The Tall Book: A Celebration of Life from on High

by Arianne Cohen

Overview

The Tall Book is a celebration of the tall-advantaged, which notes and explores the myriad benefits that come with living large--from the simple pleasures of being able to see over crowds at a parade, to the professional joys of earning more money, and having others perceive you as a natural leader. The Tall Book also offers well-researched explanations into the great unanswered questions of tallness, including: Why are people tall to begin with? How have tall people figured throughout history? Why are CEOs so tall? And how does tallness affect the dating game? Filled with illustrative graphics, charts, and piles of tall miscellanea and factoids, The Tall Book is a wonderful and much-needed exploration of life from on high.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781608191109
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Publishing
Publication date:	07/01/2009
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	256
File size:	6 MB

About the Author

A 2003 graduate of Harvard, Arianne Cohens is the author of Help, It's Broken!: A Fix-It Bible for the Repair-Impaired and the co-editor of the upcoming essay book, Confessions of a Word Nerd. Her work has appeared in a number of national publications including LIFE Magazine, Marie Claire, Real Simple, Health, New York, The New York Times, National Geographic Adventure, Popular Mechanics, Time Out New York, The New York Times Magazine, and the Metro, where she is a weekly columnist. She has also contributed to National Public Radio's This American Life, and has appeared on NPR's Marketplace Money, and ABC News. She is 6'3" and lives in New York City.
A 2003 graduate of Harvard, Arianne Cohens is the author of Help, It's Broken!: A Fix-It Bible for the Repair-Impaired and the co-editor of the upcoming essay book, Confessions of a Word Nerd. Her work has appeared in a number of national publications including LIFE Magazine, Marie Claire, Real Simple, Health, New York, The New York Times, National Geographic Adventure, Popular Mechanics, Time Out New York, The New York Times Magazine, and the Metro, where she is a weekly columnist. She has also contributed to National Public Radio's This American Life, and has appeared on NPR's Marketplace Money, and ABC News. She is 6'3" and lives in New York City.

Editorial Reviews

Though it may in part revere the tall, essayist Cohen proclaims, clearly "society is not built for us." Six-foot-three Cohen (Confessions of a High School Word Nerd) covers many taken-for-granted challenges facing "talls," including public toilets, exercise bikes, doorways, couches and airplanes. Especially complicated is dating; some tall women would never "date down"-that is, a man shorter than they are-while other talls (i.e. men) refuse to date anyone but the short. Being tall costs more, due to expenses like "double-price clothes," "high ceilinged homes," and "the food," but it also pays better: tall people earn approximately 2.5% more per inch. Height also helps get presidents elected; 26 out of the last 30 presidential contests went to the taller candidate. Cohen has been frustrated, ever since she was a 5'3" eight-year-old that no one has written a book about tall people ("The Dewey Decimal index didn't even assign a classification number to tall people. Surely the world kidded"). She fixes that problem handily with a guide both practical and proud, and with enough self-deprecating humor to charm readers of any height; an ideal gift for talls, their loved ones, and (perhaps) their jealous detractors.
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Publishers Weekly

Inspired by her own height and a serious lack of popular material on tallness, 6'3" journalist Cohen (coeditor, Confessions of a High School Word Nerd) takes great pride in announcing that tall people have higher IQs, earn more money, and live longer than average-height folks. Cohen discusses the economic, physical, and psychological benefits and disadvantages of being a tall person in a personal and humorous tone. She arranges her book into a series of thematic essays that address the biological causes of tallness, its economic, sociological, and medical aspects, and the consequences of living daily life in an infrastructure created for shorter people. Readers come away understanding how one's height can affect everything from one's relationships, personal and professional, to national economies. VERDICT With more material available on the causes and ramifications of short stature, Cohen's book fills a gap in the popular literature, complementing Susan Cohen and Christine Cosgrove's more academic Normal at Any Cost: Tall Girls, Short Boys, and the Medical Industry's Quest To Manipulate Height. Her work includes references, graphs, and illustrations but is defined by its humor and the filter of personal experience. Recommended for good leisure reading.—Kate Farley, Armstrong Atlantic State Univ., Savannah, GA

—Kate Farley

Library Journal