1,001 Facts that Will Scare the S#*t Out of You: The Ultimate Bathroom Reader

by Cary McNeal

Chocolate contains the alkaloid theobromine, which in high doses can be toxic to humans, and in even small amounts can kill dogs, parrots, horses, and cats.This means that despite its name, the Kit-Kat candy bar is not a recommended snack for your kitty-cat. I wonder how many cats have died because of this confusion. The most germ-laden place on your toilet isn't the seat or even the bowl--it's the handle.The Don't flush. Let the next guy worry about it.There are "just the facts"--and then there are just the facts that will frighten the bejeezus out of you. And thanks to this little gem of a bathroom book, you'll never look at the world the same way again, without, er, dry heaving a little bit.From the sneaky fish that can swim up our genitals to the E. coli bacteria lurking in the very water we drink, disturbing phenomena are everywhere we turn. Educational, entertaining, and undeniably horrifying, this book isn't guaranteed to help you, um, go to the bathroom, but it's certain to make your time there more...informed.

Genres: Nonfiction, Humor, Reference, Trivia, Ebooks, Science, Health

431 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 18, 2010

Reviews

[Katherine · Rating 1 out of 5]

The facts themselves are generally boring, certainly not overly interesting. The worst part about the book are the author's comments - sophomoric at BEST, and typically insensitive, jumping the border into insulting and demeaning on all sorts if subjects.

Picking up women during mammograms, using gender dysmorphism as the butt of a joke...

These are just examples that I encountered while reading the first 10% of the book.

Simply stated, put it down and walk away quickly.

[Peter Topside · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is part 4 of my 10-part series on bathroom books. Overall, it was a very OK experience for me. I think that 1001 facts was way way too many to cover. Especially when the book never changed formats and there was nothing to break any of it up, it just all kind of blended together and resulted me becoming very fatigued early on. All of the facts were definitely scary and unsettling, and there was a little tidbit of humor after each one, however, by the end, I felt more downtrodden than upbeat. If this were much shorter and had a better balance between the humorous aspects and the real life portions, this would’ve been a much better reading experience. Don’t get me wrong though. I thought it was very creative and interesting but it just missed a lot of opportunities to be more palatable.

[David Brzezinski · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a pretty decent book. Given in short hits, it provides a lot of quick facts. The only thing that keeps this book from being better is the author's need to follow each factoid with a snarky remark. I'm not sure if he intended these remarks to be a tension breaker from some of the more stunning facts or not, but most of them come off as unfunny at best, and insulting at worst (one such remark implies that people who claim to see ghosts are insane). I personally stopped reading these "funny" remarks regularly half way through the book, picking up on the rest here and there. Thankfully, the book chose to put the commentary in italics so that it becomes easier to bypass them. Do rRead the book for the facts contained within it, just don't bother with the commentary the author insists on adding to it.

[Aliaa · Rating 2 out of 5]

the facts themselves are somewhat enjoyable. what I absolutely loathed was the author's "jokes" if you can even call them this. they weren't funny at all, and some of them were actually pretty offensive.
that's all I got to say.

[Madlen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Many of the facts presented in this book are genuinely interesting. Also, the author added sources for further research.

But he totally fucked up with his "jokes". The first pages were genuine toilet humor (I had to check the book's cover multiple times because I wasn't sure if this was just another of these toilet books for your guests to read...). Many jokes are just plain stupid, many are sexist (and - hey, wouldn't be a problem for me if they were actually good) and racist.
He's making fun of children dying from diseases, psychological diseases, poverty, social injustice... But in a way that would get nobody, not even the most insensitive person, to laugh. I didn't always manage to skip his jokes and often when I didn't, I could only imagine how unlikable the author must be as a person. He sounds like the kind of guy who laughs at you after you told him your child's lethal diagnosis.

The author did a great work collecting these facts but his book is hardly readable with the bullshit of his own he's added to the facts. Half of the book isn't worth your time at all.

[demondelusions · Rating 2 out of 5]

The facts were interesting but the little quips at the end of each one was so cringe. I couldn't read past like 5%

[Ștefania Ioana Chiorean · Rating 4 out of 5]

O carte usor de citit, cu m ulte lucruri interesante ce o sa te starneasca sa cauti maim ulte detalii. Autorul adauga la fiecare lucru prezentat o fraza comica ceea ce da un aer mai relaxat lecturi.

Printre favoritele mele:

755. Pe Pamant exista circa 10 cvintilioane de insecte adica 1.5 miliarde pentru fiecare om
Un miliard si jumatate de gandaci? Cam cat Windows Vista


716. Regele Ioan al Angliei a murit in 1216, din cauza ca a mancat prea mult.
Nu prea era altceva de facut in 1216.

805. In Franta este interzis sa numesti un porc “Napoleon”.
Francezii detesta redundanta.


6. Un sfert de kilogram de unt de arahide poate contine pana la 150 de fragmente de insecte si 5 peri de roatoare.
“Pana la” 150! Asta inseamna ca ar putea fi doar 120-130. Ce usurare! Aproape ca mi se facuse scarba pret de o secunda.

423. Fumatul pasiv poate produce fecte adverse immediate asupra sistemului cardiovascular, afectand functionarea normala a inimii si a sistemului vasculr si crescand riscul de atac de cord.
Da, dar fumatorii pasivi fumeaza moca Economisesc o gramada de bani.

298, O chinezoaica de 92 de ani a dat nastere recen unui bebelus de 60 de ani.
Nici un bebelus nu vrea sa iasa din uter, dar unii sunt putin mai incapatanati decat altii. A si apropo, au!

[Eleanor · Rating 3 out of 5]

Based on the facts that Keryn read aloud to us, while traveling to camp in the jimez mountains, I was not scared shitless. Some facts were interesting, a few made me raise an eyebrow, and many I already knew (ah, going to school for a degree like pharmacy will give you plenty of exposure to weird facts about chemistry, body functions, the chemistry of body functions, weird diseases, drug, sex, etc..) But if i saw this book on sale at a used book shop, i would consider parking it next to the toilet for friends and family to peruse while sitting on my porcelain throne.

[Matevž · Rating 2 out of 5]

Somehow I'm not impressed with this collection of facts. First of all - some of them are well known and hardly surprising, while others are so obscure that there would be nothing wrong if they were just left out.

The major thing that bothered me were the "attempts" at humor at the end of each fact, and they really really irked me. Some of them are, sorry to say, at a completely infantile level and therefore quite off-putting.

[Dea Cothran · Rating 5 out of 5]

I do not recommend that any hypochondriacs should read this.

[Marnanel · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nice idea, poor execution. The facts are often interesting; his asides in italics are less so. Many of them are off-colour, but this is the most egregious I found:

"677: The drug thalidomide is infamous for its link to birth defects. Though never proven to be safe, the drug was a popular sleeping aid and anti-nausea pill in the 1950s, taken by thousands of pregnant women around the world. From 1956 to 1962, almost 10,000 women who were administered thalidomide delivered babies with phocomelia, a congenital disorder that causes children to be born with extremely short or missing limbs. I'm guessing their nausea and insomnia
returned after those births."

It didn't seem worth finishing the book after that.

[Cindy · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a fun book! Everything you never wanted to know about medical procedures, crime, creepy-crawlies, history, food processing and pretty much anything else you can think of. And for every fact -- which is duly documented and referenced BTW -- author Cary McNeal adds a little nugget of his own, all clever and some outright hilarious. I found myself fascinted by the facts in the book while at the same time I was LMAO.

[Ștefania Ioana Chiorean · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very light reading book presenting interesting facts regarding the environment, history and technology and many other domains. Structured in 20 chapters with 50 facts in each (last one has 51) it is a easy reading. The comic paragraphs added by the author make it funnier and not just a 'did you know' sentences.

[Fred Forbes · Rating 4 out of 5]

As it mentions, it is designed to be a bathroom reader, but many of the items are so much fun you will certainly be plowing through it in other locations. Note these truly are "facts" as the source of the material is given along with a funny (often) observation but some fall short. Hey, there are a 1,000 so I am glad it was not my job to come up with the witticisms!

[Cindy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't actually read this in the bathroom but it was still good.

[annie ❦]

read this in my school library and it really was scaring the s*** outta me

[Aly is so frigging bored · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5*

It was very funny and informative :D

[Wildmaven · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting facts, poor jokes

The author felt compelled to add an attempt at humor after each entry. Though his words are italicized, it’s easy to think that it’s part of the fact if you’re not careful, since they’re part of the same paragraph. In addition, many of the jokes are in extremely poor taste. An entry about slaves brought to America was followed with, “oops, our bad.” The author is also obsessed with fat jokes and male anatomy jokes. Had the author not included his “jokes”, this book would’ve been enjoyable.

[Ryan · Rating 3 out of 5]

The facts were interesting. There were a lot of gross ones I didn’t care for. The jokes were annoying so I didn’t read them. I wish there were a few more elaborate details on the facts as many sounded like generalizations. I also read this 13 years post publication so a lot of the stats have shifted one way or the other. Either way, you might learn something for this and as a result- I recommend it.

[Charles Miller · Rating 3 out of 5]

Birthday gift from my daughter. Some of the "funny" comments were a bit too much (and I'm not easily offended), and it was a REALLY lame ending. Just feels like it runs out of pages. I expected a more clever finale. But it is definitely what it claims to be: a book you can put down and pick up whenever and not lose track. And wild, interesting stuff.

[Sharon · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the wide range of subjects and facts that this book provided...but i was really put off by the sometimes tasteless crude jokes listed after each fact. The book would have been so much better without any of it.

[Ash · Rating 2 out of 5]

Honestly, this mostly gets the stars for actually citing sources for its facts.

The author's idea of humor, attached to each fact, leaves much to be desired.

And it definitely did not scare the shit out of me.

[Charles Moore · Rating 5 out of 5]

This a type of book that you can go to any page to read. This book is just filled with facts that you can check on any page. And you don’t have to read it like a book (which I love). Perfect 5⭐️ because a can go to any page I want and see what facts are on that page.

[Jared Knowles · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not great.

[Dan Stern · Rating 2 out of 5]

A read to pick up and put down but I find the authors comments unneccessary and distracting. Put it in your bathroom if you like the Bathroom Readers, the facts are disgusting

[Lisa · Rating 2 out of 5]

Bad jokes, ok trivia

[Ann · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5 stars

[Theresa Abney · Rating 3 out of 5]

1,001 things that I liked: Facts

1,001 things that I disliked: the author's commentary

[Teri · Rating 2 out of 5]

There is a rape joke in this book and it just ruined it for me.

[Bonnie Kisutcza-Goldstein · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of weird facts