Book of Answers: The New York Public Library Telephone Reference Service's Most Unusual and Entertaining Questions

by Barbara Berliner

How many of these questions can you answer without calling the New York Public Library's Telephone Reference Service?
Who really designed the American flag?
How hot is the sun's surface?
How does quicksand work?
When was the Ark of the Covenant last seen?
Who sat at the Algonquin Round Table?
Where does the name "The Grateful Dead" come from?
Why is Christmas abbreviated as Xmas?
Can any creatures besides humans get a sunburn?
How many muscles does it take to smile? To frown?
Why are rabbits' feet considered good luck?
You could, of course, do all the painstaking research yourself. Or you could pick up the phone and call the resourceful, erudite, quick-witted librarians of the New York Public Library's Telephone Reference Service, Tel Ref, for whom questions like these are all in a day's work. For the past twenty years, Tel Ref has met the information needs of a public as diverse as the subjects in the Library's catalog, and now they've compiled their most interesting, unusual, and most-often-asked queries into The Book of Answers -- a delight for browsers, a treasure trove of fascinating information, and the perfect companion to The New York Public Library Desk Reference.

Genres: Nonfiction, Reference, Humor, Trivia

311 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1990

Reviews

[Spuddie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a compilation of questions on various topics posed to the telephone reference line at the NY public library. It was published over 2 decades ago, so some parts (chapters on statistics and pop culture, for example) are somewhat dated, but there's a lot of interesting stuff too. Organized neatly into chapters such as Firsts (Who/what was the first _________?) Myth and Legends, Trademarks, Who Was Who? etc, and with each Q&A separated by double spacing, it was easy to read small chunks at a time without getting lost--which was important to me as this was my (ahem) 'bathroom book' for a couple of months. LOL Enjoyable, entertaining and informative--although an updated version would be a boon!

[Christie · Rating 2 out of 5]

First Sentence: "The Book of Answers is the product of 6.2 million questions."

While there is some interesting stuff in here, the majority of the information is now outdated. I was also hoping this would be more about the funny, random things patrons ask and less of a factbook. Learned some good stuff, though.

[Nena · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting, but quite outdated by now.

[Mariah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very outdated now but still interesting to read today.

[Grant Baugh · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fun book, but at least the version I read is fairly outdated due to being published in 1990. While many answers are still valid, there are some, such as population and world record answers, are no longer correct. Well written and well organized, this book still works as a source to all sorts of answers to just about any question.

[Amanda · Rating 2 out of 5]

It wasn't what I was expecting. I thought it was going to focus on questions that were unusual. The questions were grouped according to topic and only the last section (only a few pages) had unusual questions.

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very interesting and informative book! It was the perfect book to keep me occupied while waiting in the car or reading on break at work. I would love to see a more updated version come out because some of the references (especially about the World Trade Center) were outdated.

[Tori]

2007

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting collection of questions and answers from the telephone reference desk. Good study guide for the Jeopardy! test.

[Rangifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Got this book for Christmas was I was ~10. Still refer to it for fun sometimes. :-)