Improbable research: a brief history of Timeline books

The word "typical" applies to each of the Webster's Timeline History books more than it does to almost any other item of any group of anything. Each of these 90,000 books – each and every one – is authored, directly or indirectly, by Philip Parker, a professor at Insead, the international business school in France. He wrote a computer program that writes books, a few thousand of which I described here a few years ago. The Webster's Timeline History books are something special. The publisher, Icon Group International, Inc, describes each in identical language. Here's the teaser for a book entitled Bellyaching: Webster's Timeline History, 1879-2007 : "Webster's bibliographic and event-based timelines are comprehensive in scope, covering virtually all topics, geographic locations and people. They do so from a linguistic point of view, and in the case of this book, the focus is on Bellyaching, including when used in literature (eg all authors that might have Bellyaching in their name). As such, this book represents the largest compilation of timeline events associated with Bellyaching when it is used in proper noun form." Some other, equally typical titles: • Spatters: Webster's Timeline History, 1753-2007 • Debulking: Webster's Timeline History, 1856-2007 • Fingernails: Webster's Timeline History, 1841-2007 • Ups and Downs: Webster's Timeline History, 1402-2007 • Adjective: Webster's Timeline History, 387BC-2007 • Boom Boom Chi Boom Boom: Webster's Timeline History, 1989 While the majority of these books are one-offs, the collection includes a substantial number of themed series. There's the four-volume Empty series: • Empty: Webster's Timeline History, 591BC-1986 • Empty: Webster's Timeline History, 1987-1996 • Empty: Webster's Timeline History, 1997-2004 • Empty: Webster's Timeline History, 2005-2007 You can buy a two-volume Generic series, a 23-volume Hands series, three seven-volume series each devoted to the name of a day of the week (Tuesday, Monday, or Sunday), and many, many, many more. Most volumes sell for £28.95 on Amazon. Most list, as their sole author, the aforementioned Icon Group International, Inc, which, depending on how you look at it, is either a pen name or a company Professor Parker created. Seven of the Webster's Timeline History books are more typical than the rest. For anyone planning to read the entire Philip M Parker oeuvre, they are as good a place as any to begin: • Typical: Webster's Timeline History, 721 BC-1988 • Typical: Webster's Timeline History, 1989-1992 • Typical: Webster's Timeline History, 1993-1995 • Typical: Webster's Timeline History, 1996-1997 • Typical: Webster's Timeline History, 1998-1999 • Typical: Webster's Timeline History, 2000-2001 • Typical: Webster's Timeline History, 2002-2007 Marc Abrahams Marc Abrahams is editor of the bimonthly Annals of Improbable Research and organiser of the Ig Nobel prize