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Quite Interesting Facts #7
2,024 QI Facts To Stop You In Your Tracks
EVERYTHING TO PLAY FOR - A NEW BOOK BY QI ELVES JAMES HARKIN AND ANNA PTASZYNSKI - IS AVAILABLE FOR PREORDER NOW*THE SUNDAY TIMES TOP TEN BESTSELLER* 'I love these books ... the best books ever. Brilliant' Chris EvansA bumper final edition of the most surprising, amazing, and hilarious facts on the planet from the clever-clogs at QI.QI is the smartest comedy show on British television. Here creator John Lloyd and QI Elves James Harkin and Anne Miller bring together 2,024 brain-tickling brand new facts to stop you in your tracks...Did you know Humans glow in the dark. The Pope drives a blue Ford Focus. One of the moons of Uranus is called Margaret. Scottish football referees are sponsored by Specsavers. Dogs visiting US National Parks can be certified as Bark Rangers. The world's smallest computer is smaller than a grain of sand. Candyfloss was invented by a dentist. Nobody knows who named the Earth.
- GenresNonfictionHumorTrivia
469 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 16, 2018
147 people are currently reading
179 people want to read
About the author
John Lloyd
227 books139 followersJohn Hardress Wilfred Lloyd is an English television and radio comedy producer and writer. His television work includes Not the Nine O'Clock News, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Spitting Image, Blackadder and QI. He is currently the presenter of BBC Radio 4's The Museum of Curiosity.
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Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews
December 4, 2020
Great facts, wish I could remember them all. Sad to learn it's the last book they'll do. I've enjoyed the series; quirky, fun, outrageous and sometimes downright gob -smacking facts from the QI elves. Enjoy!
December 17, 2020
This is number seven, the largest and last in the QI Facts Series of books. It follows a popular British television programme called QI.
I am not a fan of the television programme but picked up a copy of this book because it was featured on the Kindle Daily Deal for just 99p. I hoped it would be an interesting read and that I would discover some unusual facts.
I quite liked the format of this book. The 2,024 facts are just a sentence long. If you want background information to a specific fact, then go to the website, put in the page number and a source page will appear. This means the reader can cover all the facts and not be bored with detail they have little or no interest in. I think this was the right publishing decision, otherwise many readers would not finish this book.
I found most of the facts interesting but a lot of them were obvious if you gave the issue a fair amount of thought. Some of the facts were simple trivia and others made me feel “so what?”.
I did not find this book engrossing. Reading these one sentence facts is fine for a handful of pages but I could not engage with this book like I do with crime/mystery/thriller novels. My reading experience was like watching the adverts broadcast on commercial television. When I finished a regular novel, I would read a small number of pages from this book before progressing onto my next novel.
I consider 2,024 QI Facts to be a coffee-table book. It is an OKAY 3 star read that is fine to pick up for around 15 minutes once a week. I feel it is a book to browse rather than read. It will give you the same pleasure of resolving your curiosity as wading through the Argos catalogue. I am glad I got a copy of this book for just 99p but if I had paid the usual price of £4.68p then I would be very disappointed.
Of the 2,024 one sentence facts, here are the 3 facts I found the most interesting and unusual…
Scurryfunge is to tidy up quickly before visitors arrive.
The hands of a human foetus touching the walls of the womb causes the fingerprints to form.
A pluviophile is someone who loves rainy days.
I am not a fan of the television programme but picked up a copy of this book because it was featured on the Kindle Daily Deal for just 99p. I hoped it would be an interesting read and that I would discover some unusual facts.
I quite liked the format of this book. The 2,024 facts are just a sentence long. If you want background information to a specific fact, then go to the website, put in the page number and a source page will appear. This means the reader can cover all the facts and not be bored with detail they have little or no interest in. I think this was the right publishing decision, otherwise many readers would not finish this book.
I found most of the facts interesting but a lot of them were obvious if you gave the issue a fair amount of thought. Some of the facts were simple trivia and others made me feel “so what?”.
I did not find this book engrossing. Reading these one sentence facts is fine for a handful of pages but I could not engage with this book like I do with crime/mystery/thriller novels. My reading experience was like watching the adverts broadcast on commercial television. When I finished a regular novel, I would read a small number of pages from this book before progressing onto my next novel.
I consider 2,024 QI Facts to be a coffee-table book. It is an OKAY 3 star read that is fine to pick up for around 15 minutes once a week. I feel it is a book to browse rather than read. It will give you the same pleasure of resolving your curiosity as wading through the Argos catalogue. I am glad I got a copy of this book for just 99p but if I had paid the usual price of £4.68p then I would be very disappointed.
Of the 2,024 one sentence facts, here are the 3 facts I found the most interesting and unusual…
Scurryfunge is to tidy up quickly before visitors arrive.
The hands of a human foetus touching the walls of the womb causes the fingerprints to form.
A pluviophile is someone who loves rainy days.
December 18, 2022
3.5 stars
This is a collection of interesting short facts. Some are fascinating, some are obvious or not that interesting to me and some were presented in a slightly misleading way. They were not wrong but appeared weird without the appropriate context.
The idea that you can look up more information via their website with links for each fact is great - in theory. From the few facts I wanted to learn more about, most were either hidden behind a paywall or not found under the link. The one article I could read gave the fact quite a different context. That made it a bit disappointing tbh.
Overall, I liked this and I will surely look at this book again, but it is not groundbreaking either.
This is a collection of interesting short facts. Some are fascinating, some are obvious or not that interesting to me and some were presented in a slightly misleading way. They were not wrong but appeared weird without the appropriate context.
The idea that you can look up more information via their website with links for each fact is great - in theory. From the few facts I wanted to learn more about, most were either hidden behind a paywall or not found under the link. The one article I could read gave the fact quite a different context. That made it a bit disappointing tbh.
Overall, I liked this and I will surely look at this book again, but it is not groundbreaking either.
January 26, 2019
I have enjoyed reading these every year. I'll really miss them!
January 12, 2019
2,024 QI Facts To Stop You In Your Tracks by John Lloyd, James Harkin and Anne Miller is the seventh and final book based on the British TV show QI. This is the largest in the series and the completion of the author's seven year plan to create an archive of 10,000 interesting facts.
Here are some of my favourites from this one:
"There are more than 180 tonnes of rubbish on the Moon." Page 78
"A pluviophile is someone who loves rainy days." Page 71
"Hotmail is so named because it contains the letters HTML: it was originally HoTMaiL." Page 136
"People suffering from plague may not enter a library in the UK." Page 139
"The Queen is a fee-paying member of the Jigsaw Puzzle Library." Page 140
"Dinosaurs were living on Earth before Saturn got its rings." Page 225
"The mysterious green code that begins all the Matrix movies is in fact recipes for sushi." Page 238
"When astronaut Sally ride first went into space in 1983, NASA engineers asked if 100 tampons would be enough to last her a week." Page 254
"A zoilist is someone who gets pleasure from finding fault." Page 365
"Crytoscopophilia is the urge to look through the windows of someone's house as you pass by. " Page 365
Once again, I thoroughly enjoyed checking the facts on the QI website by entering the page number and exploring some of the facts further. It's very easy to dip in and out of and made for a pleasant and easy read over the festive season.
This final book in the series is perfect for trivia buffs, inquisitive kids, curious adults and everyone in between.
* Copy courtesy of Allen & Unwin *
Here are some of my favourites from this one:
"There are more than 180 tonnes of rubbish on the Moon." Page 78
"A pluviophile is someone who loves rainy days." Page 71
"Hotmail is so named because it contains the letters HTML: it was originally HoTMaiL." Page 136
"People suffering from plague may not enter a library in the UK." Page 139
"The Queen is a fee-paying member of the Jigsaw Puzzle Library." Page 140
"Dinosaurs were living on Earth before Saturn got its rings." Page 225
"The mysterious green code that begins all the Matrix movies is in fact recipes for sushi." Page 238
"When astronaut Sally ride first went into space in 1983, NASA engineers asked if 100 tampons would be enough to last her a week." Page 254
"A zoilist is someone who gets pleasure from finding fault." Page 365
"Crytoscopophilia is the urge to look through the windows of someone's house as you pass by. " Page 365
Once again, I thoroughly enjoyed checking the facts on the QI website by entering the page number and exploring some of the facts further. It's very easy to dip in and out of and made for a pleasant and easy read over the festive season.
This final book in the series is perfect for trivia buffs, inquisitive kids, curious adults and everyone in between.
* Copy courtesy of Allen & Unwin *
December 26, 2019
Lots of facts, most of which are quite interesting and a few of which do genuinely stop one in one's tracks. Perhaps a better title would be "Around 2000 Quite Interesting Facts of Which About a Dozen Will Stop You In Your Tracks".
Favourite fact: that there is a football team which makes its players read Dostoyevsky.
Favourite fact: that there is a football team which makes its players read Dostoyevsky.
February 4, 2019
How terrible! The last book???? What am I going to do now for my fun facts? Another wonderful trivial facts book by Lloyd with the weird, the funny, the ironic and the interesting. The series will be missed!
August 11, 2024
As always, a great compilation of facts. Sad to see this is their final book in this series. It's been great teeth brushing material. But there's still others in the series I haven't read yet, which I will rectify, when I undoubtedly stumble across them in charity shops.
The missing star is due to some facts being technically true but have been written in a way that makes you think one thing is completely shocking, and it turns out it's true but actually not shocking at all (just worded dramatically for effect)
One was something like "the same pollutants found in petrol are also found in perfume." Which is technically true, but it makes you think that perfume is like putting petrol on your body. When in reality, the ingredients are very diluted, so much so that they can be considered safe. Unlike car fumes.
Overall, if it seems too shocking or unbelievable, it helps to do a bit research. Sometimes facts seemed impossible but they turned out to be true when I looked them up.
Disappointed I will eventually run out of these beauties... But for now I at least have another three or four to discover.
The missing star is due to some facts being technically true but have been written in a way that makes you think one thing is completely shocking, and it turns out it's true but actually not shocking at all (just worded dramatically for effect)
One was something like "the same pollutants found in petrol are also found in perfume." Which is technically true, but it makes you think that perfume is like putting petrol on your body. When in reality, the ingredients are very diluted, so much so that they can be considered safe. Unlike car fumes.
Overall, if it seems too shocking or unbelievable, it helps to do a bit research. Sometimes facts seemed impossible but they turned out to be true when I looked them up.
Disappointed I will eventually run out of these beauties... But for now I at least have another three or four to discover.
August 31, 2021
I'm not a great fan of the programme, it feels too much like having to watch best mates, which you are not one of them, having a good time!
BUT, the books are brilliant, a catalogue of truly amazing facts, some appear unbelievable, but are true, and you can check them out via the QI website for the actual information source.
I read lots of these books late at night, just before slumber, they could keep you up longer - but you would be the better for it.
You will be quoting some of these facts for a long time. e.g. 16 million people in China live in caves and President Xi Jinping lived in cave when he was young!
Give one to a friend that is a member of Qanon for Christmas!
Ian M Pindar (The writing IMP)
BUT, the books are brilliant, a catalogue of truly amazing facts, some appear unbelievable, but are true, and you can check them out via the QI website for the actual information source.
I read lots of these books late at night, just before slumber, they could keep you up longer - but you would be the better for it.
You will be quoting some of these facts for a long time. e.g. 16 million people in China live in caves and President Xi Jinping lived in cave when he was young!
Give one to a friend that is a member of Qanon for Christmas!
Ian M Pindar (The writing IMP)
May 8, 2019
That's that then, the QI Elves have called time on the series with the publication of this title, having reached a total of 10000 facts across, I guess, 6 or 7 books.
I don't know if they felt the format was getting stale or more difficult to research but to me, this one felt as fresh as the first of the series. Given the obscure nature of the facts, if I need another hit, I could just go back and pick up the first one of the series again as there is little chance I would remember even 1% of the facts from that one.
And I'll leave with one fact from the book that I can remember (mainly because it was right at the end of the last book) The Human eye can detect a single photon.
I don't know if they felt the format was getting stale or more difficult to research but to me, this one felt as fresh as the first of the series. Given the obscure nature of the facts, if I need another hit, I could just go back and pick up the first one of the series again as there is little chance I would remember even 1% of the facts from that one.
And I'll leave with one fact from the book that I can remember (mainly because it was right at the end of the last book) The Human eye can detect a single photon.
July 7, 2020
Excellent selection of facts and a handy way of referencing them through the kindle but I found quite a few of the links led to articles behind a paywall or had even expired. One link was a Quora response that had been removed, but I’m not sure Quora can really be an accurate reference!
Still I learned a lot of new things!
Still I learned a lot of new things!
March 31, 2025
Full of fascinating facts!
Another book full of fascinating facts from some of the team behind QI. Some of them I recognise from the programme, but most are new and interesting. I loved the fact there’s a linked website too so you can check out where they got the fact from and read more of the story behind it. Wishing for another book now! Recommended for all QI and fact fans!
Another book full of fascinating facts from some of the team behind QI. Some of them I recognise from the programme, but most are new and interesting. I loved the fact there’s a linked website too so you can check out where they got the fact from and read more of the story behind it. Wishing for another book now! Recommended for all QI and fact fans!
May 6, 2019
The final book in a seven book series that has gifted me with 10,000 amazing facts to share with people who could not care less if they tried. That's what you get, folks. Random trivia and a smile. :) Thanks, QI!
July 1, 2020
Great book filled with fun facts which I’m never going to remember (some have gone in - slugs don’t like myrrh!) This is the seventh book in the series so I’m going to have to read the previous ones. Highly recommended as a fun fact filled read. Now where can I get some myrrh?
February 14, 2021
Like all QI books, this offers an eclectic mix of facts on a very wide range of topics. I didn’t like the format as much as the other QI books on general ignorance. The format here consists of very small facts from the QI Twitter account which isn’t as much fun
November 10, 2018
Excellant as always. Shame it is the last one.
December 9, 2018
2,024 QI Facts
Another great collection of facts from the QI team! Very addictive. I read it in one sitting and would highly recommend. 😃😃😃😃
Another great collection of facts from the QI team! Very addictive. I read it in one sitting and would highly recommend. 😃😃😃😃
January 8, 2019
Brilliant
Absolutely enthralling, hard to put down, loved every bit, every fact has an explanation and you really want to learn them all
Absolutely enthralling, hard to put down, loved every bit, every fact has an explanation and you really want to learn them all
January 16, 2019
The shortest possible game of two player monopoly is four turns?
May 15, 2019
Usual excellence
Usual standard of excellence, particularly like the new link to sources for further testing. Good job chaps, keep it up.
Usual standard of excellence, particularly like the new link to sources for further testing. Good job chaps, keep it up.
May 25, 2020
A strange book to read from cover to cover. Interesting, though.
May 25, 2021
I don't know how you can give this a perfect or awful score. Do you want a book filled with tidbits of trivia with no extra information? That's exactly what this is.
May 9, 2022
Fun, mostly interesting, sometimes amusing but ultimately I'm unlikely to remember many, if any, of the facts.
May 16, 2022
Very helpful for quiz nights
January 17, 2025
QI
If you like the show you’ll like the book :)it’s quite an interesting read nd a very well named book
If you like the show you’ll like the book :)it’s quite an interesting read nd a very well named book
July 2, 2024
Loved loved loved!
I will devour all of these books , they are so much fun!
Some favourite facts….
* the sun generates more energy in one second than has been used during the whole of human history
* perfume is as bad for your health as car exhaust
* 65 million years ago, there were frogs that ate dinosaurs
* there are more than 180 tonnes of rubbish on the moon
I will devour all of these books , they are so much fun!
Some favourite facts….
* the sun generates more energy in one second than has been used during the whole of human history
* perfume is as bad for your health as car exhaust
* 65 million years ago, there were frogs that ate dinosaurs
* there are more than 180 tonnes of rubbish on the moon
March 31, 2023
The last book in the QI series of random facts. if you add all 7 books titles together you come up to 10,000 facts which they thought was a nice place to finish.
It's a shame, but given there's so many quick facts, and the odds are I'll never remember them, I can always start at the beginning again.
These are the real definition of a toilet book. Great for sitting there for a couple of minutes, and it doesn't matter how long you leave between picking them up
It's a shame, but given there's so many quick facts, and the odds are I'll never remember them, I can always start at the beginning again.
These are the real definition of a toilet book. Great for sitting there for a couple of minutes, and it doesn't matter how long you leave between picking them up
September 18, 2021
Just what I expected of the last in this series, but I love it.
Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews