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Constable Colgan's Connect-O-Scope
For many years we've known about Six Degrees of Separation: the idea that every person on the planet can be linked by a chain of just six individuals. Now, former Scotland Yard criminal intelligence officer Stevyn Colgan has designed a paper-based wireless device to do the same thing with facts – a kind of Six Degrees of Information.
Called the Connectoscope, it will teach you, among many other things, what humans taste like to robots, why there were bluebirds over the White Cliffs of Dover, how a tree became the New York Stock Exchange, why Bob the Builder has more fingers In Japan than in the UK, who the patron saint of medical records is, and how to make Superman gay.
Colgan sets out to prove that everything can be connected. As this dizzyingly fact-filled book shows, the fun lies in figuring out how.
Called the Connectoscope, it will teach you, among many other things, what humans taste like to robots, why there were bluebirds over the White Cliffs of Dover, how a tree became the New York Stock Exchange, why Bob the Builder has more fingers In Japan than in the UK, who the patron saint of medical records is, and how to make Superman gay.
Colgan sets out to prove that everything can be connected. As this dizzyingly fact-filled book shows, the fun lies in figuring out how.
- GenresNonfiction
205 pages, Hardcover
Published January 1, 2013
5 people are currently reading
44 people want to read
About the author
Stevyn Colgan
17 books60 followersAuthor, illustrator, songwriter and public speaker. 'QI' elf, 'Museum of Curiosity' goblin, Cornish Pisky and tea aficionado. Ex-chef, ex-copper, occasionally X-rated.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
September 26, 2020
Excellent. A really enjoyable read.
July 1, 2014
This book is fantastic! I kept it on my shelves so I could take it away on holiday to read and I sorely regret not reading it sooner!
Basically the premise is that all facts and trivia are connected. Kinda like the Kevin Bacon Game where each actor is connected to Bacon by some small link, this book has facts connected to each other in a circle so the fact you begin with is also the fact you end with. Clever, right?
Well that's just the beginning! Not only are the facts very intelligent and probably things only super nerds would know, they are presented in a really fun and accessible way that really sticks the information in your mind. I was constantly annoying my boyfriend while I was reading it (and he was reading a very serious book about the Spanish Civil War at the time) by leaning over and telling him, whilst laughing, about something I'd just learned. I got the impression he was less than impressed :/
Written by a QI elf, you'd expect nothing less than an entertaining but insightful look at apparently meaningless trivia and this book delivers that in spades.
If you liked The Etymologicon then you definitely will love this too.
Basically the premise is that all facts and trivia are connected. Kinda like the Kevin Bacon Game where each actor is connected to Bacon by some small link, this book has facts connected to each other in a circle so the fact you begin with is also the fact you end with. Clever, right?
Well that's just the beginning! Not only are the facts very intelligent and probably things only super nerds would know, they are presented in a really fun and accessible way that really sticks the information in your mind. I was constantly annoying my boyfriend while I was reading it (and he was reading a very serious book about the Spanish Civil War at the time) by leaning over and telling him, whilst laughing, about something I'd just learned. I got the impression he was less than impressed :/
Written by a QI elf, you'd expect nothing less than an entertaining but insightful look at apparently meaningless trivia and this book delivers that in spades.
If you liked The Etymologicon then you definitely will love this too.
June 1, 2017
Disclaimer: While I aim to be unbiased, Stevyn Colgan is an author friend of mine.
This book was a lot of fun, although it must have been irritating for everyone around me. It’s packed full of fun facts, and they’re so interesting that you can’t stop yourself from sharing them with your friends and family. That’s probably partly due to the fact that Colgan is one of the elves on Q.I.
In this book, he builds on the work that he did in Joined-Up Thinking by carrying out a number of investigations in which he tries to connect disparate subjects through a shared set of facts. It’s hard to explain, perhaps, but it all hangs on the whole six degrees of separation thing – except Colgan applies it to facts and information instead of to movie actors and Kevin Bacon.
Overall then, this is a fantastic book if you’re into facts and stuff. You’ll learn all sorts of weird stuff and you’ll discover that the world that we live in is more interconnected than you might previously have thought. It’ll blow your mind a few times. Read it.
This book was a lot of fun, although it must have been irritating for everyone around me. It’s packed full of fun facts, and they’re so interesting that you can’t stop yourself from sharing them with your friends and family. That’s probably partly due to the fact that Colgan is one of the elves on Q.I.
In this book, he builds on the work that he did in Joined-Up Thinking by carrying out a number of investigations in which he tries to connect disparate subjects through a shared set of facts. It’s hard to explain, perhaps, but it all hangs on the whole six degrees of separation thing – except Colgan applies it to facts and information instead of to movie actors and Kevin Bacon.
Overall then, this is a fantastic book if you’re into facts and stuff. You’ll learn all sorts of weird stuff and you’ll discover that the world that we live in is more interconnected than you might previously have thought. It’ll blow your mind a few times. Read it.
November 15, 2016
I consider myself a sponge for trivia and facts so the idea that everything connects to everything else fascinates me. This book did not disappoint in any way - except perhaps it ended far to soon for my liking. It is humorous and interesting in equal measures and leads the reader on a magical mystery tour of connectedness. If you enjoy interesting facts, webs of intriguing connections and humorous narration then this is a book you will certainly enjoy. How could I possibly award it anything less than 5 stars when it has provided so much fun and interesting discussion between me and my friends?
December 29, 2013
This is a crazy and highly informative look at how random facts can be linked together to form a comical mass. Steven Colgan is one of the QI elves so expect the kind of tangent's found in the QI books and show. It's a really hard book to review, but is very very funny and packed full of fascinating little nuggets.
December 21, 2015
Firstly a very interesting concept. I was always fascinated by the connect rounds in quizzes, this one takes this concept to a book level. Each line is filled with fabulous facts cleverly linked with the next fact to form a fact chain. Must read for any quizzer and anyone who enjoys facts and information.
December 14, 2013
So many things that made me think "really? can that be true?", and had to tell everyone around me! Sadly, unlike Stevyn I don't have the capacity to remember them! A great book from a wonderfully creative publisher!
January 24, 2014
This is one for the trivia kings. Stevyn Colgan manages to stitch all sorts of seemingly unrelated facts together. A great holiday read or a pick up and put down sort of book.
April 7, 2014
Good toilet book. If you enjoy QI you'll like this.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews