrates its 60th anniversary this week.) But what is it about the grotesque, the extreme and the unusual that incites such a strong following?
“These superlatives are just things that I think all of humanity have an innate curiosity about. I think we're all interested in the fastest, the longest, the highest, the shortest,” says Peter Harper, senior vice president at Guinness World Records. “And likewise people want to be known for that.”
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