Difference between revisions of "Newest Trivia Reviews"

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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=1780724047
|author=Joel Levy
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|title=A Dictionary of Interesting and Important Dogs
|title=Why?
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|author=Peter J Conradi
|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 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>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=David Astle
 
|title=Puzzled
 
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
|genre=Trivia
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|genre=Pets
|summary=Words are wonderful enough when they’re just telling you things straight up, but who can resist them when they’re really being playful? Not David Astle, the author of this new title that blows the lid on it all with what he calls 'secrets and clues from a life in words'.
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|summary=I 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 wasn't interesting or important - and probably both, I was expecting a massive tome.  But ''A Dictionary of Interesting and Important Dogs'' is actually ''a rich compendium of the world's most significant and beloved dogs'' and it'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 comes over is Conradi's love for each and every one of them.  I knew that I was in safe hands.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846685427</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Don Behrend
|author=Joseph Piercy
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|title=Copernicus! What Have You Done?: ...and Other Interesting Questions
|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 LOLcats.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.
 
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=Reference
 
|summary=The Guardian newspaper has for some years now been publishing articles and interviews on how to write. Successful authors, agents and publishers have offered pearls of wisdom in the Guardian Masterclasses for genres as wide-ranging as travel writing, picture books and screenplays. Now their wisdom and their insights have been collected together in this slim volume which will intrigue both the readers and the writers among us.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>085265328X</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Nigel Fountain
 
|title=Cliches: Avoid Them Like the Plague
 
|rating=4
 
 
|genre=Trivia
 
|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 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 couldn't be caught out and then blushed when I realised that I'd just pointed out to someone that avoiding clichés wasn't rocket science. They agreed that it isn't brain surgery either.
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|summary= Hello! Would this review be okay if I simply said ''I LOVED THIS GLORIOUS LITTLE BOOK AND SO WILL YOU. FIN''?! Because I did. And you will.  
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1843174863</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1789016770
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=Lloyd_1423
|author=Alison Maloney
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|title=1,423 QI Facts to Bowl You Over
|title=Bright Young Things
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|author=John Lloyd, James Harkin and Anne Miller
|rating=4
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|rating=5
|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. Similarly, the 'first person accounts' mentioned on the inside front cover are limited to two or three sentence quotes.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0753540975</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=E Foley and B Coates
 
|title=Homework for Grown Ups
 
|rating=4.5
 
 
|genre=Trivia
 
|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 in a classroom, 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 book can help. Covering ten subjects from English and Maths to Science, Home Ec and History, it’s a crash course to refresh your knowledge all those things you kinda know deep down, but at the same time have forgotten at least a little bit.
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|summary=You may think me lazy, but there is an inherent satisfaction for book reviewers in hitting upon a book such as this – you know you will have very little bearing on its sales, and what's more you hardly even need describe it – just dip in here and there for a few quotes, and sit back and relax knowing your 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 death penalty.  Naked mole-rats can survive for 18 minutes without oxygen by turning themselves into plants.'' And the whole of page 52.  There, job done – and the creators of this book certainly have done their job to perfection.
|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 books, albums and parties we have been to in the previous twelve months. But can you, with some effort, locate the one you made in 1987? Have you ever constructed a graph 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>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=Brightside_101
|author=Francesca Simon
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|title=101 Things to Take the Stress Out of Christmas
|title=Horrid Henry's A - Z of Everything Horrid
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|author=Robin Snow
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|summary=Francesca Simon's Horrid Henry is a very popular little boy, although you might have a different opinion if you actually had to put up with his antics yourself. A slightly modernised embodiment of 'slugs and snails and puppy dogs' tails' concept of boyhood, Henry is naughtiness personified, combining irreverence for authority with a huge dose of gross-out crude humour that really appeals to the target readership of early primary school children.  Add a somewhat nostalgic, timeless feel, trademark alliterations, subtle (and not so subtle) digs at family dynamics, sibling rivalry and particularly at modern middle-class manners and sensibilities and you have a winning character and a base for a very successful edutainment franchise.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444002260</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Mark Forsyth
 
|title=The Etymologicon
 
|rating=5
 
 
|genre=Trivia
 
|genre=Trivia
|summary=I like words. Words are awesome. End of. But I also like trivia. I like knowing things that perhaps other people don’t, and helpfully passing on this knowledge to them. So a book about word-related trivia is just a win-win, and this one is so good I think we’ll have to call it a win-win-win.
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|summary=For many years one of my guiding principles has been that the C word should not be mentioned until the beginning of December but, unfortunately, C seems to be coming earlier each year and there are even shops where it never ceases to be imminent, which ramps up the stress levels considerably. So, a book which promises 101 things to take the stress out of C seemed like a good idea. What’s it about? Tips like putting the sprouts on to boil in November or joining a religion which avoids the celebration altogether? Well, not quite.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848313071</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=Brightside_Worry
|author=Philip Ardagh
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|title=101 Things to do instead of worrying about the world
|title=Philip Ardagh's Book of Kings, Queens, Emperors and Rotten Wart-Nosed Commoners
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|author=Felicity Brightside
|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 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>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Jolyon Fenwick and Marcus Husselby
 
|title=It Could Have Been Yours: The enlightened person's guide to the year's most desirable things
 
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Trivia
 
|genre=Trivia
|summary=In a world of diamond-encrusted skulls, gold-leafed iPhones and luxury yachts ten a penny, of blingy shit (or should that be shitty bling?) it's a relief to know people are still spending money on unique one-offs that are more worthwhile.  The records for costliest photo, artwork, musical instrument and manuscript have all been broken in the twenty four months leading up to this book's release.  Our collators have scoured the press for those and other, similarly noteworthy auctions, and found what other people paid for what you didn't know you would have wanted given the money.
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|summary=I don't think that I've ever been quite so worried about the state of the world as I have been of late - and I speak as someone who lived through the Cuban Missile Crisis and various other apocalyptic moments. It almost certainly comes down to a lack of confidence in the people who are supposedly in charge, whether it be from a political point of view or of our stewardship of this planet we call home. But what can be done about it? We've tried voting, arguing and demonstrating. Now we're down to pulling up the drawbridge and doing our best to think about something else.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846684900</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=Lloyd 1342
|author=Stephanie Pain
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|title=1,342 QI Facts To Leave You Flabbergasted
|title=Farmer Buckley's Exploding Trousers
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|author=John Lloyd, John Mitchinson, James Harkin and Anne Miller
|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 nugget, or when reading from cover to cover.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846685087</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Peter Gill
 
|title=42 - Douglas Adams' Amazingly Accurate Answer to Life, the Universe and Everything
 
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Trivia
 
|genre=Trivia
|summary=A common question about Douglas Adams’ famous Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy is just why Adams chose the number 42 as the answer to life, the universe and everything. In a charming trivia book, author Peter Gill takes 50 pages or so to look into the story of the book and the author and another 250 to find occurrences of 42 in the worlds of sport, crime, science and a wide range of other fields.
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|summary=I love the way the QI elves play games with us with [[:Category:John Lloyd, John Mitchinson and James Harkin|these books]]. That's not to say it's a game of pulling the wool over our eyes, for every entrant in this series has had the equivalent online version for the sources, so every page is replicated with the due links you need to search for proof of their statements.  No, the 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 sound of an Orc army for ''Lord of the Rings'' films to record-breaking nipple hair.  From illicit wartime barbers in Italy to American founding father bedroom arrangements, is only three steps – and the path carries on to reach that erstwhile novice stand-up, Ronald Reagan, in two more.  It's only two jumps between Donald Trump and Charles Darwin, disconcertingly.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1907616128</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=Lloyd_1411
|author=Christopher Winn
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|title=1,411 QI Facts To Knock You Sideways
|title=I Never Knew That About the River Thames
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|author=John Lloyd, John Mitchinson and James Harkin
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Trivia
 
|genre=Trivia
|summary=Here are the remains of the building that could be said to have sired two important British royal dynasties. Here is the place of ill-repute, where 'Rule Britannia' was premiered, and which also bizarrely saw a death by cricket ball that inspired the most famous gardens in the world. Here too is the largest lion in the world.  To where am I referring? Well the answer is either the Thames valley, or this very book.
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|summary=Handsome is as handsome does. And you know what else benefits from being curt and succinct, alongside old housewives' saws like that one? Trivia. I always thought the QI books such as this one to be handsome things – perfectly presenting trivia, four (on rare occasion, three) statements to the page, in a very nice little cubical hardback. Now they're being represented in paperback, but you know what? They're still handsome things.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0091933579</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=Lloyd_1339
|author=Mick O'Hare
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|title=1,339 QI Facts To Make Your Jaw Drop
|title=Why Can't Elephants Jump?
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|author=John Lloyd, John Mitchinson and James Harkin
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=Popular Science
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|genre=Trivia
|summary=Well? Why can't elephants jump? And while you're pondering that, think about why James Bond wanted his martini shaken, not stirred. Why is frozen milk yellow? Does eating bogeys do you any harm? What'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, and so many more, then do yourself a favour and pick up the latest collection from the New Scientist's [http://www.last-word.com/ Last Word column].
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|summary=A spermologer ''is a collector of trivia''. Just that sentence tells you a lot – we're once more in the realm of the curt, succinct approach to the world's information and oddities. It says more, however – beyond the weirdness of the word is the obvious necessity for the word to exist – without people that could be 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.
 
 
Mick O'Hare was also kind enough to be [[The Interview: Bookbag Talks To Mick O'Hare|interviewed by Bookbag]].
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184668398X</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=Metcalf_Skedaddle
|author=Phil Cousineau
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|title=From Skedaddle to Selfie: Words of the Generation
|title=Wordcatcher: An Odyssey into the World of Weird and Wonderful Words
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|author=Allan Metcalf
 
|rating=3.5
 
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Trivia
 
|genre=Trivia
|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 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.
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|summary=I have to go a roundabout way to introduce this book, so bear with me. It stems partly from dictionaries and the etymology of the language we use, but more so if anything from a different couple of books, and their ideas of generationsThe authors of those posited the idea that 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 formed by the interplay of just four different kinds, running (with only one exception) in regular orderI don't really hold much store by that, and I certainly didn't know we'd started one since the Millennials – who the heck decides such things, for one? ''Somebody must have put out an order'', as someone here says of something elseBut in the same way as generations get defined by collective persons unknown, so do words – and those words are certainly a clue to what was important, predominant and of course spoken in each decade.
|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 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!) 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 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 a neb around these pages I can find many different ways 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 amenable, 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 tinOur author has the capacity to grab each number between one and two hundred, and wring it for all its worth - all the special status it might have in our culture (more easy with seven than, say, 187), all the special properties it might possess (perfect, triangular, prime), 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 and they'll do their best to provide you with a prompt and accurate answer.  Over the last five years they've answered some twenty million questions and each autumn they publish a book with the best and most interesting of the year's answersThere'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 book, and you'd be mistaken for thinking this was a trivia compendium for all those foreign words that have taken part in our English language since whenever they crossed over from their original homes.  But the title is definitely honest, 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'''. That's the sound of copious urban myths being shot down.  '''BANG'''.  That's the sound of the old wives slamming the door, as their tales get revealed as baseless'''CLICK'''.  That's the noise lots of ill-informed websites make as they get closed down.  All noises come due 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 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 visible, which is where this pictorial guide to countless coded messages, signifiers and other similar factoids comes in.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340994487</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=Halliday_Cathedrals
|author=Matt Allen
+
|title=Cathedrals and Abbeys (Amazing and Extraordinary Facts)
|title=Where Are They Now? - Rediscovering Over 100 Football Stars of the 70s and 80s
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|author=Stephen Halliday
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=Sport
 
|summary=This looks like some people's worst idea of a book, ever.  Trivia, nostalgia, football, and lists - does it get more masculine?  There's not a female in sight, either, as we get 101 portraits of footballers from times past, and most importantly, a summary of their career since hanging up the boots in the professional game.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1905156421</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Philip Ardagh
 
|title=Philip Ardagh's Book of Howlers, Blunders and Random Mistakery
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
 
|summary=There's nought so queer as folk.  From the idiot who broke into a car without realising his name and date of birth were clearly seen on his tattoo on CCTV, to the people who ordered someone to paint clothes on all the people in the Sistine Chapel - before others came along who decided the original had been better, and the people who dismissed The Beatles as never likely to make a name for themselves.  We have long been a race of idiots.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0330471724</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Marlene Wagman-Geller
 
|title=Once Again to Zelda: Fifty Great Dedications and Their Stories
 
|rating=4
 
 
|genre=Trivia
 
|genre=Trivia
|summary=Once you've done all the hard work (written a book, found a publisher, decided on a design for the cover and all those things), one of the remaining difficulties must be deciding who you should dedicate the tome to. Assuming it's no Oscar speech, and you can't thank the world and his dog, you have to narrow it down somewhat and select that special person whose name wins pride of place on the first page. Do you then go with something cryptic and intriguing, or apparently banal and blatantly obvious? I'm sure most readers don't even look at the dedications in most books, but if you did, would you understand the significance of them? Would something saying ''To my wife'' make you look twice, or would that seem like a reasonably common way to dedicate a book? In ''Once Again, To Zelda'' you can discover the stories you don't know behind the stories you may well, as the author delves into the detail behind ''Fifty Great Dedications''.
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|summary=What makes a cathedral? It's not automatically the principal church of anywhere that is made a city – St Davids is a 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't had a bishop since 1690. It's not a minster – that's something completely different, and if you can understand the sign in the delightful Beverley Minster describing the difference, that I saw only the other month, you're a better man I, Gunga Din. Luckily this book doesn't touch on minsters much, and we can understand abbeys, so it's only the vast majority of this book that is saddled with the definition problem. It's clearly not a real problem, and those it does have are by-passable, for this successfully defines a cathedral as somewhere of major importance, fine trivia and greatly worthy of our attention.  
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0330511351</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=Bramley_Shakespeare
|author=Mick O'Hare
+
|title=The Shakespeare Trail
|title=How To Make A Tornado
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|author=Zoe Bramley
 
|rating=4
 
|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 and Mike Ahern
 
|title=100 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 Word
 
|rating=3.5
 
 
|genre=Trivia
 
|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.
+
|summary=It has been 400 years since William Shakespeare, the man heralded as the greatest writer in the English language, and England's national poet, died. Shakespeare has made a profound mark on our culture and heritage, yet many aspects of his life remain in the shadows, and many places throughout England have forgotten their association with him. Here, Zoe Bramley takes the reader on a journey through hundreds of places associated with Shakespeare – many whose connections will come as a surprise to most. Filled with intriguing tidbits of information about Shakespeare, Elizabethan England, and the places that she talks about, this is no mere travel guide.
|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>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=Halliday_London
|author=Robin Laurance
+
|title=London (Amazing and Extraordinary Facts)
|title=Just What I Always Wanted: Unwrapping the World's Most Curious Birthday Presents
+
|author=Stephen Halliday
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Trivia
 
|genre=Trivia
|summary=Is there anything more suited to a trivia book, yet so much thought over, and serious, than the birthday presentIt might be something completely throw-away, but mean a lot to the receiverIt might have cost the giver an awful amount of money, and be disregarded by the person expected to accept it. And if you think the givings and takings of the rich and famous are sheer trivia, just think about the number of sociologists and historians who would jump at the chance to explore, say, Hitler's given gifts.  
+
|summary=What makes a city?  Is it the materials, such as the very London Stone itself, of mythological repute, that has moved around several times, and now forms part of a WH Smith's branch(This has nothing, of course, on Temple Bar, which has also been known to walk.) Is it the people – the butchers [[Jack the Ripper: CSI: Whitechapel by John Bennett and Paul Begg|(Jack the Ripper)]], the bakers (or whoever set fire to the entire city from Pudding Lane) and the candlestick makers?  Is it the infrastructure, from the Underground, whose one-time boss got a medal from Stalin for his success, to the London Bridge itself, that in its own wanderlust means it's highly unlikely the Thames will freeze again? However you define a city, London certainly has a lot going for it as regards weird and wonderful, and the trivial yet fascinating.  And, luckily for us, so has this book.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847246168</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=Holland_Railways
|author=AQA 63336
+
|title=Railways (Amazing and Extraordinary Facts)
|title=Brilliant Answers
+
|author=Julian Holland
|rating=4
+
|rating=3
|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, 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>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Tracey Turner
 
|title=The Book of Big Excuses
 
|rating=3.5
 
 
|genre=Trivia
 
|genre=Trivia
|summary=Ah, we've all made excuses at one time or another. We've all done things we shouldn't have done, then when caught out given a reason for it. Perhaps we've even given excuses as stylish as Zambian tennis player Lighton Ndefwayl, who said of his opponent: "[He] is a stupid man and a hopeless player. He has a huge nose and is cross-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, for which I am famous throughout Zambia." Tracey Tuner has collated some of the best excuses ever given into a handy collection.
+
|summary=How and when did Laurel and Hardy replace the Duke of York (George VI)? They reopened the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway when peacetime resumed, at whose launch the latter had officiated before the War. What's the 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 unknown corpse before the invoice turns up to prove you were wanted in Belgium. After so many miles and so much drama, it's no surprise odd facts and fun trivia derive from our country's trains. This book is designed to be an ideal source of quick articles and fun mini-essays for use in the smallest room.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340970553</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=Donald_Words
|author=Matthew Cole
+
|title=Words of a Feather
|title=Will Work for Nuts
+
|author=Graeme Donald
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Pets
 
|summary=The intrepid adventurer faces 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>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author= Niall Edworthy and Petra Cramsie
 
|title=The Optimist's/pessimist's Handbook
 
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Trivia
 
|genre=Trivia
|summary=With a publication date in early November, the passing Christmas shopper is clearly the target for this book. ''The Optimist's/ Pessimist's Handbook'' isn't a self-help book, but a compendium of enlightening snippets. Off the shelf, I think you'd know immediately which relative or friend might enjoy receiving it.  So I suggest eschewing Amazon in favour of a real-life bookshop, not least because there will be a shelf full of similar books for a surreptitious and delightful half-hour's browse before choosing.
+
|summary=Words of a Feather. The title alone suggests an engaging read about language, and the 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 fascinating to see the hidden 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'' derives from unpleasant figures depicted in murals in Ancient Roman ''grottoes''. 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 little tenuous, seemingly just a collection of words banded together, as is the case with the ''insult'' and ''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 more well-heeled among us use instead of ''goodbye''.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>038561411X</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=Binney_English
|author=Danny Danziger
+
|title=The English Countryside (Amazing and Extraordinary Facts)
|title=The Thingummy
+
|author=Ruth Binney
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Trivia
 
|genre=Trivia
|summary=Oh look, a trivia book.  I don't think even I realised quite how many were published in the run up to every Christmas, but there are a lotThere is probably a name for the phenomenon.
+
|summary=I live in the countryside and spend as much time as the weather will allow exploring it, so the chance to read Ruth Binney's ''The English Countryside'' was too good to be missedWe've met Ruth [[The Allotment Experience by Ruth Binney|before]] at Bookbag and we know that she writes well and interestingly, but just one thing was worrying me about this bookIt's a hardback and beautifully presented but its the size of book that you slip into a pocket or handbag. Would it be rather superficial?
 
 
There is a name for that bit between your nose and your lips – below your nasal septum comes the philtrumThere'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>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=Lloyd_1234
|author=Justin Scroggie
+
|title=1,234 QI Facts to Leave You Speechless
|title=Tic-tac Teddy Bears and Teardrop Tattoos
+
|author=John Lloyd, John Mitchinson and James Harkin
|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 visible, which is where this pictorial guide to countless coded messages, signifiers 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 Bits
 
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
|genre=History
 
|summary=I was never one for history, and in fact left the dregs of a history teacher in tatters when I scraped through with a D.  Still, history is an odd thing – written by the winners of course, and annoyingly biased in my mind towards the plain.  There's no real reason to remember the order of Henry VIII's six wives, but we can only relish the one credited with polydactylism, a third nipple and whatnot (the second one, in fact – whoever that was).
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847243746</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Kathleen Burk and Michael Bywater
 
|title=Is This Bottle Corked? The Secret Life of Wine
 
|rating=4
 
 
|genre=Trivia
 
|genre=Trivia
|summary=Now, I'm the first person to admit I am not a wine buffI know a lot more now than I did before my current relationship, but she is right to say I have a very masculine (ie dead weak) sense of smellAdded to that a blunt sense of taste and I'm left saying I know what I like when I drink it, and that's it.
+
|summary=''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 occupational disease ever recorded in medical literature was 'chimney sweep's scrotum'.'' ''The song 'Yes, We Have No Bananas' was written by Leon Trotsky's nephew.'' ''In the 18th Century, King George I declared all pigeon droppings to be the property of the Crown''I hardly think I need to say any more.  Review over.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0571241743</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=Berenson_How
|author=Stevyn Colgan
+
|title=How to Speak Emoji
|title=Joined-up Thinking: How to Connect Everything to Everything Else
+
|author=Fred Benenson
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Trivia
 
|genre=Trivia
|summary=I am in this book.  And so therefore are you.  So why don't I like it quite as much as I should?
+
|summary=Emojis are fun, and there's so much more to them than the smileys of days gone by ;) They can be a language unto themselves, though, and I've found that some members of the, ahem, older generation can find themselves a little troubled by them. This book, then, sounds perfect for anyone who needs a little help with this 'language'.
 
 
To be more honest, neither of us are in this book, although we could well be.  It is a trivia collection based on attesting the feeling that everything is linked to everything and everyone else, if only you know how.  Thus the chapters introduce us to item A, which is linked to item B, which relates to C, whose story is incomplete without D, and so on and lo and behold, before you know it you're back at A, having had no idea where we were going.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0230712207</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=Lloyd_3rd
|author=Dr Robert Vanderplank
+
|title=QI: The Third Book of General Ignorance
|title=Uglier Than A Monkey's Armpit
+
|author=John Lloyd, John Mitchinson, James Harkin and Andrew Hunter Murray
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=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 languages, and so beyond knowing that ''Leche!'' is a bit meaty in Spanish, I could not help to cuss and swear like whatever other languages might have for trooper.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0330464485</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Tom Hodgkinson
 
|title=The Book of Idle Pleasures
 
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Trivia
 
|genre=Trivia
|summary=We've all heard the clichés about modern life. You know – technology was meant to free us from drudgery. Instead we've become its slaves and work longer hours than ever. We're overloaded with means of communication but few of us know our neighbours, etc, etc. On hearing these, most of us shrug and carry on with our busy, busy lives. But now and then, something reminds us of who and what we are. This delightful, unassuming book is one of those things.
+
|summary=Well done, Hartlepool. You didn't put on trial and kill a shipwrecked monkey thinking it a Napoleonic spy – any more than the several other places thusly accused ever did. Well done, Italy, for making the ciabatta such a global phenomenon it seems like a traditional foodstuff, even if it was invented in 1982. And well done to that famous ice hockey player, Charles Darwin – who was probably playing it, seeing as it was a British invention, long before the Canadians ever realised they might be good at it. Yes, for a book that spends a lot of its time saying 'this didn’t happen,' 'hoojamaflip didn't do this,' and 'that was never thus', it's one that's incredibly easy to be most positive about.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0091923328</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=Taggart_New
|author=Georgina Phillips
+
|title=New Words for Old: Recycling Our Language for the Modern World
|title=Ouch! Extreme Feats of Human Endurance
+
|author=Caroline Taggart
|rating=4.5
+
|rating=3.5
|genre=Trivia
 
|summary=Everything from Shackleton to Ellen MacArthur, by way of the Japanese word for fried rice-field grasshopper, and 32 hour long after dinner speeches. ''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 63336
 
 
|genre=Trivia
 
|genre=Trivia
|rating=3
+
|summary=I never declare myself off to have a 'kip', as 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, and I'm sure there's another word that has completely changed its meaning from one end of things to another although I can't remember which. Certainly, ''literally'' has tried its best to make a full switch through rampant misuse.  Such is the nature of 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 etymological world – the way we have adapted old words for our own, modern and perhaps very different usages. Certainly, having browsed it over a week, I can declare it a pretty strong attempt.
|summary=Did you know that if you have a question, any question, you can text AQA on 63336 and their team of dedicated researchers will find the answer and text it back to you? It will cost you just £1 and AQA have now answered over nine million questions. That's a lot of questions and the answers didn't just disappear into the ether. AQA have them all stored away.  
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846680824</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 +
Move on to [[Newest True Crime Reviews]]

Latest revision as of 15:36, 2 September 2020

1780724047.jpg

Review of

A Dictionary of Interesting and Important Dogs by Peter J Conradi

4star.jpg Pets

I 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 wasn't interesting or important - and probably both, I was expecting a massive tome. But A Dictionary of Interesting and Important Dogs is actually a rich compendium of the world's most significant and beloved dogs and it'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 comes over is Conradi's love for each and every one of them. I knew that I was in safe hands. Full Review

1789016770.jpg

Review of

Copernicus! What Have You Done?: ...and Other Interesting Questions by Don Behrend

4.5star.jpg Trivia

Hello! Would this review be okay if I simply said I LOVED THIS GLORIOUS LITTLE BOOK AND SO WILL YOU. FIN?! Because I did. And you will. Full Review

Lloyd 1423.jpg

Review of

1,423 QI Facts to Bowl You Over by John Lloyd, James Harkin and Anne Miller

5star.jpg Trivia

You may think me lazy, but there is an inherent satisfaction for book reviewers in hitting upon a book such as this – you know you will have very little bearing on its sales, and what's more you hardly even need describe it – just dip in here and there for a few quotes, and sit back and relax knowing your 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 death penalty. Naked mole-rats can survive for 18 minutes without oxygen by turning themselves into plants. And the whole of page 52. There, job done – and the creators of this book certainly have done their job to perfection. Full Review

Brightside 101.jpg

Review of

101 Things to Take the Stress Out of Christmas by Robin Snow

4star.jpg Trivia

For many years one of my guiding principles has been that the C word should not be mentioned until the beginning of December but, unfortunately, C seems to be coming earlier each year and there are even shops where it never ceases to be imminent, which ramps up the stress levels considerably. So, a book which promises 101 things to take the stress out of C seemed like a good idea. What’s it about? Tips like putting the sprouts on to boil in November or joining a religion which avoids the celebration altogether? Well, not quite. Full Review

Brightside Worry.jpg

Review of

101 Things to do instead of worrying about the world by Felicity Brightside

4star.jpg Trivia

I don't think that I've ever been quite so worried about the state of the world as I have been of late - and I speak as someone who lived through the Cuban Missile Crisis and various other apocalyptic moments. It almost certainly comes down to a lack of confidence in the people who are supposedly in charge, whether it be from a political point of view or of our stewardship of this planet we call home. But what can be done about it? We've tried voting, arguing and demonstrating. Now we're down to pulling up the drawbridge and doing our best to think about something else. Full Review

link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/Lloyd 1342/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21

Review of

1,342 QI Facts To Leave You Flabbergasted by John Lloyd, John Mitchinson, James Harkin and Anne Miller

5star.jpg Trivia

I love the way the QI elves play games with us with these books. That's not to say it's a game of pulling the wool over our eyes, for every entrant in this series has had the equivalent online version for the sources, so every page is replicated with the due links you need to search for proof of their statements. No, the 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 sound of an Orc army for Lord of the Rings films to record-breaking nipple hair. From illicit wartime barbers in Italy to American founding father bedroom arrangements, is only three steps – and the path carries on to reach that erstwhile novice stand-up, Ronald Reagan, in two more. It's only two jumps between Donald Trump and Charles Darwin, disconcertingly. Full Review

Lloyd 1411.jpg

Review of

1,411 QI Facts To Knock You Sideways by John Lloyd, John Mitchinson and James Harkin

4.5star.jpg Trivia

Handsome is as handsome does. And you know what else benefits from being curt and succinct, alongside old housewives' saws like that one? Trivia. I always thought the QI books such as this one to be handsome things – perfectly presenting trivia, four (on rare occasion, three) statements to the page, in a very nice little cubical hardback. Now they're being represented in paperback, but you know what? They're still handsome things. Full Review

Lloyd 1339.jpg

Review of

1,339 QI Facts To Make Your Jaw Drop by John Lloyd, John Mitchinson and James Harkin

4.5star.jpg Trivia

A spermologer is a collector of trivia. Just that sentence tells you a lot – we're once more in the realm of the curt, succinct approach to the world's information and oddities. It says more, however – beyond the weirdness of the word is the obvious necessity for the word to exist – without people that could be 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. Full Review

Metcalf Skedaddle.jpg

Review of

From Skedaddle to Selfie: Words of the Generation by Allan Metcalf

3.5star.jpg Trivia

I have to go a roundabout way to introduce this book, so bear with me. It stems partly from dictionaries and the etymology of the language we use, but more so if anything from a different couple of books, and their ideas of generations. The authors of those posited the idea that 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 formed by the interplay of just four different kinds, running (with only one exception) in regular order. I don't really hold much store by that, and I certainly didn't know we'd started one since the Millennials – who the heck decides such things, for one? Somebody must have put out an order, as someone here says of something else. But in the same way as generations get defined by collective persons unknown, so do words – and those words are certainly a clue to what was important, predominant and of course spoken in each decade. Full Review

Halliday Cathedrals.jpg

Review of

Cathedrals and Abbeys (Amazing and Extraordinary Facts) by Stephen Halliday

4.5star.jpg Trivia

What makes a cathedral? It's not automatically the principal church of anywhere that is made a city – St Davids is a 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't had a bishop since 1690. It's not a minster – that's something completely different, and if you can understand the sign in the delightful Beverley Minster describing the difference, that I saw only the other month, you're a better man I, Gunga Din. Luckily this book doesn't touch on minsters much, and we can understand abbeys, so it's only the vast majority of this book that is saddled with the definition problem. It's clearly not a real problem, and those it does have are by-passable, for this successfully defines a cathedral as somewhere of major importance, fine trivia and greatly worthy of our attention. Full Review

Bramley Shakespeare.jpg

Review of

The Shakespeare Trail by Zoe Bramley

4star.jpg Trivia

It has been 400 years since William Shakespeare, the man heralded as the greatest writer in the English language, and England's national poet, died. Shakespeare has made a profound mark on our culture and heritage, yet many aspects of his life remain in the shadows, and many places throughout England have forgotten their association with him. Here, Zoe Bramley takes the reader on a journey through hundreds of places associated with Shakespeare – many whose connections will come as a surprise to most. Filled with intriguing tidbits of information about Shakespeare, Elizabethan England, and the places that she talks about, this is no mere travel guide. Full Review

Halliday London.jpg

Review of

London (Amazing and Extraordinary Facts) by Stephen Halliday

4.5star.jpg Trivia

What makes a city? Is it the materials, such as the very London Stone itself, of mythological repute, that has moved around several times, and now forms part of a WH Smith's branch? (This has nothing, of course, on Temple Bar, which has also been known to walk.) Is it the people – the butchers (Jack the Ripper), the bakers (or whoever set fire to the entire city from Pudding Lane) and the candlestick makers? Is it the infrastructure, from the Underground, whose one-time boss got a medal from Stalin for his success, to the London Bridge itself, that in its own wanderlust means it's highly unlikely the Thames will freeze again? However you define a city, London certainly has a lot going for it as regards weird and wonderful, and the trivial yet fascinating. And, luckily for us, so has this book. Full Review

Holland Railways.jpg

Review of

Railways (Amazing and Extraordinary Facts) by Julian Holland

3star.jpg Trivia

How and when did Laurel and Hardy replace the Duke of York (George VI)? They reopened the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway when peacetime resumed, at whose launch the latter had officiated before the War. What's the 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 unknown corpse before the invoice turns up to prove you were wanted in Belgium. After so many miles and so much drama, it's no surprise odd facts and fun trivia derive from our country's trains. This book is designed to be an ideal source of quick articles and fun mini-essays for use in the smallest room. Full Review

Donald Words.jpg

Review of

Words of a Feather by Graeme Donald

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Words of a Feather. The title alone suggests an engaging read about language, and the 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 fascinating to see the hidden 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 derives from unpleasant figures depicted in murals in Ancient Roman grottoes. 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 little tenuous, seemingly just a collection of words banded together, as is the case with the insult and 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 more well-heeled among us use instead of goodbye. Full Review

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Review of

The English Countryside (Amazing and Extraordinary Facts) by Ruth Binney

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I live in the countryside and spend as much time as the weather will allow exploring it, so the chance to read Ruth Binney's The English Countryside was too good to be missed. We've met Ruth before at Bookbag and we know that she writes well and interestingly, but just one thing was worrying me about this book. It's a hardback and beautifully presented but its the size of book that you slip into a pocket or handbag. Would it be rather superficial? Full Review

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Review of

1,234 QI Facts to Leave You Speechless by John Lloyd, John Mitchinson and James Harkin

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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 occupational disease ever recorded in medical literature was 'chimney sweep's scrotum'. The song 'Yes, We Have No Bananas' was written by Leon Trotsky's nephew. In the 18th Century, King George I declared all pigeon droppings to be the property of the Crown. I hardly think I need to say any more. Review over. Full Review

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Review of

How to Speak Emoji by Fred Benenson

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Emojis are fun, and there's so much more to them than the smileys of days gone by ;) They can be a language unto themselves, though, and I've found that some members of the, ahem, older generation can find themselves a little troubled by them. This book, then, sounds perfect for anyone who needs a little help with this 'language'. Full Review

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Review of

QI: The Third Book of General Ignorance by John Lloyd, John Mitchinson, James Harkin and Andrew Hunter Murray

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Well done, Hartlepool. You didn't put on trial and kill a shipwrecked monkey thinking it a Napoleonic spy – any more than the several other places thusly accused ever did. Well done, Italy, for making the ciabatta such a global phenomenon it seems like a traditional foodstuff, even if it was invented in 1982. And well done to that famous ice hockey player, Charles Darwin – who was probably playing it, seeing as it was a British invention, long before the Canadians ever realised they might be good at it. Yes, for a book that spends a lot of its time saying 'this didn’t happen,' 'hoojamaflip didn't do this,' and 'that was never thus', it's one that's incredibly easy to be most positive about. Full Review

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Review of

New Words for Old: Recycling Our Language for the Modern World by Caroline Taggart

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I never declare myself off to have a 'kip', as 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, and I'm sure there's another word that has completely changed its meaning from one end of things to another although I can't remember which. Certainly, literally has tried its best to make a full switch through rampant misuse. Such is the nature of 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 etymological world – the way we have adapted old words for our own, modern and perhaps very different usages. Certainly, having browsed it over a week, I can declare it a pretty strong attempt. Full Review

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