The Book of General Ignorance
by John Lloyd, John Mitchinson
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Book Reviews of The Book of General Ignorance
Book Review: Non-Trivial Trivia for the Lover of all Things Factual
Summary: 4 Stars
For the dedicated informavore, cracking the first page of this book is like ushering a person with a drinking problem into an Oktoberfest celebration. Consisting of over two hundred questions that many people THINK they know the answer to, The Book of General Ignorance proceeds to deflate the readers' pride in their own knowledge with both dispatch and humor.
With queries ranging from "What human artifacts can be seen from the moon?" to "What would you use to overpower a crocodile?", the authors cover topics ranging from astrophysics to particle physics, from the sex lives of earwigs to the homicidal habits of hippos, all in clear and humorous prose.
It would be tempting to look at this book as simply a larger and more explicit version of picking up a box of Trivial Pursuit cards and going through them one by one. And if you're someone that has actually done this (Sadly....I'm one of those people), you'll love this book. For many readers, delightful as the tidbits provided are, it will leave one with the odd and unfulfilling feeling one gets when one goes to a party, not having had dinner, and all that is available is a vast array of tasty appetizers: one gets stuffed, but keeps vaguely missing the main meal. That said, there is a takeaway message or two that have lasting substance.
The first message from author John Lloyd, who quotes from the man who DIDN'T invent the light bulb (Thomas Edison) "We don't know a millionth of one percent about anything." Secondly, Lloyd feels that in addition to drives for food, shelter, and sex, mankind has a fourth drive: curiosity. And we should indulge this drive. Lastly, much that we think we know, we are in error about. The book, in a funky and funny way, is a call to humility, a call to lay aside pomposity, cockiness, and fear, the better to take off whatever lenses we have been gazing at the world through and to take a fresh look at information that is often staring us in the face. Information that just might push back the shoreline of ignorance just a few feet. As narrow as that newly uncovered beachfront might be, it is bound to hold fascinating clues to what is under that ocean of ignorance that we humans so badly want to explore.
Book Review: Read the Questions Carefully and Think Before Answering
Summary: 4 Stars
We all have a knee-jerk reaction to blurt out answers to questions about what's the biggest, tallest, most dangerous, etc. But like many of the better quiz shows, the answers often require thinking a little more broadly. "When did the last Ice Age end?" The answer is that we are still in it. But you could easily start to answer with when the last ice age that ended was over.
This reminded me of the oral exam I had to earn honors in college. The three professors started off by asking me which peace treaty ended the Hundred Years War. I thought and thought and couldn't think of one. I told them that answer and felt like a fool. It turned out there was no treaty. So beware of the way questions are phrased.
Despite my warning, the authors caught me several times jumping to conclusions about what the question meant, even though I knew the answer to what was intended. That gave me a good laugh at myself.
The better questions were ones that raised issues of contrast: "What's the largest thing a blue whale can swallow?" It's not as large as you might imagine.
I had fun with the book. It was a good time filler for a long, many-stop plane trip. It would also be a fun read for a few minutes before falling to sleep . . . probably giving you something interesting to think about as you doze off.
My only concern was that one of the answers didn't fit my experience . . . the one about which way the water swirls into the drain in the northern and southern hemispheres. I was actually on a ship once that kept going north and south of the equator, and the direction of the swirls shifted with our location relative to the equator. I'm not convinced this answer is right that it's the shape of the basin and drain that counts for the direction of the swirls. I don't remember seeing any swirls in the southern hemisphere that weren't opposite to the ones I've seen in the northern hemisphere.
As a result, I wonder if the answers came from book or Internet research rather than painstaking research. If so, don't bet your last five dollars on any of the more obscure answers. They might be wrong.
But have fun anyway.
Book Review: Well Worth the Effort
Summary: 4 Stars
This book was given to me from a coworker as a Christmas gift. It's categorized under "humor" which I thought was ill-fitting. There are several statements and questions that are a play on semantics perhaps but I wouldn't necessarily call it humor. I happened to enjoy the book very much but I also happen to be an insufferable know-it-all sometimes. This book did open my eyes to some things I didn't know though. Most were simply things that I never really thought about. Having read this book I can now tell people: it was the whip and not the Bell X-1 that first broke the sound barrier; America may NOT named after Amerigo Vespucci after all; and it's possible that Henry the Black (not Magellan) was the first man to circumnavigate the globe.
Some examples of the play on semantics would be what is the TALLEST mountain on earth instead of the HIGHEST? Everyone knows that Everest is the HIGHEST but the TALLEST is Mauna Kea in Hawai'i. It's common knowledge that the Great Wall of China can be seen from SPACE but what is the only man-made object that can be seen from the Moon? The book says that no man-made object can be seen from the moon but my wife argued that, depending on where you're standing, you can see the American flag. She may have a point unless you're a conspiracy theorist and think that the moon landing was a scam. The Great Wall can be seen from a low earth orbit but the moon is simply too far away for the human eye to see the Wall. Another example is the ubiquitous "who was the first American president"? Well, George Washington was the first president of the United States but the first president of America was Peyton Randolph. He was the President of the Continental Congress.
All in all, I have to say that this is a pretty good read. The entries are short enough that the book can serve as a bathroom reader but you can almost read it in a single sitting if you are not prone to information overload. It would make a great gift for that know-it-all friend or relative that we all have . . . unless we happen to be that know-it-all and in that case it makes a great gift unto yourself.
Book Review: I guess I thought I knew more than I did...
Summary: 5 Stars
"This book is for the people who know they don't know very much." This comment, in the introduction of The Book of General Ignorance, sets the stage and presents the authors' challenge. I started reading it with a "Who do they think they are fooling" attitude.
They made me a convert. This book only gets more interesting as you continue reading it.
Some of the knowledge nuggets aren't big secrets, and in fact read as "trick questions," like "What is the tallest mountain in the world?" The trick is, "tallest," not "highest." Got it? Mauna Kea in Hawaii, not Mt. Everest.
Then, what is the most dangerous animal that has ever lived? Answer? A mosquito, responsible, the authors say, for the deaths of about 45 billion humans. Of course (and they know this), one mosquito isn't responsible for these deaths, there are many species of mosquitos, and mosquitos really don't (directly) kill anybody.
Trick question again.
Then there were the questions that didn't hold any surprise at all: "What is the main ingredient of air?" Answer: nitrogen.
But it got more interesting. What man-made objects are visible from the moon? None. Many are visible from "space" (a mere 60 miles above the surface of the Earth), but the moon is too far away. What is the biggest thing that a blue whale can swallow? What are violin strings made of?
There are so many questions answered, that there is something here for everybody.
This is better than Trivial Pursuit, because of the explanations given. This should be an entertaining book on CD to listen to on a long trip, and can easily be turned into a game for adults and kids.
So I started reading it with a chip on my shoulder, and the authors made me a believer. Interesting, indeed. The book just kept getting better.
And my favorite factoid? What is the longest animal alive today?
Hint... it is not a blue whale.
Book Review: Hey, I knew more than I thought I did!
Summary: 5 Stars
I may not be the next Ken Jennings upon finishing this book, but it's possible I could stand a reasonable chance to win a few bucks should I ever appear on a trivia-based game show. Short, witty, and cleverishly devil- wait, that's not right. Whatever. The Book of General Ignorance is a perfect book to test the contents of your brain to see what floats...and if it floats, it should be flushed. (Too gross an analogy? Sorry.) To be honest, since I have a trivial brain (and, yes, I mean every word of that), I actually knew quite a few of the tidbits presented within the book, although if someone had asked me to name them directly, the most intelligible answer they would've received would've been something along the lines of, "Um, wait, I know who/what/where/when that is, I just can't quite remember. I definitely know it's not who/what/where/when you think it is. Give me a minute, 'kay?" (At least that's a more coherent response than if I actually did appear on a game show; with the glare of the bright lights and glittering eyes of a studio audience, I would be reduced to a quivering mass unable to say anything more than "Durumdedumyoupdedoodleedoododulawhat?" Or something equivalent.) However, there were enough surprises sprinkled throughout the entries to have me gasping out a "No way!" every few pages.
For a quick read or as something to scan in between reading projects, The Book of General Knowledge is a perfect book for that most entertaining of past times, that of stuffing your brain with useless information (and risking the possibility of losing important information along the way) just to whip out said trivia to entertain your friends. Hey, it makes for great fun at parties! Especially when you start drooling and can't remember your own name...but at least you know how many penises a European earwig has. (Curious to know how many too? Read the book to find out.)