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[[Category:New Reviews|Trivia]]__NOTOC__ <!-- Remove -->==Trivia==__NOTOC__<!-- INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE-->{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=David Astle1780724047|title=PuzzledA Dictionary of Interesting and Important Dogs|author=Peter J Conradi
|rating=4
|genre=TriviaPets|summary=Words are wonderful enough when they’re just telling you things straight upI struggle to resist a book about dogs, but who can resist them when they’re really being playful? Not David Astle, the author of I did wonder why this new title one was so ''thin'': given that blows the lid on it all with what he calls I've never encountered a dog who wasn'secrets t interesting or important - and clues from probably both, I was expecting a life in wordsmassive tome. But ''.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846685427</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Joseph Piercy|title=The Story A Dictionary of English|rating=3|genre=Trivia|summary=Interesting and Important Dogs''The Story of Englishis actually '' sets out to be a potted history rich compendium of the influences that have shaped our languageworld's most significant and beloved dogs'' and it's certainly a rich treasure trove. We begin with Peter J Conradi's four collies: Cloudy, from the Lindisfarne Gospels to LOLcatsSky.comBradley and Max. Starting with the pre-Roman Celts They're consecutive rather than simultaneous dogs, but what comes over is Conradi's love for each and their Ogham alphabet, it goes crashing through fifteen hundred years every one of linguistic history at a terrific pace to end with an almost audible sigh of relief at the internet agethem. I knew that I was in safe hands.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1843178834</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Phil Daoust (editor)Don Behrend|title=WriteCopernicus! What Have You Done?: ...and Other Interesting Questions
|rating=4.5
|genre=Trivia
|summary=Cliché is such an awful word with all its connotations of the trite, the hackneyed and the overused. It's a word you'd hate to have associated with your writing, even Hello! Would this review be okay if you produce nothing more public than a shopping list but for the benefit of the discerning reader Nigel Fountain has compiled a list in alphabetical order of these dreaded phrases. I began reading, confident that I couldnsimply said ''t be caught out and then blushed when I realised that ILOVED THIS GLORIOUS LITTLE BOOK AND SO WILL YOU. FIN'd just pointed out to someone that avoiding clichés wasn't rocket science?! Because I did. They agreed that it isn't brain surgery eitherAnd you will.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1843174863</amazonuk>1789016770
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Alison MaloneyLloyd_1423|title=Bright Young Things|rating=4|genre=History|summary=According to the summary I read of ''Bright Young Things'' before choosing the book to read, it 'takes a sweeping look at the changing world of the Jazz Age'. I was expecting it to be something of a narrative account of the Roaring Twenties – in actual fact, it's set out as a collection of trivia about the decade. Similarly1, the 'first person accounts' mentioned on the inside front cover are limited 423 QI Facts to two or three sentence quotes.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0753540975</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewBowl You Over|author=E Foley John Lloyd, James Harkin and B Coates|title=Homework for Grown UpsAnne Miller|rating=4.5
|genre=Trivia
|summary=School days can sometimes seem like a very long time ago. You most likely spent 12 to 14 years of early life learning may think me lazy, but there is an inherent satisfaction for book reviewers in hitting upon a classroom, but how much can book such as this – you remember? Sure, know you can countwill have very little bearing on its sales, and what's more you know your alphabethardly even need describe it – just dip in here and there for a few quotes, but all those other lessons you had, how much can you really remember of those? If you want or need to remember and sit back to and relax knowing your school lessons (to help your own children with their homework, to win pub quizzes, whatever job is done. ''Only 1% of people who buy marmalade are under the age of 28. Treadmills were once the harshest form of punishment after the reason) then this book death penalty. Naked mole-rats can helpsurvive for 18 minutes without oxygen by turning themselves into plants. Covering ten subjects from English and Maths to Science'' And the whole of page 52. There, Home Ec job done – and History, it’s a crash course to refresh your knowledge – all those things you kinda know deep down, but at the same time creators of this book certainly have forgotten at least a little bitdone their job to perfection.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099540029</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Mikael Krogerus and Roman TschappelerBrightside_101|title=The Question Book|rating=4.5|genre=Lifestyle|summary=Most of us have probably made at least one of those end-of-the-year lists of the best books, albums and parties we have been 101 Things to in Take the previous twelve months. But can you, with some effort, locate the one you made in 1987? Have you ever constructed a graph Stress Out of your ups and downs in a given period, and then decided to expand it by separating emotional, intellectual, sexual and financial aspects and colour coding them? Have you made a list of all your lovers, bosses or friends and then rated them from 1 to 10 on several dimensions each? Do you have one of the books that list ''100 things to do before you die'' or ''500 books to read in your life'' (and ticked off the ones you have done)? Did you ever spend a whole evening and half of a night filling in dubious 'personality' questionnaires on the Internet? Have you ever doodled something, decided that it beautifully expresses the deepest essence of your personality and then proceeded to draw such icons for all your friends? |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846685389</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewChristmas|author=Francesca Simon|title=Horrid Henry's A - Z of Everything HorridRobin Snow
|rating=4
|genre=Trivia
|summary=I like words. Words are awesome. End For many years one of. But I also like trivia. I like knowing things my guiding principles has been that perhaps other people don’tthe C word should not be mentioned until the beginning of December but, unfortunately, C seems to be coming earlier each year and helpfully passing on this knowledge there are even shops where it never ceases to thembe imminent, which ramps up the stress levels considerably. So , a book about word-related trivia is just which promises 101 things to take the stress out of C seemed like a win-win, and this one is so good I think we’ll have idea. What’s it about? Tips like putting the sprouts on to call it boil in November or joining a win-win-winreligion which avoids the celebration altogether? Well, not quite.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848313071</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Philip ArdaghBrightside_Worry|title=Philip Ardagh's Book 101 Things to do instead of Kings, Queens, Emperors and Rotten Wart-Nosed Commoners|rating=3.5|genre=Children's Non-Fiction|summary=If you deem a good children's historical trivia book to be one that tells you, the adult, something they didn't know worrying about historical trivia, then this is a good example. I didn't know George V broke his pelvis when his horse fell on him, startled by some post-WWI huzzahs. I didn't know Charles VI of France nearly got torched in some drunken bacchanal. The length of time Charlemagne sat on a throne (over 400 whole years (even if he wasn't wholly whole all that time)) was news to me, as was the raffle that was held (more or less) for being the unknown soldier. Therefore this is a good book for children and the adults willing to instill some historical trivia into them.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0330471732</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewworld|author=Jolyon Fenwick and Marcus Husselby|title=It Could Have Been Yours: The enlightened person's guide to the year's most desirable thingsFelicity Brightside
|rating=4
|genre=Trivia
|summary=In a I don't think that I've ever been quite so worried about the state of the world as I have been of diamondlate -encrusted skulls, gold-leafed iPhones and luxury yachts ten I speak as someone who lived through the Cuban Missile Crisis and various other apocalyptic moments. It almost certainly comes down to a penny, lack of blingy shit (or should that be shitty bling?) it's a relief to know confidence in the people who are still spending money on unique one-offs that are more worthwhile. The records for costliest photosupposedly in charge, artwork, musical instrument and manuscript have all been broken in the twenty four months leading up to whether it be from a political point of view or of our stewardship of this book's releaseplanet we call home. Our collators have scoured the press for those and other, similarly noteworthy auctions, and found But what other people paid for what you didncan be done about it? We't know you would have wanted given the money.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846684900</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Stephanie Pain|title=Farmer Buckley's Exploding Trousers|rating=4.5|genre=Popular Science|summary=The history of science is filled with many miraculous discoveries. ...It's also filled with exploding trousersve tried voting, self-experimentation, a coachman's leg that becomes a museum piece arguing and gas-powered radiosdemonstrating. Now we''Farmer Buckley's Exploding Trousers'' regales us with fifty odd events on re down to pulling up the way to scientific discovery. Part popular science book, part trivia, each article is a treat to read, either as a fun-sized nugget, or when reading from cover drawbridge and doing our best to coverthink about something else.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846685087</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Peter GillLloyd 1342|title=42 - Douglas Adams' Amazingly Accurate Answer to Life1,342 QI Facts To Leave You Flabbergasted|author=John Lloyd, John Mitchinson, the Universe James Harkin and EverythingAnne Miller
|rating=5
|genre=Trivia
|summary=A common question about Douglas Adams’ famous Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy is just why Adams chose I love the number 42 as way the answer to lifeQI elves play games with us with [[:Category:John Lloyd, the universe John Mitchinson and everythingJames Harkin|these books]]. In That's not to say it's a charming trivia bookgame of pulling the wool over our eyes, for every entrant in this series has had the equivalent online version for the sources, author Peter Gill takes 50 pages or so every page is replicated with the due links you need to look into search for proof of their statements. No, the story game is Six Degrees of Separation. And they're so good at it, they can do most things in three. So in just three standalone, but thematically linked, phrases, you can get from how to make the book and sound of an Orc army for ''Lord of the author and another 250 Rings'' films to find occurrences of 42 record-breaking nipple hair. From illicit wartime barbers in Italy to American founding father bedroom arrangements, is only three steps – and the worlds of sportpath carries on to reach that erstwhile novice stand-up, crimeRonald Reagan, science in two more. It's only two jumps between Donald Trump and a wide range of other fieldsCharles Darwin, disconcertingly.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1907616128</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Christopher WinnLloyd_1411|title=I Never Knew That About the River Thames1,411 QI Facts To Knock You Sideways|author=John Lloyd, John Mitchinson and James Harkin
|rating=4.5
|genre=Trivia
|summary=Here are the remains of the building Handsome is as handsome does. And you know what else benefits from being curt and succinct, alongside old housewives' saws like that could be said to have sired two important British royal dynastiesone? Trivia. Here is I always thought the place of ill-reputeQI books such as this one to be handsome things – perfectly presenting trivia, where 'Rule Britannia' was premieredfour (on rare occasion, and which also bizarrely saw a death by cricket ball that inspired three) statements to the most famous gardens page, in the worlda very nice little cubical hardback. Here too is the largest lion Now they're being represented in the world. To where am I referringpaperback, but you know what? Well the answer is either the Thames valley, or this very bookThey're still handsome things.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0091933579</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Mick O'HareLloyd_1339|title=Why Can't Elephants Jump?1,339 QI Facts To Make Your Jaw Drop|author=John Lloyd, John Mitchinson and James Harkin
|rating=4.5
|genre=Popular ScienceTrivia|summary=Well? Why canA spermologer 't elephants jump? And while 'is a collector of trivia''. Just that sentence tells youa lot – we're pondering thatonce more in the realm of the curt, think about why James Bond wanted his martini shaken, not stirred. Why is frozen milk yellow? Does eating bogeys do you any harm? Whatsuccinct approach to the world's the hole for in a ballpoint pen? How long a line could you draw with a single pencil? For answers to all these questions, information and so many oddities. It says more, then do yourself a favour and pick up however – beyond the weirdness of the word is the latest collection from obvious necessity for the New Scientist's [http://www.last-word.com/ Last Word column]. Mick O'Hare was also kind enough to exist – without people that could be [[The Interview: Bookbag Talks To Mick O'Hare|interviewed by Bookbag]]called collectors of trivia you would not need the term. And rest assured, there are currently few people that stand as better spermologers than the chief QI elves.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184668398X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Phil CousineauMetcalf_Skedaddle|title=WordcatcherFrom Skedaddle to Selfie: An Odyssey into Words of the World of Weird and Wonderful WordsGeneration|author=Allan Metcalf
|rating=3.5
|genre=Trivia
|summary=I formed have to go a new, close friendship recentlyroundabout way to introduce this book, so bear with me. It stems partly from dictionaries and one the etymology of the first things I subtly dropped into things was the fact that I might language we use , but more so if anything from a different dictionary to other peoplecouple of books, and their ideas of generations. Probably there was a subconscious thought forming The authors of those posited the idea that it would all those archetypical generations – the Baby Boomers, the Millennials, and those before, in between and since – have their own cyclical pattern, and the history of humanity has been and will be better to make it knownformed by the interplay of just four different kinds, running (with only one exception) in case regular order. I trod on any toesdon't really hold much store by that, said anything that and I certainly didn't go down quite as well as I had planned. But thatknow we's nothing compared to what Phil Cousineau has done hered started one since the Millennials – who the heck decides such things, for he has written his own dictionary, and got it published in a very nice, glossy, browsable form. one? Alright, it's nothing like a complete dictionary'Somebody must have put out an order'', but everything is as someone here says of something else. But in his own personal style - 250 main the same way as generations get defined by collective persons unknown, so do words – and those wordsare certainly a clue to what was important, definitions, derivations predominant and examples of use. Oh, and some modern-ish artworks as wellcourse spoken in each decade.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1573444006</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=John AndrewsHalliday_Cathedrals|title=The Economist Book of Isms|rating=4|genre=Trivia|summary=I'm assuming all readers of this book, Cathedrals and this review, will know the meanings of the words racism, atheism and Communism. But how about Orphism? Nestorianism? Vorticism? Or the exact difference between egoism, egotism, Abbeys (Amazing and egocentrism? I'll confess to ignorance on all of that second trio of words before reading this book, but was fascinated to find out what they were. (Orphism is a religion originating in 6th or 7th century BC Greece based on the poems of Orpheus, who returned from Hades. I'll leave you to find out the definitions of the other two yourself!Extraordinary Facts) Similarly, I was aware of all three of that final trilogy, but am not sure I even knew there '''was''' a difference, let alone that I'd have come close to being able to actually define them all as this volume does.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846682983</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Susie Dent|title=How to Talk Like a Local: From Cockney to Geordie, a National CompanionStephen Halliday
|rating=4.5
|genre=Trivia
|summary=Meeting What makes a grammersow in cathedral? It's not automatically the principal church of anywhere that is made a netty city – St Davids is more common than you might think - Ia village of 2,000 people and wasn't always a city, but always had a cathedral, as did Chelmsford. It's not the seat of a bishop – Glasgow has the building but not the person, and hasn'd put my revits on itt had a bishop since 1690. Having It's not a neb around these pages I minster – that's something completely different, and if you can find many different ways of saying understand the sign in the delightful Beverley Minster describing the abovedifference, as well - or should that be boco ways. But before this review comes out as complete cag-magI saw only the other month, Iyou'd re a better say man I, Gunga Din. Luckily this book is just as youdoesn'd expect - an amenablet touch on minsters much, approachable but intelligent look at regional idiom and slangwe can understand abbeys, in A-Z dictionary form.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1905211791</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Derrick Niederman|title=Number Freak: A Mathematical Compendium from 1 to 200|rating=4.5|genre=Popular Science|summary=This is a so it's only the vast majority of this book that definitely does what it says on is saddled with the tindefinition problem. Our author has the capacity to grab each number between one and two hundredIt's clearly not a real problem, and wring those it for all its worth does have are by- all the special status it might have in our culture (more easy with seven thanpassable, say, 187), all the special properties it might possess (perfect, triangular, prime)for this successfully defines a cathedral as somewhere of major importance, fine trivia and as many other things mathematicians and so on would find greatly worthy of interest. Luckily there is enough here to make the book well worth a browse for us who would not deem themselves number buffsour attention.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>071563710X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=AQA 63336Bramley_Shakespeare|title=More Brilliant AnswersThe Shakespeare Trail|author=Zoe Bramley
|rating=4
|genre=Trivia
|summary=If youIt has been 400 years since William Shakespeare, the man heralded as the greatest writer in the English language, and England've got s national poet, died. Shakespeare has made a question you can text those nice people at AQA 63336 profound mark on our culture and heritage, yet many aspects of his life remain in the shadows, and they'll do many places throughout England have forgotten their best to provide you association with a prompt and accurate answerhim. Over Here, Zoe Bramley takes the last five years they've answered some twenty million questions and each autumn they publish reader on a book journey through hundreds of places associated with the best and Shakespeare – many whose connections will come as a surprise to most interesting . Filled with intriguing tidbits of information about Shakespeare, Elizabethan England, and the year's answers. There's some fun to be had in places that she talks about, this year's bookis no mere travel guide.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846683262</amazonuk>
}}
|rating=4.5
|genre=Trivia
|summary=Once you've done all What makes a city? Is it the materials, such as the hard work (written a bookvery London Stone itself, of mythological repute, found a publisherthat has moved around several times, decided on a design for the cover and all those things), one now forms part of the remaining difficulties must be deciding who you should dedicate the tome to. Assuming ita WH Smith's no Oscar speechbranch? (This has nothing, of course, and you can't thank the world and his dogon Temple Bar, you have which has also been known to narrow walk.) Is it down somewhat the people – the butchers [[Jack the Ripper: CSI: Whitechapel by John Bennett and select that special person whose name wins pride of place on Paul Begg|(Jack the first page. Do you then go with something cryptic and intriguingRipper)]], the bakers (or apparently banal whoever set fire to the entire city from Pudding Lane) and blatantly obviousthe candlestick makers? I'm sure most readers don't even look at Is it the dedications in most booksinfrastructure, but if you did, would you understand from the significance of them? Would something saying ''To my wife'' make you look twiceUnderground, or would that seem like whose one-time boss got a reasonably common way medal from Stalin for his success, to dedicate a book? In ''Once Againthe London Bridge itself, To Zeldathat in its own wanderlust means it'' you can discover s highly unlikely the stories Thames will freeze again? However you don't know behind the stories you may welldefine a city, London certainly has a lot going for it as regards weird and wonderful, and the author delves into the detail behind ''Fifty Great Dedications''trivial yet fascinating. And, luckily for us, so has this book.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0330511351</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Mick O'HareHolland_Railways|title=How To Make A Tornado|rating=4|genre=Popular Science|summary=Another year, another must-read book from the New Scientist. We've been here before with [[Do Polar Bears Get Lonely? by Mick O'Hare|polar bears]], [[Why Don't Penguins' Feet Freeze? by Mick O'Hare|penguins]] and [[How To Fossilise Your Hamster by Mick O'Hare|hamsters]]. Now it's time to turn our attention to how to make a tornado, and all the other crazy experiments that scientists have done over the years.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846682878</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=David O'Doherty, Claudia O'Doherty Railways (Amazing and Mike Ahern|title=100 Extraordinary Facts About Pandas|rating=3.5|genre=Humour|summary=Sometimes the title says it all - this is a book with 100 facts about pandas. Sometimes you need to note the author too - David O'Doherty won an Edinburgh Comedy Award, so this is a book of a 100 silly and untrue facts about pandas.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224086324</amazonuk>}} {{newreview)|author=Vivian Cook |title=It's All in a WordJulian Holland|rating=3.5|genre=Trivia|summary=Ah, the English language. That sine qua non, the prima facie lingua franca of the world. Prima inter pares when it comes to taking influence and words from other tongues, and responding in kind, to the chagrin of the French. We all use it, and in this day and age we can update an internet dictionary overnight to absorb all the neologisms, like "iPhone"; we can put the entire output of an author into a computer and it will count every word use up so we can find a fingerprint of a writer's style. It's a never-ending, fluid, changing entity, for better or worse.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846680069</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Tadg Farrington|title=The Average Life of the Average Person|rating=5|genre=Popular Science|summary=Back in school, we would often bemoan the idea of 'average', saying that like being 'normal', if there were such a thing, who would even want to be it? There could be nothing worse, we thought, than being average. Except...there is by definition a whole lot worse than 'average' – the exact same amount that is better than average, in fact. And that was the problem.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224086235</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Robin Laurance|title=Just What I Always Wanted: Unwrapping the World's Most Curious Birthday Presents|rating=4.5
|genre=Trivia
|summary=Is there anything more suited to a trivia book, yet so much thought overHow and when did Laurel and Hardy replace the Duke of York (George VI)? They reopened the Romney, Hythe and seriousDymchurch Railway when peacetime resumed, than at whose launch the birthday present? It might be something completely throw-away, but mean a lot to latter had officiated before the receiverWar. It might have cost What's the giver worst that can happen when you travel internationally and arrive on a London goods train with no further destination documents? Well, if you're an unidentifiable Peruvian mummy you can get buried as an awful amount of money, and be disregarded by unknown corpse before the person expected invoice turns up to accept itprove you were wanted in Belgium. And if you think the givings After so many miles and takings of the rich so much drama, it's no surprise odd facts and famous are sheer fun trivia, just think about the number derive from our country's trains. This book is designed to be an ideal source of sociologists quick articles and historians who would jump at fun mini-essays for use in the chance to explore, say, Hitler's given giftssmallest room. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847246168</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=AQA 63336Donald_Words|title=Brilliant AnswersWords of a Feather|author=Graeme Donald
|rating=4
|genre=Trivia
|summary=Do you need Words of a Feather. The title alone suggests an answer to a question? Have you got your mobile handy? Right – text that question to 63336engaging read about language, and the Home book certainly delivers. It pairs seemingly unrelated words, digs up their etymological roots and reveals their common ancestry. The English language, of Any Question Answeredcourse, provides rich pickings indeed for a book of this type and it is fascinating to see the hidden meaning behind common and for £1 not-so-common words. Some connections are fairly obvious once youread them. For example, the link between ''grotto'' and ''grotesque''ll have is easy to grasp: the answer within minutesword ''grotesque'' derives from unpleasant figures depicted in murals in Ancient Roman ''grottoes''. It might seem Other connections are just extraordinary, like magic but the so-crazy-you-couldn't-make-it-up link between ''furnace''s actually the result of a lot of people being on hand to research your problem and give you the solution''fornicate''. Over These two words date back to Ancient Rome when prostitutes took over the years 1city's abandoned baking domes.7 million people have asked over fifteen million questions and as And some connections are more than a special treat at the end of each year AQA lets us have little tenuous, seemingly just a look at some collection of words banded together, as is the most interesting questions case with the ''insult'' and answers that they've seen in 'salmon'' pairing. One of my personal favourites: the Italian word ''schiavo'' for ''slave'' was used to summon or dismiss a slave; this word became corrupted to ''ciao'', a word the course more well-heeled among us use instead of the year''goodbye''.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846682169</amazonuk>
}}
|rating=4
|genre=Trivia
|summary=With a publication date I live in early Novemberthe countryside and spend as much time as the weather will allow exploring it, so the passing Christmas shopper is clearly the target for this book. chance to read Ruth Binney's ''The OptimistEnglish Countryside's/ Pessimist's Handbookwas too good to be missed. We'' isn't a self-help bookve met Ruth [[The Allotment Experience by Ruth Binney|before]] at Bookbag and we know that she writes well and interestingly, but a compendium of enlightening snippetsjust one thing was worrying me about this book. Off It's a hardback and beautifully presented but its the shelf, I think size of book that you'd know immediately which relative slip into a pocket or friend might enjoy receiving ithandbag. So I suggest eschewing Amazon in favour of a real-life bookshop, not least because there will Would it be a shelf full of similar books for a surreptitious and delightful half-hour's browse before choosing.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>038561411X</amazonuk>rather superficial?
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Danny DanzigerLloyd_1234|title=The Thingummy|rating=4|genre=Trivia|summary=Oh look1, a trivia book. I don't think even I realised quite how many were published in the run up 234 QI Facts to every Christmas, but there are a lot. There is probably a name for the phenomenon. There is a name for that bit between your nose and your lips – below your nasal septum comes the philtrum. There's a correct scientific name for the tummy-grumbling noises we make when things leave our stomach for lower down. Heck, there's even a scientific name for those circular grooves on top of a Frisbee.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>038561456X</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewLeave You Speechless|author=Justin Scroggie|title=Tic-tac Teddy Bears and Teardrop Tattoos|rating=4|genre=Trivia|summary=Signs are everywhere. I wasn't really one of those who thought our roads were littered with too many traffic signs until the day I was driven past a pair of speed regulation signsJohn Lloyd, positioned at the exit end of a one-way street but facing the illegal way up it. Not all signs, of course, are quite as unnecessary, or indeed as blatantly visible, which is where this pictorial guide to countless coded messages, signifiers John Mitchinson and other similar factoids comes in.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340976489</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Angus Cargill (Editor)|title=Hang the DJ: An Alternative Book of Music Lists |rating=4|genre=Trivia|summary=Ah, the music list... balm to pop obsessives (see Nick Hornby's ''High Fidelity''), makeweight of copy-starved magazine editors, and staple of self-indulgent writers (see ''31 Songs'', also by Nick Hornby). The contributors to this volume fall mainly into the latter category. No fewer than thirty five of them supply their musical top tens, ranging from the fanatical to the frivolous, via the frankly frightening.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0571241727</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Sam Jordison|title=Sod That!: 103 Things Not To Do Before You Die|rating=4|genre=Trivia|summary=Without sounding like a braggart, I have done some pleasant things in life. I've caught the first bus up to Machu Picchu, and shared the sunrise with only the llamas. I've eaten strange things while on a full fortnight tour of Iceland. But closer to home, were I to have a list, there would be many things left on it – I've been nowhere near Bath, or York; I've never seen the film ET, which for a man of my age is something of a claim to fame.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1409100553</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Ian Crofton|title=History Without the Boring BitsJames Harkin
|rating=5
|genre=Trivia
|summary=Now, I'm 'No US President has ever died in May.'' ''There are fewer women on corporate boards in America than there are men named John.'' ''Dogs investigate bad smells with their right nostril and good smells with their left.'' ''Apollo 11's fuel consumption was seven inches to the gallon.'' ''The first person to admit I am not a wine buffoccupational disease ever recorded in medical literature was 'chimney sweep's scrotum'. '' I know a lot more now than I did before my current relationship''The song 'Yes, but she is right to say I have a very masculine (ie dead weak) sense of smellWe Have No Bananas' was written by Leon Trotsky's nephew. '' Added ''In the 18th Century, King George I declared all pigeon droppings to that a blunt sense be the property of taste and Ithe Crown''m left saying . I know what hardly think I like when I drink it, and that's itneed to say any more. Review over.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0571241743</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Stevyn ColganBerenson_How|title=Joined-up Thinking: How to Connect Everything to Everything ElseSpeak Emoji|author=Fred Benenson
|rating=4
|genre=Trivia
|summary=I am in this book. And so therefore Emojis are you. So why donfun, and there't I like it quite as s so much as I should? To be more honest, neither to them than the smileys of us are in this book, although we could well days gone by ;) They can be. It is a trivia collection based on attesting the feeling language unto themselves, though, and I've found that everything is linked to everything and everyone else, if only you know how. Thus some members of the chapters introduce us to item A, which is linked to item Bahem, which relates to Colder generation can find themselves a little troubled by them. This book, whose story is incomplete without Dthen, and so on and lo and behold, before you know it yousounds perfect for anyone who needs a little help with this 'language're back at A, having had no idea where we were going.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0230712207</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Dr Robert VanderplankLloyd_3rd|title=Uglier Than A Monkey's ArmpitQI: The Third Book of General Ignorance|rating=3.5|genreauthor=Trivia|summary=Now I've always been one for delivering a nice meaty insult. And if you think otherwise then you're just a #####ing ******** of a !!!!!!!!!!, with a &%&%&% for a $$$$$$. But I've been brought up with the usual British malaise when it comes to learning foreign languagesJohn Lloyd, and so beyond knowing that ''Leche!'' is a bit meaty in SpanishJohn Mitchinson, I could not help to cuss James Harkin and swear like whatever other languages might have for trooper.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0330464485</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Tom Hodgkinson |title=The Book of Idle PleasuresAndrew Hunter Murray
|rating=4.5
|genre=Trivia
|summary=We've all heard the clichés about modern lifeWell done, Hartlepool. You know – technology was meant to free us from drudgery. Instead wedidn've become its slaves t put on trial and work longer hours kill a shipwrecked monkey thinking it a Napoleonic spy – any more than the several other places thusly accused everdid. We're overloaded with means of communication but few of us know our neighboursWell done, Italy, etcfor making the ciabatta such a global phenomenon it seems like a traditional foodstuff, etceven if it was invented in 1982. On hearing theseAnd well done to that famous ice hockey player, most of us shrug and carry on with our busyCharles Darwin – who was probably playing it, seeing as it was a British invention, busy liveslong before the Canadians ever realised they might be good at it. But now and thenYes, something reminds us for a book that spends a lot of who its time saying 'this didn’t happen,' 'hoojamaflip didn't do this,' and what we are. This delightful'that was never thus', unassuming book is it's one of those thingsthat's incredibly easy to be most positive about.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0091923328</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Georgina PhillipsTaggart_New|title=Ouch! Extreme Feats of Human EnduranceNew Words for Old: Recycling Our Language for the Modern World|ratingauthor=4.5Caroline Taggart|genre=Trivia|summaryrating=Everything from Shackleton to Ellen MacArthur, by way of the Japanese word for fried rice-field grasshopper, and 32 hour long after dinner speeches3. ''Ouch!'' contains fascinating trivia on every page that children will love to repeat back to you at length.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0330454056</amazonuk>}} {{newreview |title=Any Question Answered|author=AQA 633365
|genre=Trivia
}}
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