5 People Who Died During Sex - And 100 Other Terribly Tasteless Lists

by Karl Shaw

All in perfectly bad taste

Prepare to be amazed, appalled, disgusted, and hugely entertained by this compendium of indelicate oddities. Nothing is too inane, too insane, too bizarre, or too distasteful for this incredible, seemingly impossible, but absolutely true collection of facts from across the ages and around the world.

Did you know…

…that Pope Benedict XII was such a hardened boozer that he inspired the expression “drunk as a pope”? (From “10 Historic Drunks”)

…that as a special honeymoon treat, Prince Charles read Princess Diana passages from the works of Carl Jung and Laurens van der Post? (From “History’s 10 Least Romantic Honeymoons”)

…that the best-dressed gentlemen in medieval England exposed their genitals below a short-fitting tunic? (From “History’s 10 Greatest Fashion Mistakes”)

…that Alfred Hitchcock suffered from ovophobia—fear of eggs? (From “10 Phobias of the Famous”)

…that King Louis XIV only took three baths in his lifetime, each of them under protest?
(From “10 Great Unwashed”)

…that in 1930, Sears customers became enraged when the catalog was first printed on glossy, non-absorbent paper?
(From “12 Magical Moments in Toilet Paper History”)

Genres: Nonfiction, Humor, History, Trivia, Reference, Science, Death

306 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

Karl Shaw writes humour and popular non-fiction titles including the New York Timss bestsellers Royal Babylon and 5 People Who Died During Sex. His most recent is the acclaimed historic true crime thriller The Killing of Lord George: A Tale of Murder and Deceit in Edwardian England.

Reviews

[Sara · Rating 1 out of 5]

This could have been a great book if the author bothered to fact-check. There are numerous stories included that if you know the history behind them, would know they are rumors or completely false. Just stay away from this book.

[Jeremy · Rating 3 out of 5]

My father-in-law, Tom, gave this book to me. Yep. That alone should tell you how cool he is. Very cool. Anyway, it was sort of meant as payment for kidnapping my wife and children over Spring Break and ferreting them up to Utah to see a new grand baby. It is one of those classic lists books. Very funny. I kept it in the bathroom--is there a better place for a book of lists? It reminds me of that classic line in "Big Chill" wherein it is argued that the length of each article in People Magazine is timed for the length of the average bowel movement. I would put any book of lists in this same category. It is laugh-out-loud funny. Don't ask to borrow my copy--it has found a permanent home in the bathroom, of course.

[Steph · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love fun facts, but I found 3 mistakes and wrong dates and I'm sure if I knew more ancient history I would find more. I love the subject matter but it leads me to doubt the vailidity of the whole book.

[Melanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some funny facts in the book were just not that amusing to me, however, the information about past rulers was amazing. The ammount of research Shaw put into the royalty sections must have been extremely extensive! I walked away from the book still laughing about their crazy, eccentric behavior. It makes you wonder if it isn't inevitable for people of great power to either be or turn somewhat crazy!

[Meaghan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Inaccurate in places

I saw some things written in this book that I knew to be untrue, and inevitably I wondered if I could believe any of the rest of the material in this book.

[Jessica · Rating 1 out of 5]

I would not say that fact checking was high on the list of priorities in writing this book. There are many, many errors which are easily found with a quick perusal of wikipedia. This is not to say that there aren't errors on Wikipedia, but there seems to have been some willful ignoring of evidence when the rumor was more salacious.

For instance, explorer James Cook was indeed killed on a voyage. But he was not, as the book claimed "served at a Hawaiian buffet". To quote the wikipedia page: (warning, gross!)

"The esteem in which he was nevertheless held by the Hawaiians resulted in his body being retained by their chiefs and elders. Following the practice of the time, Cook's body underwent funerary rituals similar to those reserved for the chiefs and highest elders of the society. The body was disemboweled, baked to facilitate removal of the flesh, and the bones were carefully cleaned for preservation as religious icons in a fashion somewhat reminiscent of the treatment of European saints in the Middle Ages. Some of Cook's remains, disclosing some corroborating evidence to this effect, were eventually returned to the British for a formal burial at sea following an appeal by the crew."

I didn't have to work hard to turn up not only the Wiki, but dozens of academic sources for the same information. And really, this story is shocking on its own, though I suppose it doesn't have the shock value of cannibalism.

Yes, yes, I'm getting awfully worked up about a book with the above title. But the fact checking is just lazy, and as it is I spend too much of my life correcting the people who believe these stories without question.

I would not recommend this book at all. Even as a light book of lists it fails.

[Pamela(AllHoney) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lists of different, totally useless and mostly tasteless trivia. For those people sitting on the toilet with nothing better to do than to pick up a book and flip through the pages to learn a much of senseless facts.

Like I said, a great bathroom read.

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

The most bizarre book of lists. I found it to be very entertaining.

[Stan · Rating 3 out of 5]

A great book to read on a long airplane flight, actually a series of short artical about the weird and unusual.

[Dionna Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Outstanding, very interesting and completely hilarious.

[Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars for interesting, funny nonsense to spout out in the lunch room!

[Mikhail Kalashnikov · Rating 3 out of 5]

Книжка ровно про то, что обещано в заголовке. Есть интересные моменты; раздражает, что тут много историй, давно признанных фейками и ошибок в фактах. Некоторые истории встречаются только тут, не знаю, насколько им можно доверять; видел, что в отзывах советуют относиться к книге как к чтению для туалета и в этом плане она точно на высоте.

Цитаты:

«Mussolini adopted the Roman-style straight-arm fascist salute because he couldn’t bear the idea of shaking hands with people.»

«“Papa Doc” also hit upon a way of literally bleeding his own people dry by rounding up thousands of Haitians and marching them to the nearest blood bank, where each was given $1.80—about a week’s wages—in exchange for a quart of blood. The blood was then sold to the United States, where it was resold for transfusion at $22 a quart.»

«Having to go to war without France is sort of like having to go deer hunting without an accordion.»

«When asked by a reporter why he never married, Tesla replied, “I do not think you can name many great inventions that have been made by married men.”

«1880: Publishers of The Old Farmer’s Almanac improve circulation by punching a hole in the corner of their respected organ so it can be hung on a nail in the outhouse.

1930: Sears customers are enraged when their catalog, another popular outhouse choice, is produced on glossy, nonabsorbent paper.»

[Susan Olesen · Rating 3 out of 5]

For those of us who grew up memorizing The Book of Lists (3 volumes), this is another great book for us trivia freaks.

If you're someone who learns best from short bits of information with a humorous or lurid twist, this is a perfect book for you.

Shaw goes through chapter after chapter of simple lists of 10 entries (Phobias of the Famous, Most Dangerous Music Bands, Hollywood Suicide Shootings, Great Sporting Moments, etc) that cover personal oddities of mostly historical figures (Stalin was only 5'4", Ramses II had more than 160 children, Mae West wore false nipples), as well as religious, legal, and death trivia.

It's fast and entertaining, and if you're not careful, you might learn something. But be careful - in at least two places, dates don't match up and were impossible to exist. And there are two entries that I swear are word for word from The Book of Lists.

[Courtney · Rating 2 out of 5]

I thought this book was going to be fun, and it kind of was. But when, early on, he contradicted himself between one chapter and the next and then in the last chapter posted an urban legend as fact, I pretty much walked away from this book thinking, "Well, good thing I bought it used for cheap, because I'd be TICKED if I'd paid more than a few bucks for this." I don't doubt that quite a lot of the book is probably correct. However, not being widely and deeply versed in historical trivia worldwide, I'm mostly not in a position to say WHAT is correct. If you haven't already read this book, give it a pass.

[Jason · Rating 1 out of 5]

I thought this book would be entertaining and funny. However, I found after looking up several of the trivia mentioned, the author embellished an awful lot for some of the lists. Like there are several mentions of how people died, but when you cross-reference online you can't find how the person died at all.

What's disturbing is a lot of the lists have mentions of serial killer and cannibals.

At least it says in the title "terribly tasteless lists".

[Cassandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Saw it on the library shelves and picked it up, literally took about 30 minutes to read so it was fast but funny. I don't know how much of it is actually true but if half is correct then I'm not shocked that the weirdest people in our world are those in the upper class who have too much time and money on their hands.

[Emily · Rating 1 out of 5]

Although entertaining, the lack of resources supporting the claims made in this book is troubling. I investigated a few of the entries and found obvious and conflicting evidence. I decided not to finish it as a result. The presentation of these "facts" is irresponsible. I was glad to see that several other readers came to the same conclusion.

[Amanda · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love "Did you know" books and received this one as a gift. It was interesting, although I'm not sure it was entirely factual as I found some errors. Which is disappointing. But that aside, it was interesting and a short read.

[Sandy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting lists, but could have used more fact checking. I found a couple of blatant errors with names and dates. Plus, when I attempted to google some of the more interesting "facts" I quickly learned that they were embellished or merely unsubstantiated rumor.

[Graham Clayton · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is a very good read but wasn't well researched in many places. An example is Del Shannon - Shaw claimed that he killed himself after recording 'Hats off to Larry". That was his second big hit from 1962, and he killed himself in 1990.

[Dr. Madeline · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love lists, but this wasn’t the best list book so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[Michelle Nakagawa · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't expect much and didn't receive much. I was still hopeful though, but was let down. A bunch of weird lists, just a few of which were interesting. I didn't even finish the book.

[Rebecca · Rating 5 out of 5]

Highly recommend, though you may want to keep this one to grown-ups only.

[Jordan Moore Howard · Rating 1 out of 5]

I don't mind poor taste, but I do mind historical inaccuracies.

[Mark Suffern · Rating 3 out of 5]

Factually,maybe not perfect but it made me laugh.

[Bruno · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun book to read but also to take it lightly due to the lack of fact checks.

[Storm · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun book, definitely laughed out loud at a few of the lists. I would recommend if you want something silly.

[Arthur · Rating 1 out of 5]

A great title to draw in readers for a list of...gossip?
Lots of inaccuracies or s t r e t c h i n g of facts to add scandal or titillation.

DNF

[Diego · Rating 2 out of 5]

Lots of mistakes. Lots.

[Kay Ellicott · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ok, all of this book was interesting, but then, I love trivia. Some of it was eye opening, some was unexpected, some unusual, some just plain weird. Totally unexpected though was the list for 10 shortest rulers in history. I have always heard that Napoleon was so short, well, he was basically a pipsqueek. I was really surprised to see him as the tallest person on that list! It's not all just people who died during sex ( though that is in there). Lots of unexpected lists. Read this and I am sure you will enjoy it.