David Wallechinsky - The Book of Lists

On September 13, 1922 the temperature in Azizia, Libya, reached 136.4° Fahrenheit (58° Celsius) — in the shade.

On July 21, 1983 the thermometer at Vostok, Antarctica, registered -128.6° Fahrenheit (-89.2° Celsius). Vostok also holds the record for consistently cold weather. To reach an optimum temperature of 65 degrees Fahrenheit (18.3° Celsius), Vostok would require 48,800 ‘heating degree days’ a year. By comparison, Fairbanks, Alaska, needs only 14,300.

Temperatures in Verkhoyansk, Russia, have ranged from 98° Fahrenheit (37° Celsius) down to 90.4° Fahrenheit (-68° Celsius), a variance of 188.4° Fahrenheit (105° Celsius).

Marble Bar, Western Australia, experienced 160 consecutive days of 100° Fahrenheit (37.8° Celsius) temperatures from October 31, 1923 to April 7, 1924.

On March 16, 1952 73.62 in. (187 cm) of rain — more than 6 ft — fell at Cilaos on Réunion Island east of Madagascar. Another 24 in. (60.96 cm) fell during the 24 hours surrounding March 16.

Cherrapunji, Assam, India, received 189 in. (226.06 cm) of rain between June 24 and July 8, 1931. Back in 1861, Cherrapunji received 366.14 in. (930 cm) of rain in one month and 905.12 in. (2400 cm) for the calendar year.

The driest place on Earth is Arica, Chile, in the Atacama Desert. No rain fell there for more than 14 years, between October 1903 and December 1917. Over a 59-year period, Arica averaged three-hundredths of an inch (.76 mm) of rain a year.

The largest snowfall in a 24-hour period was 75.8 in. (192.5 cm) — more than 6 ft — recorded at Silver Lake, Colorado, on April 14-15, 1921.

Paradise Ranger Station on Mt Rainier in Washington State recorded 1,122 in. (2,850 cm) of snow in 1971–72. Their average is 582 in. (1,478 cm).

Hurricane John, which flourished in August and September of 1994, was notable for two reasons. It lasted for all or part of 31 days, making it the longest-lived tropical storm on record. It also crossed over the International Date Line twice, changing its name from Hurricane John to Typhoon John and back to Hurricane John.

This list is from Yann Martel’s Man Booker prize-winning novel, Life of Pi .

• Always read instructions carefully

• Do not drink urine. Or sea water. Or bird blood.

• Do not eat jellyfish. Or fish that are armed with spikes. Or that have parrot-like beaks. Or that puff up like balloons.

• Pressing the eyes of fish will paralyse them.

• The body can be a hero in battle. If a castaway is injured, beware of well-meaning but ill-founded medical treatment. Ignorance is the worst doctor, while rest and sleep are the best nurses.

• Put up your feet at least five minutes every hour.

• Unnecessary exertion should be avoided. But an idle mind tends to sink, so the mind should be kept occupied with whatever light distraction may suggest itself. Playing card games, Twenty Questions and I Spy With My Little Eye are excellent forms of simple recreation. Community singing is another sure-fire way to life the spirits. Yarn spinning is also highly recommended.

• Green water is shallower than blue water.

• Beware of far-off clouds that look like mountains. Look for green. Ultimately, a foot is the only good judge of land.

• Do not go swimming. It wastes energy. Besides, a survival craft may drift faster than you can swim. Not to mention the danger of sea life. If you are hot, wet your clothes instead.

• Do not urinate in your clothes. The momentary warmth is not worth the nappy rash.

• Shelter yourself. Exposure can kill faster than thirst or hunger.

• So long as no excessive water is lost through perspiration, the body can survive up to 14 days without water. If you feel thirsty, suck a button.

• Turtles are an easy catch and make for excellent meals. Their blood is a good, nutritious, salt-free drink; their flesh is tasty and filling; their fat has many uses; and the castaway will find turtle eggs a real treat. Mind the beak and the claws.

• Don’t let your morale flag. Be daunted, but not defeated. Remember: the spirit, above all else, counts. If you have the will to live, you will. Good luck!

(Note that urine has on occasion been found to have positive health properties in emergency situations — The Eds.)

‘Somewhere in La Mancha, in a place whose name I do not care to remember, a gentleman lived not long ago, one of those who has a lance and ancient shield on a shelf and keeps a skinny nag and a greyhound for racing.’

‘For a long time I used to go to bed early.’

‘Call me Ishmael.’

‘Mr Sherlock Holmes, who was usually very late in the mornings, save upon those not infrequent occasions when he was up all night, was seated at the breakfast table.’

‘Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins.’

‘Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show.’

‘She was so deeply imbedded in my consciousness that for the first year of school I seem to have believed that each of my teachers was my mother in disguise.’

‘He was an old man who fished alone in a skiff in the Gulf Stream and he had gone eighty-four days now without taking a fish.’

‘Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again.’

‘Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice.’

‘It was a queer, sultry summer, the summer they electrocuted the Rosenbergs, and I didn’t know what I was doing in New York.’

‘It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.’

‘The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there.’

‘Maman died today. Or yesterday maybe, I don’t know.’

‘It was love at first sight. The first time Yossarian saw the chaplain he fell madly in love with him.’

‘All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.’

‘Tom!’