According to Guinness, its annual compendium of the shortest and tallest, biggest and smallest, fastest and slowest, and highest and lowest is the best-selling copyrighted book in publishing history.

Between the glittering gold-foil covers of the latest large-format version, "Guinness World Records 2005: Special 50th Anniversary Edition," information-seekers and curious browsers will find thousands of records, including hundreds of new ones, in categories that range from politics to pop music, birds to buildings, toys to tennis, and reptiles to religion.

And, of course, those human beings of distinction: the tallest man and tallest woman, the shortest man and shortest woman, and the folks with the largest hands, longest fingernails, largest chest, longest hair, longest ear hair — well, you get the picture.

Speaking of pictures, some of the photos in this volume are downright eye-popping — none more than that of the farthest eyeball-popper, an American woman who can coax her ocular orbs to protrude almost half an inch.

Also evoking second looks are images showing the most spoons balanced on the face (13); heaviest twins (American men who totaled 1,465 pounds and died of heart failure); most piercings (a Cuban man with 230, most of them on his face); longest human tongue (3.7 inches); most live rattlesnakes held in the mouth (eight); and the largest bobble-head doll (an 11-foot-tall, 900-pound likeness of TV game-show host Chuck Woolery).

Among the records held by Sir Paul McCartney is his record 22 Guinness World Records, 16 as a Beatle.

Featured in Q-and-A's are several record holders, some famous for more than their Guinness distinctions.

There are Ashrita Furman, an American who owns 19 Guinness records including the fastest mile covered by pogo stick (12 minutes, 16 seconds) and who says he keeps fit by juggling shot-puts; Brit Bernard Lavery, whose 12 records for growing unusually large botanical specimens include the longest carrot (nearly 17 feet, his proudest accomplishment); Matt Groening, creator of "The Simpsons," the longest-running prime-time animated TV series; and Bill Gates, the world's richest person ($46 billion and counting) and contributor to several of the largest charitable donations.

A special feature of this 50th-anniversary edition is a comparison of records from 1955 and today. For example, in 1955, Guinness says, the highest-paid TV performer was Jackie Gleason, whose two-year contract was worth $7 million; today, it's Ray Romano, who receives $1.8 million for each half-hour episode of "Everybody Loves Raymond."