The Book of General Ignorance

Great book! All the information your teachers did not, or could not, tell you. Much background on everyday items like the telephone. Did Alexander Graham Bell invent it or did he steal the idea and market it?
Great book for trivia buffs and know-it-alls. A great resource for repeatable information. You will quote this book! It offers answers to questions you never thought to ask. This book could become your mental addiction.

This book is insightful without being condescending. I enjoyed the information provided in this book, and some of the information is quite entertaining.

I will no longer accept conventional training at face value.

However there are a couple entries however that qualify themselves as "the author thinks they're true but they're not". But there are only a couple. There are a couple well known ones such as "You only use 10% of your brain" which most people already know is baloney. It's great for preparing for going to parties, weddings and nights at the bar where you're likely to hear the hooey. The "10% of your brain" B.S. has been the basis of two movies in the last few years: "Limitless" and "Lucy".

A few shockers but mostly a bunch of interesting gotchas. I would recommend this book to counter any one uppers at your workplace, ask them one of these trick questions and let them give the standard answer then counterpunch with one of the real answers in the book.

I loved this book! There were so many things that I had never heard of before (which is good, because I legitimately own about 10 different strange fact or whatnot books). Over all, a fantastic book and worth the purchase!

This is a very informative and entertaining book of facts. It debunks "old wives tales" and illuminates history.
The article about Napoleon's most embarrassing defeat was hysterical. If you love history, trivia, general knowledge and witty writing, you'll love this book.

I bought this book based on a Wired magazine review and was not dissapointed by any means. it is a great easy reading about curious facts that we'll amaze, make laugh or just make you wonder. The short unrelated chapters format makes for a great commute book or just for a quiet time. I recommend this book to anyone that loves curious and not well known facts.

This is a good conversation starter or stopper, full of amusing and amazing items. It is easy to pick up and lay down for busy people, since all the articles are readable in a couple of minutes. When a book makes me call attention to something to my wife, it must have amused me.

This was a gift and based on the reaction from my brother-in-law, he liked it a great deal. He looked through a few pages while we were together and got a chuckle out of the entries. I don't know how much he has read after that day. I was pleased with his initial reaction!

I like QI. But another reviewer mentioned that the book is not so much odd facts, as it is technicalities. That's true for just about every question.

Still it was enjoyable, informative, and fun to frustrate my friends with.

This is a nice, light book, with each question being answered in about 1 page. a good book to read for quick reading sessions, like on the pot or before going to sleep. some stuff is pretty interesting, some stuff I definitely already knew. Not bad if you're looking for an easy read that's good to pick up and put down alot.

At last, the American release of what is undoubtedly one of the most fascinating books you could ever hope to delve into! Whereas most trivia books contain "facts" of dubious origin and little consequence, it's clear that the authors of this book have gone through great pains to dig out and verify the most interesting tidbits from the realms of history, nature, science, and culture. Let's go for a few examples (edited heavily for space; the book is far more detailed).

Q: How many words do Eskimos have for snow?
A: Actually, no more than four. Although it's often said that Eskimos have dozens or even hundreds of words for snow, there are at most only four root-words for it, and that's drawing from all Eskimo languages. (They do, however, have more than thirty words for demonstrative pronouns, where speakers of English only have four.)

Q: Who invented the telephone?
A: Contrary to what you've been taught, it was not the famous A. Graham Bell! Credit goes to Antonio Meucci, a brilliant but ailing Italian inventor, whose patent fell into the hands of Bell, a young Scottish engineer. Meucci died before his case against Bell could come to fruition.

There are hundreds of more questions to the end of fascinating and delighting the reader. However much you think you know, there will be mountains of information in here to surprise you--and that's quite the point. In the words of co-writer John Lloyd, "This book is for the people who know they don't know very much." As the authors hope you will come to understand, one's best hope in life is to recognize that one is generally ignorant, for it is simply impossible to know any but a sliver of the wealth of knowledge contained in and about the world. By admitting this, one is then motivated to ask questions that matter, for everything can be interesting when looked at in the right way . . . it's just that most people fail to look.

But it goes further than that. "The Book of General Ignorance" is just one piece of a cultural phenomenon that has its roots in Britain. It was originally written as a textual accompaniment to the hugely-popular television show "QI", which operates under the philosophy that curiosity--for its own sake--is worthwhile. The show is unlike anything broadcast on American screens, featuring panelists who try desperately to claw their way to the answers to questions they are posed (questions not unlike those appearing in the book). While they're rarely correct from the off, it's the mere delight in discovering the truth that ends up being, unfailingly, uproariously funny. The show's a joyful celebration of the fact that questioning the world around us need not be an impenetrably erudite or boring endeavor. [...]

In the meantime, pick up this book, and once you've been thoroughly impressed, buy it for your friends as well. It'd make a lovely gift for birthdays and the holiday season, assured to please scholar and dilettante alike. Recommended with cherries on top.

At first I thought it had more insight but overall it is avarage and some insight may be revised again in the future, we as human race are subject quite often at the period/time thought and belives which then later on get tested and vewrified to show us how restrictive our society is to new thoughts

The two books about ignorance deserve a casual perusal form time to time. The are not as authoritative as they claim to be but they offer sometimes rare insights into the conventional wisdom. And humor helps to carry the burdens of the day.