That Book of Perfectly Useless Information

by Mitchell Symons

You hold in your hands the ultimate trivia guide. Organized in thematic sections, That Book covers a world of learning by an author whos developed game shows (he was the creator of the first "fastest-finger" game-show quiz) and was one of the original contributors to the international editions of Trivial Pursuit. Want to know which U.S. president is a descendant of King Edward III? Or which famous people lived to read their own obituaries? That Book covers these inessential facts and more ...

Not since Schotts Original Miscellany has there been such a delectable feast of useless information. That Book is an encyclopedia of honest-to-god facts from the bizarre to the mundane that will have you alternately shaking your head in wonder and holding your sides in laughter. Bathroom -- or bedside -- reading just doesnt get any better than this -- or That.

Genres: Nonfiction, Reference, Humor, Trivia, Comedy, History

371 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2003

Reviews

[J]

All in all, it's fun and informative!

And here's some useless information.....

1. Bridget Fonda's Godfather is Larry Hagman
2. T.S. Eliot, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, & Thomas Hardy married their secretaries.
3. Right before being executed by electric chair, James French said to a newspaper reporter, "I have a terrific headline for you in the morning, 'French Fries.'"
4. The Scarlet Pimpernel was banned by the Nazis, not because it's language or theme, but because Orczy was Jewish.
5. Sonny Bono, Elvis Presley, & Ken Kesey would have turned 70 in 2005.
6. The human sneeze travels at 600 miles per hour.
7. Banging your head against the wall burns 150 calories an hour.

[Kate]

I enjoy trivia. I find a lot of the pop culture stuff in here fairly boring, especially the ones that are formatted like "People who [have a pilot's license/were adopted/were married 8 times]" and then just a long list of names. I actually read the second book first (oops. I've had these books lying around forever and have read them before, so it's not a big deal. Also it's not as though there's any sort of continuity to worry about), and it improves on this aspect.

[Anne Marshall]

I love books of useless information and Mitchell Symons always delivers really interesting information!

[Ian]

I found this to be one of the stupidest but funniest books I've ever read. It will fill you brain with stuff you really don't need, but it is great to know it for some reason.

[Ron]

A compendium of This Book and That Book, it offers exactly what the title suggests. Lists of this and that, a joke or two thrown in here and there, random odd facts about history, science and "The Human Condition." Some random topics: "What they did before becoming famous." "Dumb things people have said," "Engagements that didn't lead to marriage," "Famous people with famous ancestors," "People who were bullied at school," "Born on the same day," "Suffered from asthma", "Had epilepsy," "Avid skiers." These are all famous people, historical personages, celebrities, names most people sort of know. None of this will stay in my head, but it was fun.
Read as bedtime reading, for which it was perfect. Pleasant, oddball stuff, easy to skim through, an amusing oddity here and there.
I will remember mostly that it was written by a Brit, and so many of the "famous" celebrities that he cites are names that are pretty relatively unknown on this side of the pond. I will look some up, just for the hell of it, at some point.

[Sam Link]

I've read much better books of factoids and lists (the Uncle John's Bathroom Readers are far superior). I give it 1.5 stars. There were a couple amusing bits that kept it from being a 1.

[Amy]

Loads of really great, funny, interesting and, best of all, completely random facts and list! The only down side is the fact that is rather out dated now, but of course that's not Symons' fault.:) All in all, a must read for fact-hoarders!

[Holli B]

my-books

[Beth]

Full of trivia about all sorts of things... I love this type of book. Very quick read.

[Eva]

Mostly useless trivia, but an entertaining and interesting read. Hopefully some things will stick in mind to throw around at cocktail parties :)

[Krys]

this book is SO cool!!!!!! my cousins got this for my 11th birthday and I still treasure it 4 years later

[Tiffany Chong]

It was very interesting. Learned all kinds of random things! But some famous people i didn't know, so i had to skip those..

[Douglas Reedy]

A very fun book to read. It is broken down into short sections for people with a short attention span like me.

[Antony Arvind]

Useful in a way