More correctly titled “you die horribly and it probably involves plasma”, this light hearted and fun read explores serious answers to silly scientific questions. The footnotes are definitely the best bit. A really enjoyable read. Title: What If? Author: Randall Munroe Genre: Humor Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Release Date: September 2, 2014 Pages: 320 The…
Tag: trivia
Why Can’t Elephants Jump?
This is another fun book from New Scientist’s Last Word column and I enjoyed it. A good read, and I actually learnt some stuff (some of it possibly true) along the way. Title: Why Can't Elephants Jump? Author: New Scientist Genre: Science Publisher: Profile Books Release Date: October 7, 2010 Pages: 240 Well, why not?…
Why do men fall asleep after sex?
This is the second medical trivia book by The Leyner and Goldberg duo. The first was Why do men have nipples, which I read in June. This book suffers from the same flaws as the first — its light weight and doesn’t take itself very seriously. That means that often they avoid answering serious questions,…
The Book of General Ignorance
I seem to be on a bit of a trivia book kick, which is at least partially motivated by getting through all my Christmas presents so I can pack them into a box and move to a different country. This book was written as part of the production of the very excellent BBC quiz show…
Why do men have nipples?
This book is pretty light weight. The font is big, and there is lots of “chrome” on the pages, which conspire to make a book which would probably be only 100 pages in a normal font more like 200 pages. The book also suffers from trying a little too hard to be funny, with numerous…
Why don’t penguin’s feet freeze? (and 114 other questions)
This book was really fun. Its a collection of 115 questions sent into New Scientist magazine, and the answers provided by other readers. Sometimes the answers and sarcastic or funny, and sometimes they are incredibly detailed. I found this book really interesting to read, and I certainly picked up some trivial to annoy my wife…
Sticklers, Sideburns and Bikinis
This is the second book I have got from the LibraryThing early reviewer program (the previous book was The Spy Within). I’m going to have to be honest with this book and say that I haven’t read all of it yet. Its basically a dictionary and I don’t tend to read those cover to cover….