 Trade In this Item for up to £0.25
Get an extra £5 when you trade in books worth £10 or more until June 30, 2012. Trade in The QI Annual 2008 for an Amazon.co.uk gift card of up to £0.25, which you can then spend on millions of items across the site. Trade-in values may vary (terms apply). Find more products eligible for trade-in.
|
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
More About the Author
Product Description
Book Description
The essential companion to QI: BBC 2 and BBC 4's highest rated show, written and illustrated by top comedians.
Product Description
Imagine an edition of The Guinness Book of Records selected by a panel of stand-up comedians... The QI Annual 2008 is packed with original contributions from Stephen Fry, Alan Davies, Jo Brand, Bill Bailey and other regular guests on the show. It's packed full of games to play at home, puzzles, cartoon strips, mini-encyclopaedias, how-to diagrams and masses and masses of QI facts.
If you want to read Julian Clary's poetry about the Queen, Roger Law's musings on flatulent kangaroos, or have often wondered how you might make a waterproof apron out of a whale's foreskin, your Christmas gift dilemma has just been solved. WARNING: very silly indeed. Will offend dullards, whales and parents in no particular order.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
90 of 102 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
The QI Annual is an endeavor several years in coming, and thank the stars, it more than makes up for the wait. Its theme is all things beginning with "E", and unlike The Book of General Ignorance, the source of its content has little to do with what has already been featured on the show. It focuses, instead, on original tidbits of knowledge offered up by a refreshing variety of authors.
As its colourful cover would suggest, many of QI's regular panellists contribute items to the Annual, their topics ranging from the scholarly to the silly. Dara Ó Briain's narrative about how some of Eire's less celebrated historical figures have actually helped out the world of medicine is hilariously riveting, and Bill Bailey does his part in being entertainingly knowledgeable by offering up brief biographies of "Embarrassingly Named Composers". Even Clive Anderson's treatise on the English Elm is a pleasure to read, for it is suffused with his characteristic wit.
On the other side of the bridge of erudition, we get treats like Jo Brand's imaginary gig as an Agony Aunt ("Dear Aunty Jo, I am on a television show called QI and I keep coming last. What shall I do? Love, Alan"), the pictorial demonstration of emotions by Jimmy Carr and Rowan Atkinson, and Jeremy Clarkson's guide to eating exotic creatures (self-researched, of course). Alan Davies' piece is an essay on--what else?--Essex, and illustrated with a near-nude picture of Jodie Marsh, but it is surprisingly full of interesting information about the area, much of it garnered from personal experience.
Of the segments in the Annual related, if sometimes peripherally, to the show, there is a page on "the poetry of QI", which has rendered extracts from the programme into free verse poems. The highlight here is Julian Clary's much-acclaimed "I Had Wind When I Met the Queen", but I'm a personal fan of "David Beckham Lives in Chingford". On another set of facing pages, the QI Elves guide you through a series of wacky experiments you can actually do, such as measuring the speed of light using grated cheese and a microwave. The accompanying pictures of them in lab-wear makes it clear that, yes, they've done it themselves.
The book provides well for those wanting quick distraction and those willing to delve right into the pile of wisdom. As you might expect from an annual publication, it presents a selection of games and puzzles with which to divert one's attention, including a fiendishly hard quiz that can be entered online. The QI philosophy of offering real knowledge in an absorbing way is not ignored, however, and the annual duly contains fact-filled essays on the eighteenth century and excommunication, tucked in among pieces about lavatories and erotica. Overall highlights include the multi-paneled pastiche entitled "The Education of Stephen" (which has to be seen to be believed), and a disturbingly graphic representation of "The Atrocities of Francois L'Ollonais".
Needless to say, if you were looking for a Christmas gift that'll be a surefire winner, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend the QI Annual. With any luck, we won't have to wait five more years for the next one.
As its colourful cover would suggest, many of QI's regular panellists contribute items to the Annual, their topics ranging from the scholarly to the silly. Dara Ó Briain's narrative about how some of Eire's less celebrated historical figures have actually helped out the world of medicine is hilariously riveting, and Bill Bailey does his part in being entertainingly knowledgeable by offering up brief biographies of "Embarrassingly Named Composers". Even Clive Anderson's treatise on the English Elm is a pleasure to read, for it is suffused with his characteristic wit.
On the other side of the bridge of erudition, we get treats like Jo Brand's imaginary gig as an Agony Aunt ("Dear Aunty Jo, I am on a television show called QI and I keep coming last. What shall I do? Love, Alan"), the pictorial demonstration of emotions by Jimmy Carr and Rowan Atkinson, and Jeremy Clarkson's guide to eating exotic creatures (self-researched, of course). Alan Davies' piece is an essay on--what else?--Essex, and illustrated with a near-nude picture of Jodie Marsh, but it is surprisingly full of interesting information about the area, much of it garnered from personal experience.
Of the segments in the Annual related, if sometimes peripherally, to the show, there is a page on "the poetry of QI", which has rendered extracts from the programme into free verse poems. The highlight here is Julian Clary's much-acclaimed "I Had Wind When I Met the Queen", but I'm a personal fan of "David Beckham Lives in Chingford". On another set of facing pages, the QI Elves guide you through a series of wacky experiments you can actually do, such as measuring the speed of light using grated cheese and a microwave. The accompanying pictures of them in lab-wear makes it clear that, yes, they've done it themselves.
The book provides well for those wanting quick distraction and those willing to delve right into the pile of wisdom. As you might expect from an annual publication, it presents a selection of games and puzzles with which to divert one's attention, including a fiendishly hard quiz that can be entered online. The QI philosophy of offering real knowledge in an absorbing way is not ignored, however, and the annual duly contains fact-filled essays on the eighteenth century and excommunication, tucked in among pieces about lavatories and erotica. Overall highlights include the multi-paneled pastiche entitled "The Education of Stephen" (which has to be seen to be believed), and a disturbingly graphic representation of "The Atrocities of Francois L'Ollonais".
Needless to say, if you were looking for a Christmas gift that'll be a surefire winner, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend the QI Annual. With any luck, we won't have to wait five more years for the next one.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
As an Australian fan of QI, but still catching up on the publications, I'm a recent reader of a few QI books. The QI Annual brought back meories of the annuals of my childhood, but without the daft makeup tips and silly advice on boys! The QI Annual doesn't aim to be a deadly serious tome full of staid facts and figures, the QI team have done a fabulous job in making the books informative yet fun. I've read the Annual several times, yet I always manage to find something interesting I didn't see earlier. Great for trivia buffs and myth exploders, or anyone who has a fascination for interesting tidbits. A great companion to the show, and a must for all QI Fans.
I already have the QI Annual 2009 on pre-order!
I already have the QI Annual 2009 on pre-order!
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Was this review helpful?
Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
If you watch the program, then read the book!
If you watch the program, then you'll enjoy this book, obviously! Even if you're not a regular viewer, you'd appreciate it just for the humour and trivia.
Published 15 months ago by sideshowbobette
i'm amazed at how much i "thought" i knew
fun to read and once again i'm amazed at how much i thought i knew but didn't.
well worth the read ,but better of buying a second hand copy the full price is a bit much for... Read more
well worth the read ,but better of buying a second hand copy the full price is a bit much for... Read more
Published on 14 May 2010 by H. nathalie
A must have if you're a Qi fan
Really awesome book. I myself am a Qi fan so it's really cool to have an annual to do with the show at home. Read more
Published on 13 April 2010 by Jalelo Gram
Quite interesting indeed
This is one of those books that you either read all in one go or in stages. It is jammed to the inside covers with information. Quite entertaining also.
Published on 10 Feb 2009 by Chief M
Barely interesting and doesn't transfer
I love the TV show QI. I'm a fan of most of the guests, have seen several in live gigs or else read a number of their various books, I've got the first series box set, the first... Read more
Published on 13 Jan 2008 by Nigel Collier
A very nice Annual for the series
A very nice read with plenty of toilet humour and interesting facts to impress your friends. To be honest some of he features of members from the show seem to lack any actual input... Read more
Published on 8 Jan 2008 by D. D. Pitre
Really funny
I bought this for someone else for Xmas but I've managed to read just about all of it myself. Its really very funny and would appeal to almost anyone. Read more
Published on 18 Dec 2007 by Naomi
Humour me
This is the one book you'll want to buy either for yourself, as a Christmas gift, or just generally as a gift. The reason? It's funny as can be. Read more
Published on 29 Nov 2007 by James Monroe
The QI Annual - an Extremely Entertaining Edition of all things E.
The team that bought you "The Book of General Ignorance" and the newly released "Book of Animal Ignorance" now edge their way into the world of annuals with this gem of a book... Read more
Published on 9 Nov 2007 by Natalie Harris
docere et delectare...
and yet another addition to the media empire of chucklesome knowledge that is qi... it's not perfect, but then why should it be? Read more
Published on 8 Nov 2007 by OldBlueEyes
![[Start the discussion]](http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/02/x-locale/communities/discussion_boards/start-new-discussion-sec._V192198663_.gif){kind=small}
Listmania!
|
|
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
