Interesting Stories For Curious People: A Collection of Fascinating Stories About History, Science, Pop Culture and Just About Anything Else You Can Think of

by Bill O'Neill

Want to impress your buddies at the bar?

Need to think of something interesting to do at the next family gathering?

Want to learn a bunch of random facts about history, science, true crime, and the paranormal?

Pick up Interesting Stories for Curious People, the ultimate guide book for a plethora of interesting facts about a whole bunch of several different topics. A quick read packed with information from cover to cover.

Here you will find out:

How did a Frenchman successfully use a spontaneous combustion defense during a murder trial? How did a German teenager help end the Cold War? Why did some really smart guys think foam houses would be the wave of the future? What is a chupacabra and why are there two of them? Did Cleopatra really die from a snake bite? You'll be glued to the pages of this book reading interesting fact after interesting fact as Interesting Stories for Curious People brings you the in-depth knowledge of some things you may have heard about and always wondered, but now will learn the truth. You'll finally be able to separate fact from fiction and will be surprised to learn that some of the things you've been told, even by your teachers, was just plain wrong!


Whether you are a trivia maven or just a person who likes to learn new things, you'll learn something new and find yourself entertained as you discover some of the most fascination criminals, ghost stories, strange habits of historical figures, and just weird things that are a part of our world. So open this book and your mind and see another side of things that you may not know existed.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Science, Short Stories, Reference, Humor, Historical

236 pages, Paperback

Published March 17, 2020

Reviews

[Bhavdeep Sethi · Rating 1 out of 5]

Collection of buzzfeed articles. Skip.

[Shel Holmes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Needed photos

I would have given this 5 stars but I spent more than half the reading time searching for pictures of the different subjects

[Mandell Degerness · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read for bedtime. The short takes (most are 2 pages) means you never feel you can't stop and sleep. Probably works well in the bathroom as well.

[Esther · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting Stories For Curious People was an extremely boring read and a pure waste of time. Many of the stories were about old TV shows or people that I had never heard of. He often referred to sayings I was unfamiliar with and made a lot of assumptions about knowledge I didn't have. All the more so, the stories were never facts, rather him stating an anomaly and offering some opinions on it. So many of the chapters ended with "so we will never know" which only added to my frustration.

However, there were still a couple of interesting facts but not enough for me to recommend the book. I hope to spare you the read and summarize anything that was even remotely interesting. Here:

1. No one really believed the Earth was flat during Columbus' expedition, rather they thought the journey to the Americas would be too costly (p.8)
2. Over 700,000 people are killed a year by mosquitos and 100 killed by elephants (p.10)
3. A former professional wrestler was elected as governor of Minnesota (p.17)
4. Nepal is the only country with a non- quadrilateral shaped flag (p.19)
5. Brain freeze is caused by a constriction of the capillaries due to a sudden exposure to cold and then an immediate exposure to warmth which causes the blood vessels to re-expand. If you are experiencing a brain freeze , put your tongue on the top of your mouth. (p.21)
6. On November 15, 1915 there was a reported light seen in the sky that caused European soldiers to drop their weapons (P. 31)
7. Some people in the United States are trying to move boundaries around and create new states (p. 38)
8. Body Integrity Dysphoria is a disease where people feel like certain limbs do not belong on their bodies and has led to many people amputating their own limbs. There are only about 300 known cases in history (p.45)
9. Canadian citizen Vincent Weighing Li murdered someone and sliced him up. He was found not guilty and placed in a mental institution and is now walking around freely. (p73) There is another story about a man in Japan who murdered someone and ate her due to strong feelings of cannibalism and was also sent to a mental institution and is now walking freely. (p 108)
10. There is a jellyfish that is immortal and doesn't age(p.120)
11. Witch Hazel is not named after the word "witch" but rather the word "wych" which means "bend" (p.132)


That's everything.

I also cannot verify any of this since there is no bibliography and the author provides zero citations or sources. Disappointed.

[Kerri · Rating 2 out of 5]

A better title would’ve been Marginally Interesting Stories For People Who’ve Lived Under a Rock, or maybe Tidbits of Stories that Relay Very Little Actual Information. Like many other readers, I was underwhelmed by the content, as most stories had little more than a page or two dedicated to them. I found myself being annoyed at the lack of real detail, and some photos would’ve gone a long way to improving the stories. The author seemed somewhat preoccupied with the grisly and macabre, relaying multiple stories of gruesome murders, and yes, cannibalism. This book isn’t one I’d recommend for children, despite the cartoony cover.

Some of the stories are anything but interesting, and some are barely even stories. Don’t even get me started on how many times the author finishes with “So I guess we’ll never know”, or some variation. Add to that the misspellings, and typographical errors, and I was seriously underwhelmed. I don’t think I’ll be reading any more of this author’s work.

[Kevin Rodriguez · Rating 2 out of 5]

Do yourself a favor and read something else.

Interesting stories for people who have never read a story. Most of these were not even mildly interesting. The grammar mistakes were abundant; did this book have an editor? Did the author even read through this once before publishing it?

There were a ton of fact-based-opinions. And so many "You probably know"s which I honestly knew very few of.

Where is your works cited? Are any of these stories true? These "stories" just sound like random Wikipedia articles. If you want to read this book, just go to Wikipedia and hit the "random" button.

[Jenn Adams · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a very thoughtful Christmas gift (from someone who likely won't see this review...) and for that I am grateful. But I am also grateful to be done. If you have no trivia knowledge, you might find something fun in here. If you already know that male seahorses give birth, you can probably skip this one. Also, lots of urban legends and *two* "here's a brutal murder, can you believe this person is now out in society via the insanity defense???" stories.

[Ron · Rating 2 out of 5]

“I had one qualification when I took the job: if they ever wrote a segment whereby Colonel Klink would come out the hero, I would leave the [Hogan's Hero] show.” Werner Klemperer

The title says it. A hodge podge of very short articles about almost everything odd and curious. Cotton candy for the brain. In many cases O’Neill identifies issues without resolving them.

Writers, even historians who claim to be objective, still have opinions, which can sometimes turn into an agenda. Even ancient writers were guilty of having agendas—maybe even more so.

Well intended, just … useless. The quotations cited are as good as it gets.

“Had I been ordered to bomb Seattle or Los Angeles in order to end the war, I wouldn’t have hesitated. So I perfectly understand why the Americans bombed Nagasaki and Hiroshima.” Saburo Sakai, Japanese Navy ace, nicknamed the Sky Samuri during World War Two

[Hubdiggity · Rating 2 out of 5]

If the quality of this writing truly reflects Bill O'Neill's writing skills, I am horrified. If the style is intentionally dumbed down for the average human, then I am disappointed in humanity. And most frighteningly, I've read numerous reviews that actually use the phrase "well-written." Well-written like a C+ high school student? Well-written like someone who puts a typo in the title of their own upcoming book? (No joke, my copy teases the free-gift of "Moive Trivia.") While a handful of the topics were interesting, like the real-life basis of Robinson Crusoe, the stories are more a launching point for me to go look it up and get the real truth than actual useful stories unto themselves. They are neither factual nor comically slanted; they are just a sloppy hybrid of the two like that unfunny kid who keeps trying to tell jokes but doesn't seem to grasp what qualifies as humor. Redeeming quality: short... and the off-hand usage of the phrase "dropping a deuce" as if it should pass as legitimate prose.

[Jamie Bee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Yes, Some Interesting Stories

This book was, indeed, filled with a variety of interesting stories from ancient times to modern ones. Each snippet is very short and certainly reflects the opinion of the author. Unfortunately, the book was not organized in any way. The book is one unconnected story after another. For instance, there are stories about ancient times, stories about sports, stories about business leaders, etc., all thrown together haphazardly. It would have been nice to see the stories grouped together in some fashion. I also would have liked to have seen a reference list at the back to see where he got some of his information from. I had heard some stories before, but this was still a good read. There were issues with grammar, punctuation, and usage. Comma splices, in particular, seemed to happen too frequently. But in general, I found this to be amusing.

I received a free copy of this book, but that did not affect my review.

[Etienne · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not a great book. You might learn some funny facts here and there but most of it is closer to assumption than facts and there is also a good bunch of cocky humor which I'm not the biggest fan of. Not entirely bad, but not really worth it!

[Xantd999 · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a Curious person , which i think we all are by nature as human beings, this book has a lot of stories to interest almost anyone. From real Life superheros to putting some info behind deja vu. So given that this has many stories over many different topics i give this book a 4 star rating.

Now to name some things i enjoyed about this book more than other similar books. Most of these kind of books i have read before have had their topics somewhat organized so i could simply jump straight to what i liked but that doesn't help me "expand my horizons" so i stayed away from these kind of books for a bit until i got this. Now this book does not have neatly defined chapters or organized sections and topics so that you get a bit of everything when reading. And that is great because something can catch your eye and you could just end up reading these stories for HOURS! and i mean it.

Now for something i didn't quite like about this book. Now keep in mind this isn't something major but it mattered to me. If you have read my other reviews on other books you might know that i am into Cars. No not the movie but the actual things the sports/supercars of the world and i found a very upsetting lack of these stories about them and possible interesting stories about them in this book. Which was upsetting to me because i was looking forward to finding a bit about them but i had nothing. Maybe another book by Bill O'Neill has some facts and stories about cars but this book's lack of car stories made it lose a star in its rating. But other than that this book is amazing and i highly recommend it to many people if not everyone.

[Jen Surname · Rating 1 out of 5]

Dull, dull, dull.
So dull in fact that I quit a quarter of the way through. It’s terribly written drivel, and incredibly US centric. No fun was had in the reading of this book. I’ve read far more interesting stories on Reddit.

[Gary Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you're a bathroom reader, or want a quick read before bed. This is your jam. The content was a bit like a Buzzfeed.

[Nathan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some of the short stories were interesting, others weren't. The book was a bit distracting though with how it switched randomly between topics.

[J.J. Lair · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quick info blurbs about history, science, pop culture, and animals
Most blurbs are about two pages so you can read it whenever you’re free. The Halley-Bop cult. Chucapobra story. All fascinating.

[Laura Egendorf · Rating 3 out of 5]

There were a lot of interesting facts in this book. However, too many of the stories ended with speculation instead of a conclusion. I felt the book could have done with a little more editing.

[Jennifer · Rating 2 out of 5]

Recommended: ehhhhh
Not for a tone that makes sense for a target audience, not for people annoyed by assumptions, has a lot of repetitive styling, and about half the topics were actually interesting/unusual (to me)


Thoughts:
This was kind of a weird experience to read. There were a lot of ways this felt like it was meant for a young audience, maybe middle grade. The title and cover alone definitely give that impression, but then there are stories that start with "The main character's trouble begins when his wife gives him a blowjob while he's driving." Ok, probably not intended as middle-grade. But I can sum up the weirdness of this in a few quotes.

Who says reading can't be fun?!

You've probably heard the term 'viscosity' before in relation to the oil in your car, but it actually refers to the 'thickness' of any liquid.

I'm sure you've seen pictures of a seahorse somewhere and know that it's actually a type of fish with a horse-like head.

"No doubt you are familiar with the term 'Romance Language'..."

Alright, let's look at these.

Issue #1: I got tired of him assuming things about me. These are just three examples, but this was a common way of introducing new information that was used. No doubt you know, Surely you've heard, I'm sure you've seen... It was mostly that it was repetitive, but I also *hate* when a person presumes to know me so well and that's how this whole book felt. Plus if I was a person thinking "what the fuck is a Romance Language" then I would feel stupid for not knowing a thing he apparently thought was obvious.

Issue #2: Sometimes the things he explains DO feel so obvious that I'm almost insulted that he's explaining it to me. Dude really just told me a seahorse isn't *actually* a horse. NO SHIT DUDE. This felt like mansplaining in text. Which leads me to...

Issue #3: Who the fuck is the target audience of this book?? Because a lot of things would make me assume children: the title, the cover, the introduction where he exclaims that first quote in the list, the fact the he explains that a seahorse isn't actually a horse. I think these are all things that you would not typically do with an adult. It just felt fucking weird. But then other things were so far outside the reach out a child -- blowjobs, oil viscosity in your car, Romance languages, and a ton of other "I'm sure you've heard" assumptions -- that there's no way it was intended for kids.

Look, the content was mostly interesting, but the bizarre presentation made me have some kind of cognitive dissonance while reading this. Dude either thinks I'm a child, or he's INCREDIBLY condescending, I don't know.

Don't think that list is over though!

Issue #4: When was this book written? Because with lines like "Besides never wearing a helmet (because real men don't wear helmets)" and a Start Trek reference that "If you don't know what I'm talking about (don't worry, it just means you don't live in your mom's basement)" I just -- what the fuck? There were these strange judgy, backwards, toxic-minded things thrown in that I really hated. And no, they didn't have a jokey sarcastic vibe and felt uncomfortably like genuine opinions.

It was published in 2020, by the way. Not 1960s as you might have thought by dude's old as fuck attitude.

So overall, would I recommend this? Ehhh... not really? The writing was painful in some ways as noted above, and it was probably a 50/50 split between things that were genuinely interesting and unknown and things that felt like "duh, I learned that in 5th grade."

[D. Darko · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed that, easy reading and learnt a few things I can drop into light conversation. Some of it is dark (which is great, especially the crime stuff), and other things not so much, like sports and film facts. Overall, enjoyable and recommended for people who want to just tune out.

[Barry · Rating 1 out of 5]

I got this as a gift and as someone interested in weird and wonderful stories I thought I'd have a bit of fun with this and maybe pick up an interesting anecdote or two.

Well, it certainly isn't 'QI'!

The book is a selection of anecdotes or stories from history, science, sports, politics, the supernatural, crime and whatever the author threw in. Sadly, although there were a couple of ideas I may explore later I found the book quite boring, uninteresting and in places inaccurate or weighted with such a world view as to present a biased perspective as 'fact'. Each anecdote is given a couple of pages so the stories are quite superficial and I'd say I knew most of the book prior to reading so I am not sure how 'interesting' the average reader would find this.

The book is firmly aimed at an American audience and whilst there is nothing wrong with that, much of the content focuses on American TV shows and sports which may be interesting for some more than others. What I did find troubling was that I think the book assumes the reader is stupid.

An anecdote or two I may research further would have given this an extra star, but what dragged it down was the white, patriarchal, conservative perspective that soaks the book. I picked up some racist attitudes early in the text and as I read more I picked up more and more. There is a level of staggering ignorance when talking about people and cultures which is non-American, and certain values are assumed to be universal. It did make me think that it is no wonder Americans appear so ill-informed about the world when they read stuff like this. Because each anecdote only has a page or three there is no room to nuance, so when things are reported at face level the subtext is often completely ignored or avoided, but I guess that's a problem with telling a story in a page and not really understanding the significance.

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite random, but interesting! You'll learn new stuff!

Very random assortment of short explanations on things from coins to people to how phrases were coined. You could read 1 "chapter" a day as a coffee table book w this. There doesn't seem to be any order to the stories. I enjoyed learning a few things while others were kind of a "meh who cares, not me" story but I did enjoy the quippy narrative and wide spread of random stories

[William · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ok so here is my advice. If you come across this book for free somewhere pick it up, enjoy an hour or two of reading fun facts and then leave it for someone else to find and read for free. But don’t pay money for information largely available for free on the internet…sorry Bill. Also Bill if you read this comment, you might want to make sure whatever company your using to publish your books manages to spell Leonard Nimoy’s name correctly. He’s an American icon after all.

[Pat Eversole · Rating 1 out of 5]

Grammar errors all over! ATM MACHINE? Wow!

[Peter Peters · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some good facts interesting read

[Divij Sood · Rating 1 out of 5]

Terrible book. You’re better off clicking on the ‘random article’ link on Wikipedia. Can’t believe I paid for this.

[Rob Green · Rating 1 out of 5]

Awfully written, terrible waste of time. I kept reading hoping it would get better but gave up about ¼ way in as it was just more of the same obvious drivel. Sorry.

[Matt Boak · Rating 1 out of 5]

Mainly a collection of rumours and urban legends with few facts / conclusions. Not worth the time, ditched it half way through

[Connor Hudson · Rating 1 out of 5]

Unfortunately it was just boring. The facts were either quite common and well known like how male seahorses carry their babies, or a really niche fact about baseball or an 80s American sitcom.

[Joseph Inzirillo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just a good collection of interesting stories that will make you say, “Huh. I never knew that.”

[Steef · Rating 1 out of 5]

Fucking hell.

I'm most probably not the intended audience for this book, but I'm going to have a go at it anyway, because damn. This must be one of the worst written books I have ever read.

This book was gifted to me and very early on into reading, it was obvious how bad it was, but I kept on reading because what even is this crap?

Basically, these stories could be a direct transcription of your drunk uncle rambling insultingly along beside the campfire. And seemingly, no further editing was needed.

The overall use of language here is vague and narrates on some urban myths (most of which have long been debunked), some supposed (historical or scientific) misconceptions (which they rarely are), or just some old fishwife stories without ever really getting to a point. The stories are overly fact free and, worst of all, most end with a sentence of conclusion that comes out of nowhere, trying to make a joke or some quasi-philosophical takeaway that makes you go: 'Huh? Where the hell did that come from?'.
If I were of a certain generation, I'd use the word cringe here.

What didn't help for me: the writer seemed to have never for a second considered someone who is not from the US reading his book. I have no idea how or why this book has found its way into European bookstores, but it is teeth-hurtingly America-centric, which makes it nigh unreadable to others. I am not familiar with baseball statistics, most tv shows or commercials, nor do they interest me. Many 'stories' start with a statement like 'There's a good chance in your life...' ...no!

And please believe me that it gets even worse when the subject matter deals with things outside the US of A: anything before the year 1800 is 'Medieval Europe' and people from 30,000 years ago are cavemen eating mammoths. Turkish kings are being compared to American rappers and the fact that there exists such a thing as the Romanian language is being used for a series of excruciating stereotypes about Italians, the French and Slavic peoples.

Towards the end, the print of the book itself is falling apart: it's fucking alternating from sans-serif to serif and back again. It confirms me in my belief that there was never a living editor contributing to this book.

A quick glance online shows that there are many, many more similar books from the same author that all seem like a buzzfeed ripoff collection, pooped out in a hurry. No fucking way.

1/2 star