The Order of Things: How Everything in the World Is Organized into Hierarchies, Structures, and Pecking Orders; Revised Edition

by Barbara Ann Kipfer

Your reference search begins and ends here

The Order of Things is a new kind of reference book for a new information age. Whether you're disputing answers to your favorite board game, helping your child prepare for a test or freshening up on your party trivia, this will be the only reference book you'll need to consult.

This brilliantly conceived and eclectic compilation of hard-to-find information is an unprecedented new resource -- perfect for game buffs, know-it-alls and lovers of knowledge.

Classification expert Barbara Ann Kipfer gives you more than 400 informative lists, hierarchies and illustrations divided into thirteen essential areas of
Earth Sciences    
Life Sciences
Physical Sciences
Mathematics and Measurements
Technology
Religion
History
Social Sciences
Business and Economics
The Arts
Domestic Life
Sports and Recreation
General Knowledge

A sampling of the information you'll find uniquely compiled in this single
the arrangement of the human skeleton
the dimensions of a tennis court
table settings
phases of the moon
the significance of the digits on a check
hierarchy of angels

Genres: Reference, Nonfiction, Science, Trivia, Writing, Education, Society

416 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

Dr. Barbara Ann Kipfer (born in 1954) is a lexicographer,as well as an archaeologist. She has written more than 60 books, including 14,000 Things to be Happy About (Workman), which has more than a million copies in print and has given rise to many Page-a-Day calendars. The 25th anniversary edition of the book was published in October 2014. She is the editor of Roget's International Thesaurus.

Kipfer is Chief Lexicographer of the company Temnos. She has worked for such companies as Google, Dictionary.com and Thesaurus.com, Answers.com, Ask Jeeves, Bellcore/Telcordia, Federated Media Publishing, General Electric Research, IBM Research, idealab, Knowledge Adventure, Textdigger, The Chicago Tribune, and WolframAlpha. Barbara holds a PhD and MPhil in Linguistics (University of Exeter), a PhD in Archaeology (Greenwich University), an MA and a PhD in Buddhist Studies (Akamai University), and a BS in Physical Education (Valparaiso University).

(from Wikipedia)

Reviews

[booklady · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you are someone who likes organization or likes to know where things fit into the larger scheme, this might appeal to you. Many years ago, B.C. (before children) I used to actually BE organized, well occasionally anyway … believe it or not. Those days are only a distant memory. But the idea (or do I mean the ideal?) of organization or order still have great appeal for me. I’m sure that is what led me to buy this book way back then.

Unfortunately, it is now laughably (over 20 years) out-of-date. Of course, things like the ancient Greeks – barring some major archaeological discovery – should remain constant. Many of the lists (religion, mathematics) will only evolve or change minimally/slowly. Other lists though will be constantly changing in significant ways, especially technology and science, which would seem to discourage any thought of producing/purchasing an update to this, as it would become obsolete almost as soon as it was printed. There is a 2018 kindle edition, which looks suspiciously like a reprint of the 2008 paperback. For now I will hang on to my copy until shelf space runs out or other necessity requires it. It really is a one-of-a-kind reference. I have not had need of it that I recall, but then I also didn’t remember its existence. Discovered it moving books around.

It is fun just to open at random and test your knowledge. It would be a great asset for trivia games, but not fair if only one side had it.

[Emma Sea · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book concept from the days before the answer to any trivia was at your fingertips. Now, an excellent read before bed (or for the smallest room I suppose), to make you go, "Wow, so Texas was its own republic, huh?" and "I wonder why the most experienced Roman soldiers were second to front?"

Not sure under what circumstance you'd want to randomly browse that violet light is on a wavelength of 450-350 nanometers, but should this also be your idea of pleasant material for ten minutes relaxing, then Dr Kipfer has the good stuff.

If it were up to me, I'd update this (it's from 2008) . There's the National (US) fire rating system symbols, but I'd add, like, the AO3 fic symbols.

.

(One of these pictograms is warning the contents could LITERALLY KILL YOU DEAD. The other says the contents are merely combustible, and will not require you to bleach your brain. At all.)

And there's international and US paper sizes, so why not the most common html tags?

Anyway, I liked it a whole lot. Because I am weird and happy with it.

[Bryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

If, like me, you're one of those sickos who loves organizing, cataloging, ranking and labeling, this book is like porn.

[Cat. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reading this book is a bit like reading an index. Actually, it's a lot like reading an index; my husband said, at one point while it was sitting around, "What a boring book!"

Well, no, actually it's not boring. I did skip around a bit (like most of the science sections and most of the whole last chapter on "General Knowledge and Philosophy." But reading the chain of command in different countries of the world was quite entertaining. So was Kipfer's explanation of ISBNs, for a different reason: according to her, only the second two digits in an ISBN are assigned to the publisher. This, of course, means there are a total of 100 American (English-language) publishers. Uh, no.

When I find an error like this in a book that purports to be "How Everything in the World is Organized into Hierarchies, Structures, and Pecking Orders" it lowers the amount of trust I have the the rest of the knowledge. There are, however, loads of charts and details for things like comparing gods and goddesses cross-culturally, explaining the Muslim prayer sequence, showing all the traditional place setting parts, and so forth. A fun browsing kind of book. It also has a nice bibliography, where you could find out where to get details about the lists in this book.

[Kimberly Ann · Rating 3 out of 5]

Subtitle: "How Everything in the World is Organized Into Hierarchies, Structures, and Pecking Orders"

Preface: "From the inner workings of the smallest things to the complex system of the universe, The Order of Things is an attempt to cover all those things that we ourselves have organized, or what we have found naturally organized, into:
hierarchies
structures
orders
classifications
branches
scales
divisions
successions
sequences
rankings."

Does this give you an idea of the book's contents?

Chapters: Earth Sciences & Geography; Life Sciences; Physical Sciences; Technology; Mathematics & Measurement; Religion; History; Society & Economy; The Arts; Domestic Life; Sports & Recreation; and General Knowledge

If you LOVE Lists (especially scientifically ordered ones), this is the book for you. There are numerous B&W illustrations, but I would have preferred colored photos.... as this book is more of a textbook than a pleasure read.

[Sonia Focke · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have found Google in book form. This is amazing. From the classification of the natural world to the gestation period for the more common mammals to the designation of various three-dimensional geometric constructs to the watches on a ship and what 'four bells' means to the presidents of the Republic of Mexico to I Ching divination hexagrams to how an abacus works, types of hinges, the placement of bowling pins, variou stypes of leaves, major cities on Route 66, the Labors of Hercules -
*gasps*
and so on.
A tad americano-centric, but not extremely so (can and containers sizes, for example, are US-based, though both U.S. and metric measurements, and their conversion, are included). Great for the on-the-road author sans smart phone (like me!), or for when you're really bored (so you don't have to read the dictionary AGAIN.)
Despite the sheer mass of information (it creates a pocket of L-Space all by itself) it is available in a very handy pocket format in a (for me, with average vision) perfectly legible type.
Bravo!

[Erich Franz Linner-Guzmann · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fun and easy way to obtain an insane amount of information!

[Wendy S.]

My quest to organize my thoughts causes me to buy weird shit. Like this.

[Brandy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quenched my thirst to classify the randomness that rattles around inside my head.

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a reference! For those times when knowing it all means - in order too.

[Paula · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you alphabetize items in your pantry, you'll appreciate this book.

Everything from the meaning of the numbers along the bottom of your checks to a glossary of the Vikings' social and political rankings to a list of vegetables organized by family are presented in a clean, no-nonsense layout.

A strangely comforting book.

[Mckinley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting lists.

[Roy Robinson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Suitable read for the toilet.

[Aneesah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great reference book, I love it. I bought a copy years ago and let a friend borrow it. He fell in love with it and never gave the copy back so I had to order another one, lol!

[Gonzalo Oyanedel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Los libros se consulta entretienen a las mentes inquietos y este no es la excepción, pese a enfocarse naturalmente en datos pertinentes a los Estados Unidos. Ocio útil.

[Michael Smith · Rating 1 out of 5]

In theory, this is a terrific idea for a library ready-reference book: pages and pages of lists of every kind and classification of things you can imagine. The design and execution is a good deal more problematic, however. Some of the selected topics are obvious -- Roman and Japanese emperors, weights and measures, the Ten Commandments, Newton’s Laws of Motion -- but many others (I’m tempted to say “most others”) are not in any way hierarchical and are seldom naturally structured. In fact, they often seem artificial and arbitrary, meant only to fill up space to produce a book large enough to market. At the least, they strain the rubric. For example: “Circus attractions” is just a incomplete collection of types of acts; “Employee benefits” is merely one sample list; “Motion picture genres” includes an apparently arbitrary forty-one types of films (who says?); likewise the “areas” of the performing arts; likewise the topics in a household budget. And why is the list of topics used in the Macmillan Visual Dictionary a valid universal list? Finally, even some topics I personally would have considered obvious are omitted, like a list of the traditional logical fallacies. If you remember the Wallaces’ highly idiosyncratic and very browsable Book of Lists series from the 1970s, . . . well this is nothing like that. Finally, it pains me to observe that the book’s designer saw fit to commit the amateurish font-sin of setting the titles of publications in the blurbs on the back cover in ALL SWASH.

[Sarah Sammis · Rating 3 out of 5]

When I was studying for the library media technician test (for a job that lost funding before they finished the hiring process) I spotted The Order of Things by Barbara Ann Kipfer. The title intrigued me and the author's name seemed familiar.

Turns out Kipfer wrote another index style book that I took with me to college, 14,000 Things to Be Happy About. I read that book cover to cover, annotating the ones I agreed with and the ones that left me scratching my head.

The Order of Things is a compendium of things one might want to know. It's basically a list of lists across a wide range of subjects from the arts, sciences, history, mathematics and so forth. As the book covers so many topics in such fine detail it's not something to read casually from cover to cover.

It would, however, make an excellent reference to a home library. If I had a copy, I'm sure I'd quickly have it annotate and flagged with Post-It Notes. I love a good and quick reference book.

[Lili · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are books that just make you feel good, well, that is if you obsessively love organized lists of information. Something about the controlled, well laid out, information was just soothing. I found this book very calming, it worked better than my sleep aides and just lulled me into a well ordered sleep.

All silliness aside, this book is pretty useful if you want things in a list. I many times while reading this would look up a snippet of information and elaborate on a thing included in a list. It is a good reference in of itself, and a good 'stepping off tool' for doing more detailed research.

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an amazing little book of organization and structure. I'm keeping it at my desk for all those pesky little questions I get about the nature of things. I happened to discover this as I was perusing the reference shelves at Powell's City of Books in Portland. It comes in a variety of formats in case you don't want a short, fat volume, but instead want a bigger, paperback version for your desk. The world and its hierarchies are swiftly at your fingertips with this one!

[Rashelle Isip · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very helpful and amusing reference book filled with neatly organized lists of everything and anything you can imagine in this world. I could spend hours just pouring over the lists in this book...oh wait, I have. It is a must for people who love all things order!

[Monique · Rating 2 out of 5]

All you may need to know about how things are organized in life, from science classifications, to sport nomenclature and the way to set a table.

Ever wondered why you call a group of geese on the ground a gaggle? And they become a skein when in flight. Who knew?

All this useful trivia....

[Beebee Pomegranate]

not what I thought it would be, this book could be called "captain obvious." I anticipate something explaining the hierarchies, structures and pecking orders. Instead, it is a book of categories that I have half-made myself. Not worth the time to read.

[Edward Fendley · Rating 4 out of 5]

this book is awesome...great bathroom book. great reference guide to further your advances of becoming mr. or mrs. Knowitall!

[Patricia Kurz · Rating 2 out of 5]

Reference, fair.

[Molly · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting collection. All of this is, of course, available free on-line, but it's the 'collective' aspect of it that's interesting. It's a fun little curiosity to have around.

[Aubrey · Rating 5 out of 5]

...awesome.

[Alison · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved it, but found quite a few errors that made the book less credible for use as a true pocket reference.

[Ulysses · Rating 2 out of 5]

Strictly bathroom reading-- as evidenced by the fact that it took me almost two years to finish it-- but a worthy enough entrant in that genre.

[Trevor · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must have for your reference shelf.

Huh? What was that? You don't ... *gasp* ... you don't have one?!

[Gea · Rating 3 out of 5]

Can be used as a reference. This book is very informative.