Listverse.com's Epic Book of Mind-Boggling Top 10 Lists: Unbelievable Facts and Astounding Trivia on Movies, Music, Crime, Celebrities, History, and More
CRAZY-BUT-TRUE FACTS, PECULIAR OCCURRENCES, DESPICABLE CRIMES, BIZARRE RECORDS, UNBELIEVABLE CREATURES AND MANY MORE SHOCKING ODDITIES
Delving into the shocking side of pop culture, science and history, Listverse.com's Epic Book of Mind-Boggling Lists offers a wealth of fascinating reading with over 200 lists and more than 2,000 interesting facts,
• Alien Artifacts • Creepy Urban Legends • Bizarre Murder Weapons • Horrific TV Accidents • Outrageous Rock Tales • Twisted Circus Acts • Terrifying Villains • Crazy-but-True Movie Plots • Dirty CIA Operations • Monstrously Evil Babysitters • Strange Hamburger Facts • Animal Freaks of Nature • Mind-Blowing Technologies
Jamie Frater started his professional life as a software developer until he abandoned it to do postgraduate studies in opera at the Royal College of Music in London. Due to an insatiable desire to share fascinating, obscure, and bizarre facts, he created Listverse and left the singing for the shower.
He currently divides his time between managing and editing for Listverse, learning about all things obscure, and trying to find time for a social life.
An extraordinary amount of information in this book! If you like quirky, kooky, interesting facts and crazy stories about just about everything, this book is for you! This is a book to keep around and reference when you want to astound a friend or start a conversation! I received a free copy of this book via Goodreads First Reads.
This book was a Christmas gift from my grandson. He knew I had a curious mind that stored a lot of trivia, and he thought his grandfather would enjoy this book. He was right. It's not the kind of book you read straight through, cover to cover (though I can imagine people who would do just that). I'll explore the Table of Contents, find a subject that interests me, and read the lists contained therein. You can choose from categories like "Conspiracy Theories," "Facts and Misconceptions," Pop Culture," Movies and TV," "Music," "History," "Crime," Religion," "Food," and "Technology and Space," to name a few. The author, Jamie Frater, runs a website called, Listverse.com. As best as I can tell, if you have a personal list of 10 of anything, you can submit it to Mr. Frater. I am not sure by what criteria he chooses to publish lists. My guess is that it is more important that the lists be interesting than true. I say that based on some of the lists in the Religion category (my forte) have inaccuracies in them, and for someone to list about the "Top 10 Unpleasant Facts about John Lennon," is that #5: Talentless sounds more like opinion than fact. But hey, I read it; which is probably the ultimate goal of all the lists in this book. Read this book and you will laugh, scratch your head, be grossed out, learn something, and be entertained. Not a bad way to spend your free time.
This book would be described more accurately as Jamie Frater's "Book of Mind-Boggling Misinformation, Unsubstantiated BS, Falacies and Other Right-Wing Falsehoods"
You should read his site's most recent and horribly-written lists of far-right hate speech. It appears the existance of this site is funded by the American Republican political party. As if our good planet needs more sites such as these!
Perfect bathroom reading! Each section is perfect for a short read and I keep one in my one and the guest powder room. The topics are most certainly conversation starters and I think I could actually make a little money on Jeopardy! now.
I loved it! This book touches every interest from music & movies to crime & science to history & outright oddities. There's a little something for everyone here - I read the entire book and my wife is now reading only the parts she's interested in. Some of the info you've heard before, but some will be new.
I understand the comparisons to Uncle John's Bathroom Reader, but, beyond the fact that both are trivia books, there is not much the same. This is just what the title says it is...a book of top ten lists. A lot of lists. Each item on each list has an explanation, sometimes just a paragraph, so you learn something about the history or significance of the entry.
One of the best lists was "10 unpleasant fact about John Lennon." It was eye-opening in its revelation that he was not really who the media portrays him to be. You may think you know him, but when all 10 items are put together, well...maybe you don't.
It was okay. Although I did appreciate the more recent information (there are a lot of factoids in here from 2008 right up to the publishing date), I can't really say that I learned anything new. It's also clear to see the major influence that "The Book of Lists" has had on these types of books (there is a subtle flavor of "Bathroom Reader" in here, too), although very few have manage to live up to the original. Frater does have a definite bias which I won't detail too much here, which could be a little grating sometimes while reading the book. Overall, it's not bad. I recommend reading the sections about government/political conspiracy theories, as well as speculations that turned out to be true, as well as the sections about strange foods. I'd give it as a gift to someone at my job who I was cool with.
I was entertained by this book. Had a lot of interesting stories in it. Now I won't say that every story was the whole truth and nothing but the truth, but they held my interest. I knew a few of the stories presented beforehand, but they were funny to read. My family says I am a junkie for bizarre and holy c**p kind of stories. I don't like to get into too much detail as my family says I will say too much about what is to be found in the pages of this book. I will say that this not a quick reading I mean 717 pages is not something you read in one setting and besides it is broken down into sections to be read over several days. If you like trivia and the bizarre then give this book a try just don't do it all at once. I would say take it in small doses.
This was pretty good. I enjoy listicles anyways so I thought an entire book of them would make me happy. The ones in the beginning categories were great (despite some obvious factual errors and political bias) but as the book went on I felt the lists began to get repetitive and really random and jumbled like they were in no obvious order. In addition, many of the lists didn't match the categories. I liked it but I got bored with it by the end. So I started to skim.
Exactly what I was hoping for! Lots of fun facts - conspiracy theories, creepy places, spooky ghost tales, weird inventions, unsolved mysteries... if it's slightly wacky, slightly disturbing, less-than-useful but entirely entertaining it's in this book! (: And it's definitely a book to leave out as a conversation starter when you're done reading through it yourself. Win!
I started out reading through this whole thing, but eventually found myself having to abandon that somewhat lofty goal.
A few of the contributors seemed alright, with a nicely droll, tongue-in-cheek approach to these matters. But a lot of them proved to be the usual bunch of Net-rats. People who have probably been in and out of hospitals for years now (due to carpal tunnel from too many mouse clicks).
Thus this "epic" salmagundi displayed all the usual symptoms of the modern-day fussbudget.
For example, overuse of the word "creepy." Personally, my belief is that you can't get much creepier than people who dub most everything they encounter "creepy" and "disturbing"--assuming that they are beyond the age of 12 of course.
Not to mention "iconic" (and I heartily wish that nobody ever would mention that term again).
Naturally, many an item proved to be "racist." Or "sexist." Or "incredibly racist" (or "incredibly sexist"). All of which goes to demonstrate once again that hindsight is the better part of valor (or the easier part of it anyway).
Incidentally, "racist" has become like "communist" was back in the 1950s. Anyone accused of it has no recourse but to loudly proclaim their innocence, and indeed their outrage at the mere suggestion. And perhaps point an accusing finger at someone else. It's one of those words which instantly chills the dialogue (and I don't mean "chill" in the modern sense either). It's a favorite device of those who hate "haters" with no sense of irony whatsoever, and whose assumed courtesies only serve to stultify true tolerance.
A lot of this too was awfully airheaded--particularly the Science items ("Time actually goes slower when you go faster!--isn't that cool?").
At any rate, the absolute nadir of this whole business was reached with someone named Edward Benjamin and his "Top 10 Unpleasant Facts about John Lennon." One of these being that John was "talentless." lol Yep, listening to Eddie prate on after his fashion began to remind me of the Chicken Hawk attempting to lasso Foghorn Leghorn yet again ("Boy--I say, Boy--you're beginning to bother me"). :)
You won't be able to put this down. In every area the expertise is impressive, and this book touches many disciplines. The title calls it mind-boggling. It certainly is.