1001 Things You Didn't Know You Wanted To Know

by Anna Mantzaris

including Annoying Cliches, National mottos, Names that became words, Da Vinci's Inventions.

Genres: Nonfiction, Reference, Trivia

159 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2006

Reviews

[Katia M. Davis]

This book should be retitled "1001 things I already knew half of anyway". This is nearly a useless book. Heavily US oriented, it contains a lot of information that most people would consider general knowledge such as:

- The US didn't enter WWI until 1917.
- Elephants are the largest land mammal.
- D-Day was 6/6/44.
- Ronald Reagan was the oldest president to take office.
- Shooting stars aren't really stars (really? I'd be worried if they were).
- The eye of a hurricane is the centre of the storm.

And the list goes on.

Read this book if you are an idiot or have been living under a rock your entire life and have never gathered any general knowledge. I read it in about an hour because I thought it might contain some interesting info, it didn't.

[Mehdi Annassi]

a bit disapointed because a lot of "things i didn't know " would be only interesting for people who live in the US , and wouldn't really care to know them.

if you are not from the US you will get what i mean as soon as you start reading it.

[Michael Hinsley]

I'm such a sucker for these things. Not bad. When I go to Purgatory, first thing, they will deny me all lists, listings, and listables!

[Daniel Currie]

I think the biggest problem with this book is they put an extra 0 in the title.

[Nada Al-Karmi]

This book did contain some interesting facts and information. However, it was very obvious that it was intended for an American audience as most of the information was about things in the U.S., which made the book more irritating than interesting, for me.

[Lauren Cornelio]

It was okay - nothing special or anything that really blew my mind. But it was fun and I like how it was divided into different topics. It was good for just picking up here and there for a light read.

[melydia]

Most of the factoids in this book I already knew, and a fair majority of the rest were things I didn't care if I knew, but I did indeed find a solid handful of items I didn't know I wanted to know, so I'll call this one a win. I like weird little trivia books. And while I was sad to learn that Crayola retired "raw umber" in 1990, I was amused to learn that both leotard and doily are named after men, and that there is no documentation of when people first started wearing hats. Sure, this isn't the sort of book you'd want to sit down and read straight through (which, um, I guess is exactly what I did), but it's reasonably entertaining to page through from time to time.

[Heather]

I was standing in Barnes and Noble just looking through it and the more I learned about odd things the more I wanted it. It's really awesome. I love the randomness of it.

[Apzmarshl]

Great book to have at a party for intellectual introverts! You can just feed each other facts all night. Loved it:)

[Sarah Jowett]

A good book of misc facts ranging from movies and music to science and education. But... most of the facts are things I already knew but maybe I read too many "fact" books, ha.

[Melissa]

this is a really interesting book.it tells you stuff that you never knew about and now you do.

[Andy]

It was very interesting, and a quick read. However, some of the facts I could have cared less to know about. It is a time killer, and one that I could finish quickly.

[Victoria Shepherd]

Fun compilation of random trivia. Didn't know that talcum killed ants!

[MissyLynne]

Somewhat interesting but some of the information I already knew.

[Abraham Ray]

Nice book of random facts.

[Abraham Ray]

I registered a book at BookCrossing.com!
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/13538661

[Renegade Librarian Extraordinaire]

A fun read.

[Ahmet]

Turns out I already know most of it. And the ones I don't know aren't fun

[Adrienne]

Educational but not boring. It's a great way to pass the time.