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The Book of General Ignorance | 
 enlarge | Authors: John Mitchinson, John Lloyd
Publisher: Harmony
Category: Book
List Price: $19.95
Buy New: $11.42
You Save: $8.53 (43%)
New (33) Used (13) from $11.41
Avg. Customer Rating:  45 reviews
Sales Rank: 3150
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 288
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 8.3 x 5.8 x 1.1
ISBN: 0307394913
Dewey Decimal Number: 031.02
EAN: 9780307394910
ASIN: 0307394913
Publication Date: August 7, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand new book. Over 3.5 million customers served. Order now. Selling books online since 1995. Order with confidence. Code: B20080515211443T
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Product Description
Think Magellan was the first man to circumnavigate the globe, baseball was invented in America, Henry VIII had six wives, Mount Everest is the tallest mountain? Wrong, wrong, wrong, and wrong again.
Misconceptions, misunderstandings, and flawed facts finally get the heave-ho in this humorous, downright humiliating book of reeducation based on the phenomenal British bestseller. Challenging what most of us assume to be verifiable truths in areas like history, literature, science, nature, and more,
The Book of General Ignorance is a witty “gotcha” compendium of how little we actually know about anything. It’ll have you scratching your head wondering why we even bother to go to school.
Revealing the truth behind all the things we think we know but don’t, this book leaves you dumbfounded about all the misinformation you’ve managed to collect during your life, and sets you up to win big should you ever be a contestant on Jeopardy! or Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.
Besides righting the record on common (but wrong) myths like Captain Cook discovering Australia or Alexander Graham Bell inventing the telephone, The Book of General Ignorance also gives us the skinny on silly slipups to trot out at dinner parties (Cinderella wore fur, not glass, slippers and chicken tikka masala was invented in Scotland, not India).
Thomas Edison said that we know less than one millionth of one percent about anything: this book makes us wonder if we know even that much.
You’ll be surprised at how much you don’t know! Check out THE BOOK OF GENERAL IGNORANCE for more fun entries and complete answers to the following:
How long can a chicken live without its head?
About two years.
What do chameleons do?
They don’t change color to match the background. Never have; never will. Complete myth. Utter fabrication. Total Lie. They change color as a result of different emotional states.
Who invented champagne?
Not the French.
How many legs does a centipede have?
Not a hundred.
How many toes has a two-toed sloth?
It’s either six or eight.
How many penises does a European earwig have?
a)Fourteen
b)None at all
c)Two (one for special occasions)
d)Mind your own business
Which animals are the best-endowed of all?
Barnacles. These unassuming modest beasts have the longest penis relative to their size of any creature. They can be seven times longer than their body.
What is a rhino’s horn made from?
A rhinoceros horn is not, as some people think, made out of hair.
Who was the first American president?
Peyton Randolph.
What were George Washington’s false teeth made from?
Mostly hippopotamus.
What was James Bond’s favorite drink?
Not the vodka martini.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 40 more reviews...
 No that great May 15, 2008
I really expected this book to be much more entertaining than it actually is. Maybe it's the way it's put together, I'm not sure. It
s basically just a boring list of facts that you may or may not have known. BORING!
 The best I've seen so far April 15, 2008
2 out of 4 found this review helpful
This is probably the best of the many trivia books I've seen. It seems every week there's a new one on the market, and many of them are quite good, but this one stands head and shoulders above the competition. It's by far the most entertaining, funny, and interesting of the many I've seen, and also probably the most informative; I learned more from this book than from any of the others. The story about the "attack" of the rabbits and Napoleon's "defeat" is worth the price of the book by itself. But besides that you get many other fascinating, curious, and just funny and enjoyable stories. I'd give this one six stars if I could just for the pure entertainment value.
great book, wish it were longer April 8, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
this book is great, but I wish it had a few million more pages because it's so interesting.
Love It! April 8, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I love, love, love this book! It is very interesting, random, and full of fun, useless knowledge. Great book for your spare time and general knowledge!
A great read March 28, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I often buy books that I have every intention of reading and never quite make it through the first few chapters. But because this book is broken up into some many brief topics, and each is so interesting to read I was amazed to find that I had read through the whole thing within a few days of recieving it.
A lot of the topics are "technicalities" and will appeal to those who delight in proving common knowledge wrong. But I really enjoyed the more obscure information just because it highlighted such interesting information about things I hadnt really considered before. The author does a great job of selecting from a wide range of topics and it wont be hard to find some that interest you (and you cant wait to tell others about) regardless of your personal preferences.
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