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Title: Schott's Original Miscellany by Ben Schott ISBN: 1-58234-349-7 Publisher: Bloomsbury USA Pub. Date: 04 August, 2003 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.39 (18 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Addictive and Miscellaneous
Comment: There are not many books that I read in one sitting - Schott's Original Miscellany was one such book. It's difficult to explain what's so special about this little 160-page hard-backed volume. And it's even harder to explain what's inside. Imagine a cross between a Victorian English enyclopedia; the Book of Lists; and those useful pages at the back of your diary and you have something approaching the style and content of Schott's Original Miscellany.
In the spirit of Ben Schott's wonderfully haphazard organizational style, I shall open a page at random, and list what can be found there. OK ... pages 118-119 contain: a list of famous left-handers (including Bill Gates and Cole Porter); a nursery rhyme about sneezing; the traditional names for the various winds (the Sirocco is a South-easterly wind); an explanation of adult dentition; an list of temperature conversions; all of the International Washing Symbols (including the wonderful symbol for "do not wring"); and a list of countries where you have to drive on the left.
It is fantastic, funny, and (believe me) very addictive stuff. I've only just got this book, and already it has been "borrowed" from my desk countless times by colleagues! I recommend it very highly.
Rating: 5
Summary: Grab Bag of Facts
Comment: If you are looking for a reference book in which you can quickly look up the population of Brazil or find a complete list of Pulitzer Prize winners, then "Schott's Original Miscellany" is not the volume you seek. On the other hand, if you're looking for a book you can pick up, open to a random page, and unearth some fascinating tidbits of trivia, then you're in the right place.
Imbued with humor, sprinkled with quotations, and arranged in completely arbitrary order, this quaint compendium of facts makes for edifying, absorbing, and essential (according to Ben Schott) reading. Although the author has taken great pains to ensure the correctness of the facts, he admits that some of the trivia he presents has been disputed; he provides a list of variations and disputations. There is a self-referential page with statistical information about the book itself. There is also an index, although the reader will not be referring to it often, if at all. Originally published in England, this edition has been updated with American trivia, but it still contains such British facts as cricket fielding positions, British poets laureate, and the order of succession to the English throne.
Move over bathroom readers... this book is far more entertaining. I recommend you buy a copy and keep it handy at all times. You never know when you'll need to find some "Q" words with no "u" or a list of Elizabeth Taylor's husbands!
Rating: 2
Summary: not recommended
Comment: I love miscellany and trivia. The original Book of Lists ranks among my favorite possessions. I received Schott's book with high hopes. Unfortunately, I have to add my name to the critics.
The book does not make good reading material because most of it is World Almanac-type facts, not interesting curiousities. But it cannot qualify as a reference, since it is neither ordered nor complete.
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Title: A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson ISBN: 0767908171 Publisher: Broadway Pub. Date: 06 May, 2003 List Price(USD): $27.50 |
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Title: Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation by Lynne Truss ISBN: 1592400876 Publisher: Gotham Books Pub. Date: 12 April, 2004 List Price(USD): $17.50 |
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Title: Bryson's Dictionary of Troublesome Words by Bill Bryson ISBN: 0767910427 Publisher: Broadway Pub. Date: 13 August, 2002 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: Shite's Unoriginal Miscellany by Stephen Blake, Andrew John, A. Parody ISBN: 1843170817 Publisher: Michael O'Mara Books Pub. Date: 01 November, 2003 List Price(USD): $9.95 |
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Title: 10,000 Answers : The Ultimate Trivia Encyclopedia by Stanley Newman, Hal Fittipaldi ISBN: 037571944X Publisher: Random House Reference & Pub. Date: 09 October, 2001 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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