- Hardcover: 467 pages
- Publisher: Metro Books,London (30 April 2005)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 1843581302
- ISBN-13: 978-1843581307
- Product Dimensions: 18.6 x 12 x 4.4 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 168,485 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
Useless information - we can't get enough of it. Everywhere you look these days there is a new book of trivia, a new web page, a new column in the newspaper, all containing a wealth of fascinatingly useless tidbits. Finding the answers to questions you'd never thought to ask, reading an off-the-wall statistic, or browsing through lists of zany facts is always a refreshing and amusing distraction from the tawdry details of everyday life. What's What: The Encyclopedia of Useless Information is no ordinary list of random facts. Unlike other books of useless information, it is organised alphabetically, and full of cross references so that all those hilarious entries can be enjoyed and shared with other like-minded trivia fanatics. A treasure chest of a book for anyone whose curiosity extends beyond the worthy and dull to the eccentric and amusing!
About the Author
William Hartston read Mathematics at Cambridge and is the author of many chess books, while his interest in useless information has given rise to The Drunken Goldfish (a tribute to useless academic research), How Was It For You, Professor (a book on academic sex research), Odd Dates Only (a book of weird anniversaries) and The Book of Numbers (a collection of weird numerical information). Since 1998, he has been writing the daily Beachcomber column of surreal humour for the Daily Express.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A welcome addition to the trivia scene,
This review is from: What's What: The Encyclopedia of Pointless Information (Hardcover)
A substantial book of minty-fresh trivia, thankfully avoiding the tiresome list format. The encyclopedic entries and useful cross-reference make this as near as anything will come to a trivia encyclopedia, giving possibilities for using this book in research, speech writing and - well - just browsing. You'll discover how barcodes work, how many ladybirds there are to the gallon and why the chicken really did come before the egg. The author's standard of research is very good too, leaving out many of the common trivia conceptions (ducks' quacks don't echo etc.) Recommended.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
4.0 out of 5 stars (1 customer review) 2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Lots of Pointless Information, But it is Interesting Pointless Information,
By James N Simpson - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: What's What: The Encyclopedia of Pointless Information (Hardcover)
Should probably be called the dictionary of pointless information as that is how this thick interesting little book is laid out. The reader is given a word with a definition, story of how the word (product, name, animal, country, whatever) came to be or interesting facts about the word. Granted you may already know some of the information, but a lot you won't. How many people would know the first entry, that Aa is a word (spellcheck is telling me its not a word so Microsoft obviously needs to give their staff a copy of this book), let alone that it is a type of volcanic lava and also the name of rivers in both Germany and France.
I've definitely learnt a lot of stuff from this book, this book would be ideal to use to come up with trivia questions and things like that. The only downside to this book which is why I say it is laid out like a dictionary and not an encyclopaedia is that it has no index at the back, so since you don't know what words are covered inside its more like trial and error. Being laid out like a dictionary also means it is pretty difficult to read cover to cover but this book is certainly interesting as something to pick up and flick through from time to time. |
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