Don't consider packing Lonely Planet's The Travel Book ($56.95) on your next trip--it's better suited for a coffee table than a backpack. Subtitled A Journey Through Every Country in the World, this is the perfect Christmas present for world-traveller wannabes.

The Travel Book really does showcase every country in the world, from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, along with a few places that aren't countries in their own right. Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan, though officially part of China, earn their own listings, along with Antarctica, Greenland, and remote relics of European colonization like France's Saint-Pierre and Miquelon, just south of Newfoundland. Lonely Planet makes some political statements, too: the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland are merged into one entity, for example, and Palestine is given full status.

Each country is presented in a two-page spread of photos and text, with one large symbolic photograph. Other photos further define the place, along with a column of standardized details, such as Best Time to Visit, Essential Experiences, Getting Under the Skin, Trademarks, and Surprises.

This is a comprehensive, informative, and entertaining resource, an atlas whose maps have been replaced by often stunningly beautiful photography. The trademark Lonely Planet wit runs through as well. (Best time to visit Denmark? "May and June or AD 900 if pillaging is your thing.")

This gorgeous book should come with a warning, though: readers will undoubtedly be inspired to travel to some exotic locale discovered in its pages.