Changes

[[Category:New Reviews|Trivia]]__NOTOC__ <!-- Remove -->==Trivia==__NOTOC__<!-- INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE-->{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Joel Levy1780724047|title=Why?|rating=5|genre=Trivia|summary=Why does the Titanic float but a brick sink? And that water they’re sinking or floating in, why is it wet? And what colour is it, ‘cos it ain’t clear? These questions A Dictionary of Interesting and many more are answered in this book which may not be a new concept but which is executed extremely well.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1843179512</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewImportant Dogs|author=David Astle|title=PuzzledPeter J Conradi

|genre=TriviaPets|summary=Words are wonderful enough when they’re just telling you things straight upI struggle to resist a book about dogs, but I did wonder why this one was so ''thin'': given that I've never encountered a dog who can resist them when they’re really being playful? Not David Astlewasn't interesting or important - and probably both, the author I was expecting a massive tome. But ''A Dictionary of Interesting and Important Dogs'' is actually ''a rich compendium of this new title that blows the lid on world's most significant and beloved dogs'' and it all 's certainly a rich treasure trove. We begin with Peter J Conradi's four collies: Cloudy, Sky. Bradley and Max. They're consecutive rather than simultaneous dogs, but what he calls comes over is Conradi'secrets s love for each and clues from a life every one of them. I knew that I was in words'safe hands.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846685427</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Joseph PiercyDon Behrend|title=The Story of English|rating=3|genre=Trivia|summary=''The Story of English'' sets out to be a potted history of the influences that have shaped our language, from the Lindisfarne Gospels to LOLcatsCopernicus! What Have You Done?: ..com. Starting with the pre-Roman Celts and their Ogham alphabet, it goes crashing through fifteen hundred years of linguistic history at a terrific pace to end with an almost audible sigh of relief at the internet age.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1843178834</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Phil Daoust (editor)|title=Write.Other Interesting Questions

|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

|summary=School days can sometimes seem like a very long time ago. You most likely spent 12 to 14 years of early life learning in a classroommay think me lazy, but how much can you remember? Sure, you can count, and you know your alphabet, but all those other lessons you had, how much can you really remember of those? If you want or need to remember back to your school lessons (to help your own children with their homework, to win pub quizzes, whatever the reason) then this there is an inherent satisfaction for book can help. Covering ten subjects from English and Maths to Science, Home Ec and History, it’s reviewers in hitting upon a crash course to refresh your knowledge book such as this – all those things you kinda know deep down, but at the same time you will have forgotten at least a very little bit.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099540029</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Mikael Krogerus and Roman Tschappeler|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 booksbearing on its sales, albums and parties we have been to in the previous twelve months. But can what's more you, with some effort, locate the one you made hardly even need describe it – just dip in 1987? Have you ever constructed a graph of your ups here and downs in there for a given periodfew quotes, and then decided to expand it by separating emotional, intellectual, sexual and financial aspects sit back and colour coding them? Have you made a list of all relax knowing your lovers, bosses or friends and then rated them from job is done. ''Only 1 to 10 on several dimensions each? Do you have one % of people who buy marmalade are under the age of 28. Treadmills were once the harshest form of punishment after the books that list ''100 things to do before you diedeath penalty. Naked mole-rats can survive for 18 minutes without oxygen by turning themselves into plants.'' or ''500 books to read in your life'' (and ticked off And 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 somethingpage 52. There, decided that it beautifully expresses job done – and the deepest essence creators of your personality and then proceeded this book certainly have done their job to draw such icons for all your friends? |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846685389</amazonuk>perfection.

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Francesca SimonBrightside_101|title=Horrid Henry's A - Z 101 Things to Take the Stress Out of Everything HorridChristmas|author=Robin Snow

|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

|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 pennylack of confidence in the people who are supposedly in charge, whether it be from a political point of blingy shit (view or should that of our stewardship of this planet we call home. But what can be shitty blingdone about it?) itWe's a relief to know people are still spending money on unique one-offs that are more worthwhile. The records for costliest photove tried voting, artwork, musical instrument arguing and manuscript have all been broken in the twenty four months leading demonstrating. Now we're down to pulling up to this book's release. Our collators have scoured the press for those drawbridge and other, similarly noteworthy auctions, and found what other people paid for what you didn't know you would have wanted given the moneydoing our best to think about something else.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846684900</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Stephanie PainLloyd 1342|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 trousers, self-experimentation, a coachman's leg that becomes a museum piece and gas-powered radios. ''Farmer Buckley's Exploding Trousers'' regales us with fifty odd events on the way to scientific discovery. Part popular science book, part trivia, each article is a treat to read, either as a fun-sized nugget1, or when reading from cover to cover.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846685087</amazonuk>}} {{newreview342 QI Facts To Leave You Flabbergasted|author=Peter Gill|title=42 - Douglas Adams' Amazingly Accurate Answer to LifeJohn Lloyd, John Mitchinson, the Universe James Harkin and EverythingAnne Miller

|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

|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

|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

|summary=I formed a new, close friendship recently, and one of the first things I subtly dropped into things was the fact that I might use a different dictionary have to other people. Probably there was a subconscious thought forming that it would be better to make it known, in case I trod on any toes, said anything that didn't go down quite as well as I had planned. But that's nothing compared to what Phil Cousineau has done here, for he has written his own dictionary, and got it published in a very nice, glossy, browsable form. Alright, it's nothing like a complete dictionary, but everything is here in his own personal style - 250 main words, definitions, derivations and examples of use. Oh, and some modern-ish artworks as well.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1573444006</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=John Andrews|title=The Economist Book of Isms|rating=4|genre=Trivia|summary=I'm assuming all readers of this book, 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, and egocentrism? I'll confess roundabout way to ignorance on all of that second trio of words before reading introduce this book, but was fascinated to find out what they wereso bear with me. (Orphism is a religion originating in 6th or 7th century BC Greece based on the poems of Orpheus, who returned It stems partly from Hades. I'll leave you to find out dictionaries and the definitions etymology of the other two yourself!) Similarly, I was aware of all three of that final trilogylanguage we use, 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 Companion|rating=4.5|genre=Trivia|summary=Meeting a grammersow in a netty is more common than you might think - I'd put my revits on it. Having so if anything from a neb around these pages I can find many different ways couple of saying the above, as well - or should that be boco ways. But before this review comes out as complete cag-mag, I'd better say this book is just as you'd expect - an amenablebooks, approachable but intelligent look at regional idiom and slang, 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 book that definitely does what it says on the tintheir ideas of generations. Our author has The authors of those posited the capacity to grab each number between one and two hundred, and wring it for all its worth - idea that all those archetypical generations – the special status it might have in our culture (more easy with seven than, say, 187)Baby Boomers, all the special properties it might possess (perfect, triangular, prime)Millennials, and as many other things mathematicians and so on would find of interest. Luckily there is enough here to make the book well worth a browse for us who would not deem themselves number buffs.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>071563710X</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=AQA 63336|title=More Brilliant Answers|rating=4|genre=Trivia|summary=If you've got a question you can text those nice people at AQA 63336 before, in between and they'll do since – have their best to provide you with a prompt own cyclical pattern, and accurate answer. Over the last five years they've answered some twenty million questions history of humanity has been and each autumn they publish a book with will be formed by the best and most interesting interplay of the year's answersjust four different kinds, running (with only one exception) in regular order. ThereI don's some fun to be had in this year's book.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846683262</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Tad Tuleja|title=A Dictionary of Foreign Words and Phrases|rating=3|genre=Home and Family|summary=Take a look at the cover design of this bookt really hold much store by that, and youI certainly didn't know we'd be mistaken for thinking this was a trivia compendium for all those foreign words that have taken part in our English language started one since whenever they crossed over from their original homes. But the title is definitely honestMillennials – who the heck decides such things, for this is a dictionary book first, for reference, and a browser for the trivia buff second.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0709089562</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Dr Aaron Carroll and Dr Rachel Vreeman|title=Don't Swallow Your Gum|rating=5|genre=Lifestyle|summary='''BANG'''. one? That's the sound of copious urban myths being shot down. '''BANG''Somebody must have put out an order'. That's the sound of the old wives slamming the door, as their tales get revealed as baselesssomeone here says of something else. '''CLICK'''. That's But in the noise lots of ill-informed websites make same way as they generations get closed down. All noises come due defined by collective persons unknown, so do words – and those words are certainly a clue to this brilliant book.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141043369</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Justin Scroggie|title=Eye Spy: Uncovering the Secrets of the World Around You|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 what was driven past a pair of speed regulation signs, positioned at the exit end of a one-way street but facing the illegal way up it. Not all signsimportant, predominant and of course, are quite as unnecessary, or indeed as blatantly visible, which is where this pictorial guide to countless coded messages, signifiers and other similar factoids comes spoken ineach decade.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340994487</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Matt Allen Halliday_Cathedrals|title=Where Are They Now? - Rediscovering Over 100 Football Stars of the 70s Cathedrals and Abbeys (Amazing and 80s Extraordinary Facts)|author=Stephen Halliday

|summary=Once youWhat makes a cathedral? It've done all s not automatically the hard work (written principal church of anywhere that is made a city – St Davids is a bookvillage of 2, found 000 people and wasn't always a publishercity, decided on but always had a design for cathedral, as did Chelmsford. It's not the cover and all those things), one seat of a bishop – Glasgow has the remaining difficulties must be deciding who you should dedicate building but not the tome toperson, and hasn't had a bishop since 1690. Assuming itIt's not a minster – that's no Oscar speechsomething completely different, and if you can't thank understand the sign in the delightful Beverley Minster describing the world and his dogdifference, you have to narrow it down somewhat and select that special person whose name wins pride of place on I saw only the first page. Do other month, you then go with something cryptic and intriguing're a better man I, or apparently banal and blatantly obvious? I'm sure most readers donGunga Din. Luckily this book doesn't even look at the dedications in most bookstouch on minsters much, but if you didand we can understand abbeys, would you understand so it's only the significance vast majority of them? Would something saying this book that is saddled with the definition problem. It''To my wife'' make you look twice, or would that seem like a reasonably common way to dedicate s clearly not a book? In ''Once Againreal problem, To Zelda'' you can discover the stories you don't know behind the stories you may welland those it does have are by-passable, for this successfully defines a cathedral as the author delves into the detail behind ''Fifty Great Dedications''somewhere of major importance, fine trivia and greatly worthy of our attention.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0330511351</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Mick O'HareBramley_Shakespeare|title=How To Make A TornadoThe Shakespeare Trail|author=Zoe Bramley

|summary=AhIt has been 400 years since William Shakespeare, the man heralded as the greatest writer in 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 tonguesEngland's national poet, died. Shakespeare has made a profound mark on our culture and responding in kindheritage, to the chagrin yet many aspects of his life remain in the French. We all use itshadows, and in this day and age we can update an internet dictionary overnight to absorb all the neologismsmany places throughout England have forgotten their association with him. Here, like "iPhone"; we can put Zoe Bramley takes the entire output reader on a journey through hundreds of an author into a computer and it places associated with Shakespeare – many whose connections will count every word use up so we can find come as a fingerprint surprise to most. Filled with intriguing tidbits of a writer's style. It's a never-endinginformation about Shakespeare, fluidElizabethan England, changing entity, for better or worse.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846680069</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Tadg Farrington|title=The Average Life of and the Average Person|rating=5|genre=Popular Science|summary=Back in school, we would often bemoan the idea of 'average', saying places that like being 'normal'she talks about, 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 this is by definition a whole lot worse than 'average' – the exact same amount that is better than average, in fact. And that was the problemno mere travel guide.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224086235</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Robin LauranceHalliday_London|title=Just What I Always Wanted: Unwrapping the World's Most Curious Birthday PresentsLondon (Amazing and Extraordinary Facts)|author=Stephen Halliday

|summary=What makes a city? Is there anything more suited to a trivia bookit the materials, such as the very London Stone itself, of mythological repute, yet so much thought overthat has moved around several times, and serious, than the birthday presentnow forms part of a WH Smith's branch? It might be something completely throw-away(This has nothing, of course, on Temple Bar, but mean a lot which has also been known to the receiverwalk. ) It might have cost Is it the people – the butchers [[Jack the Ripper: CSI: Whitechapel by John Bennett and Paul Begg|(Jack the giver an awful amount of moneyRipper)]], the bakers (or whoever set fire to the entire city from Pudding Lane) and be disregarded by the person expected candlestick makers? Is it the infrastructure, from the Underground, whose one-time boss got a medal from Stalin for his success, to accept the London Bridge itself, that in its own wanderlust means it. 's highly unlikely the Thames will freeze again? And if However you think the givings define a city, London certainly has a lot going for it as regards weird and takings of the rich and famous are sheer triviawonderful, just think about the number of sociologists and historians who would jump at the chance to exploretrivial yet fascinating. And, sayluckily for us, Hitler's given giftsso has this book. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847246168</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=AQA 63336Holland_Railways|title=Brilliant Answers|rating=4|genre=Trivia|summary=Do you need an answer to a question? Have you got your mobile handy? Right – text that question to 63336, the Home of Any Question Answered, Railways (Amazing and for £1 you'll have the answer within minutes. It might seem like magic but it's actually the result of a lot of people being on hand to research your problem and give you the solution. Over the years 1.7 million people have asked over fifteen million questions and as a special treat at the end of each year AQA lets us have a look at some of the most interesting questions and answers that they've seen in the course of the year.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846682169</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewExtraordinary Facts)|author=Tracey Turner|title=The Book of Big ExcusesJulian Holland|rating=3.5

|summary=AhHow and when did Laurel and Hardy replace the Duke of York (George VI)? They reopened the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway when peacetime resumed, we've all made excuses at one time or anotherwhose launch the latter had officiated before the War. WeWhat've all done things we shouldn't have done, then s the worst that can happen when caught out given you travel internationally and arrive on a reason for it. Perhaps weLondon goods train with no further destination documents? Well, if you've even given excuses re an unidentifiable Peruvian mummy you can get buried as stylish as Zambian tennis player Lighton Ndefwaylan unknown corpse before the invoice turns up to prove you were wanted in Belgium. After so many miles and so much drama, who said of his opponent: "[He] is a stupid man it's no surprise odd facts and a hopeless playerfun trivia derive from our country's trains. He has a huge nose This book is designed to be an ideal source of quick articles and is crossfun mini-eyed. Girls hate him. He beat me because my jockstrap was too tight and because when he serves he farts, and that made me lose my concentration, essays for which I am famous throughout Zambia." Tracey Tuner has collated some of use in the best excuses ever given into a handy collectionsmallest room.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340970553</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Matthew ColeDonald_Words|title=Will Work for Nuts|rating=3.5|genre=Pets|summary=The intrepid adventurer faces Words of a most daunting challenge. Girding his loins in anticipation of achieving his goal, he leaps into action, hell-bent only on success, never fearing the inherent danger. With death-defying stunts and leaps aplenty, he needs to use any vehicles he finds in his path, untold balancing skills, nerve-racking whippy plastic stick things, and an awful lot more. Finally his lithe, muscular frame lands near his target, and he sits back and eats his nuts.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007279574</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewFeather|author= Niall Edworthy and Petra Cramsie|title=The Optimist's/pessimist's HandbookGraeme Donald

|summary=With Words of a publication date in early NovemberFeather. The title alone suggests an engaging read about language, and the passing Christmas shopper book certainly delivers. It pairs seemingly unrelated words, digs up their etymological roots and reveals their common ancestry. The English language, of course, provides rich pickings indeed for a book of this type and it is clearly fascinating to see the target for this bookhidden meaning behind common and not-so-common words. Some connections are fairly obvious once you read them. For example, the link between ''grotto'' and ''grotesque'' is easy to grasp: the word ''grotesque''The Optimistderives from unpleasant figures depicted in murals in Ancient Roman 's/ Pessimist's Handbookgrottoes'' isn. Other connections are just extraordinary, like the so-crazy-you-couldn't -make-it-up link between ''furnace'' and ''fornicate''. These two words date back to Ancient Rome when prostitutes took over the city's abandoned baking domes. And some connections are more than a self-help booklittle tenuous, but seemingly just a compendium collection of enlightening snippetswords banded together, as is the case with the ''insult'' and ''salmon'' pairing. Off One of my personal favourites: the shelf, I think youItalian word ''schiavo'' for ''slave''d know immediately which relative was used to summon or friend might enjoy receiving it. So I suggest eschewing Amazon in favour of dismiss a real-life bookshopslave; this word became corrupted to ''ciao'', not least because there will be a shelf full word the more well-heeled among us use instead of similar books for a surreptitious and delightful half-hour's browse before choosing'goodbye''.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>038561411X</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Danny DanzigerBinney_English|title=The ThingummyEnglish Countryside (Amazing and Extraordinary Facts)|author=Ruth Binney

|summary=Oh look, a trivia book. I don't think even I realised quite how many were published live in the run up countryside and spend as much time as the weather will allow exploring it, so the chance to every Christmas, but there are a lotread Ruth Binney's ''The English Countryside'' was too good to be missed. There is probably a name for the phenomenon.  There is a name for We've met Ruth [[The Allotment Experience by Ruth Binney|before]] at Bookbag and we know that bit between your nose she writes well and your lips – below your nasal septum comes the philtruminterestingly, but just one thing was worrying me about this book. ThereIt's a correct scientific name for hardback and beautifully presented but its 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 size of book that you slip into a Frisbeepocket or handbag.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>038561456X</amazonuk> Would it be rather superficial?

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Justin ScroggieLloyd_1234|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 signs, 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 visible1, which is where this pictorial guide 234 QI Facts to countless coded messages, signifiers and other similar factoids comes in.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340976489</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewLeave You Speechless|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 editorsJohn Lloyd, John Mitchinson 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

|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>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Stevyn ColganBerenson_How|title=Joined-up Thinking: How to Connect Everything to Everything ElseSpeak Emoji|author=Fred Benenson

|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

|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

|rating=3|summary=Did you know that if you I never declare myself off to have a question'kip', any questionas I recall reading that it originally meant the same amount of sleeping – and activity – as happens in a whorehouse. The word 'cleave' can mean either to split apart or to connect together, you can text AQA on 63336 and their team I'm sure there's another word that has completely changed its meaning from one end of dedicated researchers will find the answer and text it back things to you? It will cost you just £1 and AQA have now answered over nine million questionsanother although I can't remember which. That Certainly, ''literally''s has tried its best to make a lot full switch through rampant misuse. Such is the nature of questions our language – fluid both in spelling until moderately recently, and definitely in meaning. This attempt at capturing a corner of the trivia/words/novelty market is interested in such tales from the answers didn't just disappear into etymological world – the etherway we have adapted old words for our own, modern and perhaps very different usages. AQA have them all stored away Certainly, having browsed it over a week, I can declare it a pretty strong attempt. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846680824</amazonuk>