True Facts That Sound Like Bull$#*t: Sports: 500 Game-Changing Facts from Out of Left Field

by Shane Carley

Poodle clipping was an Olympic sport? Bull$#*t! Discover 500 fascinating facts about sports that are sure to make your next trivia event a slam dunk.

Grab your team and put on your game it’s True Facts That Sound Like Bull$#* Sports! This book isn't just a game-changer; it's a game-winner, packed with 500 jaw-dropping facts that will make you question the very fabric of sports reality. Including facts

The sport of wife-carrying originated in Finland and has since become an international competition, challenging couples to navigate obstacle courses with the husband carrying the wife on his back.Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen once had a pancake cook-off to see who made them better.The ancient Greeks, founders of the Olympics, competed in the nude, giving new meaning to the term "gymnasium," derived from the Greek word "gymnos," meaning naked.The sport of table tennis evolved from a Victorian parlor game known as "whiff-whaff," enjoyed as a post-dinner entertainment by the upper class in 19th-century England.The first game of basketball was played with a soccer ball and two peach baskets as goals, resulting in a final score of 1-0.From the wacky to the downright unbelievable, these sports facts will have you exclaiming "No way!" Gather your fellow sports enthusiasts, dive into the pages of this factual treasure trove, and emerge as the undisputed champion of the ultimate sports trivia showdown!

Genres: Sports, Nonfiction

257 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 12, 2024

Reviews

[Mr. Book · Rating 2 out of 5]

You can also see this review, along with others I have written, at my blog, Mr. Book's Book Reviews.

Thank you, Cedar Mills Press, for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Mr. Book just finished True Facts That Sound Like Bull$#*t: Sports, by Shane Carley.

This book was published in November 2024.

I find that books like this have the potential to go in one of two directions: either they can very interesting or disappointing. Unfortunately, there was too much of the latter in this one. I found that, while facts were interesting, there were too many that weren’t. I also found several questionable ones in the baseball section. I don’t know other sports as well to be able to vouch for the credibility there, but those entries made me question the entire book.

I give this book a C.

Goodreads and NetGalley require grades on a 1-5 star system. In my personal conversion system, a C equates to 2 stars. (A or A+: 5 stars, B+: 4 stars, B: 3 stars, C: 2 stars, D or F: 1 star).

This review has been posted at NetGalley, Goodreads and my blog, Mr. Book’s Book Reviews

Mr. Book finished reading this on November 20, 2024.

[Theediscerning · Rating 3 out of 5]

A perfectly acceptable sports trivia book, as long as you're aware the great bulk of it is the North American sports scene – your hockeys, your baseball, basketball, plastic rugby… Only reluctantly, it seems, does it cover the rest of the world, principally with football and the Olympics, and that's where the errors lie – I hate to break it to the book, but Arthur Wharton played for Rotherham, not Rotterdam. Only 340 miles off by modern roads – but 140 of those are an international ferry.

There is a distinct woke bent to this as well, with more gender-swapping than we'd have expected to find in a similar volume just ten years ago. But more importantly, while I don't know the world featured in many of these chapters, I do think there is enough variety, interest and comprehensiveness here to make sure many browsers will find factoids that are new to them. Some trivia buffs may not thank the chapters for all reverting to a 'true or false?' format for their closing pages, but the content is still there, and this is not the typical page-wasting, half-empty pre-Christmas gift book buy. Three and a half stars.

[Flor Arasco · Rating 3 out of 5]

The drawings and format of the book were funny and refreshing. I really really liked the True or False portion. Still, I went into the book thinking this would be a fun trivia-worthy book of facts, but evidently it was not for a casual sports fan like me.

The ones I know the rules, teams and players already, I found myself having a great time while reading the facts and assessing whether I knew about that or it was a surprise. But on those sports I’m not into, it felt repetitive and dragging, just because I wasn’t connecting it with past experiences and information on my mind so it was textbook-y.

Still, I enjoyed many of the facts and didn’t know several of them, but I can’t say that I would buy this book for myself. It is a great gift for the right person though, just not up my alley

Thanks to Cider Mill Press for sending me an ARC of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own

[Melanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

True Facts That Sound Like Bull$#*t: Sports is a collection of fun facts about sports. Separated by each sport, there are facts about hockey, baseball, soccer, the Olympics and other miscellaneous facts. It's fun and entertaining.

[peter lang · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun

It's a quick funny book that at times seem to incredible to believe. Great for sports trivia contest at the bar!