Why You Shouldn't Eat Your Boogers and Other Useless or Gross Information About Your Body

Why

by Francesca Gould

Why You Shouldn't Eat Your Boogers offers a cornucopia of body trivia that will have readers cringing with delight! You can read it on the subway, in the bathroom, or even in a heavy downpour! For contrary to popular belief, according to this book, you cannot catch cold by standing in the rain!

Genres: Nonfiction, Humor, Science, Medicine, Health, Reference, Trivia

240 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2008

About the author

Francesca Gould is a lecturer in anatomy and physiology, and has always had a fascination for the more unusual and gruesome aspects of the human body.
She is the author of the New York Times (extended list) bestseller Why You Shouldn’t Eat Your Boogers and Other Useless or Gross Information About Your Body and Why Fish Fart and Other Useless or Gross Information About the World.
She lives in Bristol, England.

Reviews

[Jen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cute book. Lots of interesting tidbits that I didn't know. Good "potty" book.

[Jaime M · Rating 5 out of 5]

Super fun to go through. I’m sure my teenagers will find it interesting.

[Nicholas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Funny little book about body concerns and fluids, etc. It has a bunch of tidbits about customs and attitudes and funky pieces of information about so much random stuff throughout history...almost like a fun and light biology and anthropology lesson. However, it does contain a bunch of stuff that a lot of people wouldn't like to think about or ever know. I was laughing and kinda grossed out at the same time. Pretty neat!

[Sidra · Rating 2 out of 5]

sadly I didn't find it interesting. most of the facts were common enough, and most of them appeared in the book why you should store your farts in a jar. boring!

[Karla Villanueva · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is quite interesting, the cover caught my attention because it looked a little silly. I thought that it was going to be a story about a kid explaining why you shouldnt eat your boogers but there are actual facts as to why you shouldnt do things. I think this book would be for a third or fourth grader, or even as an opener for science to get the students attention and maybe expand base on these facts.

[Hester · Rating 5 out of 5]

Its always useful to have books such as this one on hand, you never know when you're going to have to Slumdog Millionaire it.

Now when your kids start picking their noses and eating it, you'll be able to explain why they should never pick it, flick it or eat it, instead of giving the standard reason of "it's gross!".

The other interesting facts you'll learn:

Old timey birth control methods
The youngest woman to get pregnant was a 5 year old, ewwww
The Bristol Stool Chart
How the Victorians were so repulsed by masturbation that they invented some truly barbaric devices to keep their sons from enjoying the wonders of self love.
That cysts can contain hair, teeth, bones, tails and dusty bunnies in them. Just kidding about the dust bunnies, or am I?

This is a truly disgusting, educational and fun book.

[Cheryl · Rating 3 out of 5]

Museums are dangerous places for bookworms. On my recent visit to the Mutter Museum in Philadelphia (where medical specimens of all sorts are displayed), I purchased several related books, including this one. It was a decent read for picking up when I only had a few moments here and there. You do need a high tolerance for gross topics, as the title indicates, but it is full of informative trivia you will likely never need to know.

[Dana Robinson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Somewhat entertaining for the grade school set (and their parents), but includes some dubious and incorrect information. Romans barfing to eat more food is an exaggeration at best, for example. Also, your fingers don't wrinkle from being waterlogged - it's a neurological phenomenon.

[Cris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Why You Shouldn’t Eat Your Boogers

This book isn’t for kids…you might want to share some stories with your kids but this one isn’t for the young! I found many of the essays fascinating! How do babies get their fingerprints? I think this is my favorite essay!

[Dee brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

amusing! entertaining! Something the kids would get a kick out of reading. Get a copy for their summer reading list.

[David Wean · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bathroom book. Some mildly interesting tidbits.

[Mojieanna Deriquito · Rating 5 out of 5]

Easy read with great information regarding the human body.

[Taylor Carson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting facts about the human body, old wives tales, and bits of history.
It can be fascinating and funny at times.
Another book I read aloud to Ammon, pieces at a time.

[Jo · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a neat book full of interesting little facts. I used it as a bathroom reader and it was perfect.

[Bailee · Rating 4 out of 5]

honestly learned a lot more from this book than I thought I would

[ravhen · Rating 3 out of 5]

There's no plot or any story progression but it was immensely engaging! I think I learned more reading this than with all my science classes combined. The only thing I didn't like was the lack of conjunctive adverbs to make effective transitions between the paragraphs.

[Heather · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked this book up a few years ago, just because the title amused me. I read it last night because my sister was working on her computer and I wanted something to keep me occupied, so that I wouldn't bother her. I was really glad that I decided to finally read it. It's full of, as the title says, useless and sometimes gross information. Some of it was really funny - Like King George talking to a tree in Windsor Park because he thought it was the King of Prussia. Some of it was just really interesting - like the information on the different parasites we might encounter in our daily lives - everything from harmless eyelash mites to brain-eating amoebas! Each of the little articles was short, so it was a really quick read.

[Marie · Rating 3 out of 5]

A weird and interesting quick read!

[Maria (Ri) · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a great book for its kind, much better than, say Why Do Men Have Nipples, for example. The question and answer format makes for easy reading in little spurts which is nice for my tired mommy brain! I mostly found the information accurate and interesting. As a naturopathic doctor, I was especially fascinated to learn that bowel movements are 2/3 bacteria and only 1/3 fiber, cholesterol, bile salts, food bits, etc! That is A LOT of bacterial material! My only quibble is with the title. The author cites a doctor who actually encourages eating boogers and his argument is more compelling than the author's opinion on why not to!

[Learning Community Learning Community · Rating 1 out of 5]

Why you shouldnt eat your boogers by Francesca Gould is a book about your body.You learn new things on every page.It is also non-fiction so even if stuff seems weird it is true.You can also prove people wrong by reading this books because it tells you about myths that people think and tell you the real meaning.


But this book is not good. Its boring because there is no excitment in the book.Most things you learn about is not even important,and just get lost in it. Also there's no diaolouge in it.It has to be the worst book i have read in a while.You will really hate it if you dont like sceince either.Also there is about 300 pages about useless information.

[NYC Reads 365 · Rating 5 out of 5]

"If you’re reading this book and your mom (or your friend) says to you, “Gross, why are you reading about boogers?” Reply to them: “It’s science.” If they still don’t believe you, challenge them on the scientific name for using your fingers to pick your nose. (It’s rhinotillexomania.) That should keep them quiet and leave you in peace to learn all kinds of interesting, and sometimes gross, things about our bodies as you read this book."

[LoveVickyHolt LoveVickyHolt · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love trivia books because you can set them down and pick them up at will. I like to read them in short bursts. This one is classic because it answers some questions that people usually wouldn't dare to ask, like could you drink your own urine? (Yes, technically you could, but EWWWW). A very fun read, and perfect for mothers of small children who always want to know 'why'.

[Kristen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wish there was some kind of intro & transitions. The facts themselves were the perfect mix of gross and interesting. There were a few things I wanted to Google as I read. I should have made a list. Good kid appeal & great way to add to Scientific vocabulary- too bad there was no glossary or source material. As promised, made my skin crawl!

[Jenn · Rating 3 out of 5]

The facts are fascinating, but Gould has a habit of talking down to her readers a bit too much. In this day & age, we should expect that the average reader knows what DNA is, shouldn't we? In addition, the book was often repetitive--something explained to answer one question would be explained the same way to answer the very next question.

[Scott · Rating 2 out of 5]

As far as fact-books go, this one didn't really have much in the way of new or very interesting information. I'd heard most of the facts before, and the ones I hadn't weren't anything I had ever particularly wondered before. Meh.

[Meghan Hopp · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a fun book about a variety of gross things about your body. Middle schoolers and high schoolers would find this book fascinating. Some topics that keep this book from being for younger, but you could read sections.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was really interesting!

[Marie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow...what don't you learn from this book? All about boogers, poo, bugs that live on your skin...etc. It's very, very interesting...and fun!

[Caroline · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed every nasty little fact this book had to offer. It was great for grossing out my friends and coworkers during meals.

[Kellie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Many incredibly (and, yes, disgusting or weird) things about our bodies. Sometimes the explanations weren't as thorough as I would have liked, but it was rather intriguing all the same.