Boyd's Curiosity Shop

by L.M. Boyd

Gathers unusual and little known facts about animals, language, geography, food, the weather, phobias, games, statistics, history, and social customs

Genres: Trivia, Nonfiction

254 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1989

Reviews

[HeavyReader · Rating 2 out of 5]

I picked this book up at a thrift store recently. It has a copyright of 1986, so a lot of the information it includes is way outdated. I guess old Boyd had a trivia column that was syndicated in 360 newspapers across the nation. These tidbits of info were first included in his column. Somethings included here are interesting, but there's a lot of old stuff to wade through.

[J. Benjamin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is out of print but you can find it on Amazon.com for under a buck. L.M. Boyd used to write for The Union, which was a smaller newspaper that contended for readership and eventually lost to The Sacramento Bee. People would write him, asking questions of almost any subject. Here's an example:
Q: Do you believe, as does Muhammad Ali, that he was the greatest fighter of all time?
A: No, sir, a Greek boxer named Theogenes was tougher. Around 900 B.C., Theogenes fought, bare-fisted, 1425 opponents, winning all bouts, without draws, without split decisions, without TKOs or even KOs, as we know them. Theogenes just flat out beat everybody he fought - to death.

Before there was Google...there was L.M. Boyd.
If you like fact books like Uncle John's Bathroom Reader, Boyd's Curiosity Shop is for you.

[Elryxe Detristeange · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really love this book filled with facts, useless informations, trivia, ephemera, and all other tidbits that makes life interesting. Ideal for browsing and reading when you have nothing interesting to do!