Oddly Informative: Matters of fact that amaze and delight

by Tom Standage

The more we ponder, the odder the world can seem.

How do footballers get their shirt numbers?

Why does having daughters make couples more likely to divorce?

How do you move a horse from one country to another?

What counts as a journey into space?

The keen minds at The Economist contemplate all these questions and more in their quest for the globe's most extraordinary quandaries and conundrums, with bizarre facts and headscratchers that show the world is even stranger than we might have thought. From plant-based milk and supermoons to the next Dalai Lama and what really happened at the storming of the Bastille, this collection of the oddest and most mindboggling explanations will amaze and delight in equal measure.

Genres: Audiobook

313 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 20, 2022

About the author

Tom Standage is a journalist and author from England. A graduate of Oxford University, he has worked as a science and technology writer for The Guardian, as the business editor at The Economist, has been published in Wired, The New York Times, and The Daily Telegraph, and has published five books, including The Victorian Internet[1][2]. This book explores the historical development of the telegraph and the social ramifications associated with this development. Tom Standage also proposes that if Victorians from the 1800s were to be around today, they would be far from impressed with present Internet capabilities. This is because the development of the telegraph essentially mirrored the development of the Internet. Both technologies can be seen to have largely impacted the speed and transmission of information and both were widely criticised by some, due to their perceived negative consequences.

Standage has taken part in various key media events. He recently participated in ictQATAR's "Media Connected" forum for journalists in Qatar, where he discussed the concept of technology journalism around the world and how technology is expected to keep transforming the world of journalism in the Middle East and all around the world.

-Wikipedia

Reviews

[Caleb · Rating 2 out of 5]

I keep a running list of books to read. I've been doing it for 15 years now. It's a good way to track what you want to read and not forget. The list numbers into the 300s now but I've not read all of them. I think the first book on the list still isn't checked off. Sometimes I go back a few pages (and years) and read some of the older books on the list. I often find gems that I missed until now. Every once in a while, though, it's a miss. This was one. The Economist in 2021-22 had expanded data explanations in the back of the magazine. It was a fun setup once a week. I didn't realize this book was more often than not just an expansion of them. Moreover, it's now 2025. Much has changed in the world since then so reading recycled, out-of-date data from 2021-22 was at times boring and at other moments felt obsolete. Oh well. On to the next one.

[Chazel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Book contains random, interesting facts as per the title. I don't remember 90% of them though.

[Minh-Tien Tran · Rating 3 out of 5]

A collection of stories/news from "The economist".
They always have good puns and word plays.

[camryne · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.25 stars

[Nick · Rating 3 out of 5]

If the subreddit /r/mildlyinteresting were a book.

[Alastair Hill · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting collection of short articles on a range of topics, whilst they work as introductory information to topics it could have been more effective with suggested reading or ways to follow up,

[Ian D · Rating 3 out of 5]

- Πόσο περισσότερο βρετανικό μπορείς να κάνεις το βιβλίο; ρώτησε ο εκδότης.
- Ναι, απάντησε ο Tom Standage κι έβαλε κεφάλαιο για τις Ιπποδρομίες του Άσκοτ και δύο για το κρίκετ.
Τα υπόλοιπα είναι κάποιες όντως ενδιαφέρουσες πληροφορίες για πολλές εκφάνσεις της καθημερινότητας (ή και όχι). Oddly informative αλλά και oddly satisfying.

3/5