Manorama Yearbook 2012 Review

 Desi GOOGLE

My Ratings: 4.5/5

It was 1996 when I first got a copy of Manorama Yearbook from one of my classmate. I became a fan of this book since then. It is a one stop search for major GK questions. It was the time when there was no Wikipedia, Google or internet. Time has changed in almost 15years since then, but my loyalty towards this book is still the same. Though I have many online search engines always ready for me and Wikipedia with all the detailed information but still I love to flick through its pages to get information on many hot topics or topics that never came to my mind. Interestingly, I took help from Wikipedia while writing this review but that doesn’t make this book any inferior. I am writing this review considering the latest edition of this book- Manorama Yearbook 2012.

Simply said, it is an encyclopedia of current affairs published annually in Bengali, English, Hindi, Malayalam, and Tamil languages by Malayala Manorama Group of Kerala, India. It was first printed in 1959 in Malayalam and seven years later, the first English edition was published. It mainly covers information related to people, places, events and other major incidents happened during the past year.

Contents

The book is divided into 14 sections as follows:

1. Current Affairs- This section comprises two sub-sections of happenings in India and World. The section tries to cover all the major incidents or persons in news of past year like 2G spectrum, Srikrishna report, Kalmadi, Anna Hazare, Liz Taylor, Wikileaks, Straus-Kahn etc.

2. Events- It contains calendar of events (date wise) in India and World in two separate sections from 1^st November, 2010 to 7^th October, 2011.

3. Cover Story- This is a permanent section in all the editions of yearbook where a hot topic is discussed in detail. This time, the topic is related to ‘Arab Uprisings’ where the recent revolutions (Jasmine Revolution) in Arab countries are explained in 30pages.

4. Science World- This section explains many basic principle of science and also major incidents in past year like BT Crops, Gene revolution etc.

5. Cosmos- It covers all the important topics related to Space science – space facts, solar system etc., geoscience, tsunami, earthquake & volcanoes etc.

6. Environment- It covers international conventions on environment, green growth, global warming, COP16 summit, ozone protection and many other important topics related to environment.

7. Health & Medicine- It has some very interesting topics related to human body systems, types of human diseases, drug resistant bugs etc.

8. Information Technology- IT Scan, computer virus, kinetic thrills, computer revolution, touch screen systems, tablets, internet timeline, social networks etc.

9. World Panorama- The best part of this section is ready reckoner of all countries comprising of all the relevant information. It also covers UN, international organizations, world religions and much more.

10. Education & Career- Topics related to Civil Services, IELTS, GRE, training, planning, CEED, armed forces career and many useful topics related to career and education.

11. India- It covers all the details about India, its states, peoples, state assemblies, constitution, flora, forests, fauna and many interesting and important topics.

12. Indian Economy- Agriculture, plantation crops, liberalization, privatization, globalization, five year plans, banking, mutual funds, FDI etc.

13. General Knowledge- It has information that is not covered under other sections. You think of a topic and it is here. You never have imagined of that topic and it is also here. It has information like awards & honors, Bollywood, abbreviations, records, who is who, important post holders etc.

14. Sports- It covers all the important sports incidents, persons, awards etc. of the past year.  The important section of this part is Sports diary that covers date wise happenings in sports.

Few more reasons that make it worthy

1. GK quiz comprising of 1000 questions

2. One-liners GK at the bottom of almost all the pages.

3. Top 50 Hollywood classic movies.

4. Top 50 classic novels.

5. Curious human body facts.

6. Most confusable words in English language.

7. List of important historical places.

8. ’Who is Who’ of persons related to politics, literature, arts, science & technology, sports and miscellaneous.

9. A special article on youth power by APJ Abdul Kalam.

Manorama Yearbook vs. CSR Yearbook

Competition Success Review Yearbook is the most able competitor to Manorama Yearbook, so it’s natural to have comparison between these two books.

1. CSR yearbook is priced at Rs.310 (online price Rs.233) compared to Manorama yearbook which is priced at Rs.170 (online price Rs.128).
2. CSR has only 990 pages when compared to 1040 pages of Manorama.
3. Manorama has much better presentation and page quality when compared to CSR.
4. Manorama comes with free Encyclopedia CD where as CSR comes with free wall maps of India and World.
5. Manorama is fully colored book , where as CSR has only about 80 colored pages at beginning and end.
6. I personally feel that CSR is more inclined towards more and more number of ads, inside and on cover (multiple layered cover with lot of advertisements).

I am unable to understand that there is no additional info in CSR nor they have additional pages, still they have priced it at almost double the price of Manorama. CSR looks very bulky and thick despite less number of pages, may be because of inferior paper quality. I would say that Manorama Yearbook is a steal when compared to CSR . 

Recommendations

It is best recommended for

1. Students and the people who are appearing for competitive exams.

2. People who don’t have time in their daily life to keep them updated with the current affairs.

3. Those who want to get current scenario of always changing geography.

4. Persons in search of concise as well comprehensive information on major aspects.
5. Teachers and researchers who are in need of quick reference.

6. Those who love to collect important or ignored information from all sources.

7. Bibliophiles, as this book is worth their collection.

Pricing and availability

This book is available at almost all the bookstores in whole India at a printed price tag of Rs.170. These bookstores may give you a discount of 10-20%, but I would recommend purchasing it through online stores. It is available at all the leading online stores at Rs.128 (i.e., discount of 30%).

Finally

Many people may be fond of reading fictions while going to bed but I love to sleep after spending few minutes with this book. It never gets me bored as every page has something new to offer. Even at the most bored moment, there is always an option of switching to any other category of my choice.

The only negative point is that it covers current affairs till October. By the way it is same with the all the GK books in the market, may be all are in hurry to release new editions.

It is the best thing that can be purchased at this price, considering the quality and quantity (total 1040) of pages, colored printing and vast information.  You will get a free Encyclopedia Britannica CD free with this edition.

Don’t go blindly with my review, just try it yourself for once. Either it is a waste of Rs.128 or a yearly delight :)