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The Book of Useless Information | 
 enlarge | Author: Noel Botham
Publisher: Perigee Trade
Category: Book
List Price: $12.95
Buy New: $2.25
You Save: $10.70 (83%)
New (49) from $2.25
Avg. Customer Rating:  13 reviews
Sales Rank: 270171
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 304
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 7.8 x 4.5 x 1
ISBN: 0399532692
Dewey Decimal Number: 031.02
EAN: 9780399532696
ASIN: 0399532692
Publication Date: June 27, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: In mint condition. Will ship First Class and internationally.
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Product Description
Thousands of things you didn't think you needed to know-and probably don't.
All you never needed to know, and couldn't be bothered to ask.
One person's useless information could prove invaluable to someone else. Then again, maybe not. But to The Useless Information Society, any fact that passes its gasp-inducing, "not-a-lot-of-people-know- that" test merits inclusion in this fascinating but ultimately useless book.
Did you know...
- That fish scales are used to make lipstick?
- Why organized crime accounts for ten percent of the United States's annual income?
- The name of the first CD pressed in the U.S.?
- The shortest performance ever nominated for an Oscar?
- How much Elvis weighed at the time of his death?
- What the suits in a deck of cards represent?
- How many Quarter Pounders can be made from one cow?
- How interesting useless information can be?
The Book of Useless Information answers these teasers and will captivate readers with the joy of pursuing pointless knowledge.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 8 more reviews...
Totally unreliable, but kind of fun May 8, 2008
If one hadn't read any of the reviews first, as was my case (the book was a gift from someone who knew my love of the trivial), you soon get to that wait a moment, I don't think that's right (or I know that's not right, depending on your level of confidence--in yourself vs the authors--or your knowledge of the particular field) point. A little more reading, and you realize this is a collection of things the author(s) heard at one time or another and just submitted them. When you get to the point where two entries actually contradict each other (it happens more than once) you get to decide if it's the authors or you who are the gullible one(s). On the other hand, I filled two sides of a sheet of paper with the errors I found during various interludes as I flew cross country and back, which was at least as productive as playing Suduku or the two crosswords I did. So, don't believe a word of it without outside substantiation (and certainly don't go quoting it to win a bar bet, unless you're betting with somebody who has had far more than a few too many). On the other hand, its overall accuracy is still probably higher than that of a Dan Brown novel, and look how much time people have spent reading them!
 People are to hard on this book March 4, 2008
This is a good book. There are only a couple of mistakes in the book and most of them are just half-truths not lies. I think everyone is being to hard on it. It is interesting and fun to read.
Not in the league with Ripley's Believe It or Not! December 2, 2007
I have been a fan of this sort of book for many years. Ripley was the master of the unbelievable,but he did it with utmost intregity. He claimed he had the facts to back him up for every item he presented as fact. He challenged anyone to disprove his facts;and as far as I know ,none were successful. The whole point in this sort of book ,is that the reader must assume the information has been verified and correct beyond reasonable doubt.I have not made the effort to check his "information";but if you peruse the other reviews,you can see there is much doubt about some of this stuff.Who knows,maybe 90 % of this stuff is correct,and it is interesting,but to sort out what is right and what is wrong;just simply throws it all in doubt;and that just isn't good enough.
Also,the effort that Ripley put into searching the world to find material for his books and daily Cartoons far surpassed what we get in this book. A quick glance through a book on just about any subject,birds,fish,baseball,or such;would turn up the kind of stuff found in this book.
I love this sort of information,but many books have done a better effort;and unless you can take the information as fact---forget it!
Entertaining, but not necessarily factual November 28, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
While this was an entertaining book that I read in a few nights, I wouldn't take everything in it as fact. The format of this book is basically just several one or two sentence "facts" per page with no sources to back it up. It's fine for entertainment value, but I wouldn't necessarily believe it all. I wonder how much of it is just "urban legend" repeated. For example, the origin of the "F-word" is explained as an abbreviation of "Found Under Carnal Knowledge." After doing an internet search, I found that this is just one version of several abbreviations that are considered to be urban legends by entymologists.
If you're looking for "useless" trivia, I would recommend the Imponderables books by David Feldman. He takes questions from readers and researches them thoroughly, using and quoting multiple sources, so you can discuss it with your friends later without looking like an idiot. I can't say the same for this book.
 Useless - repleat with errors November 5, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This book is full or errors:
Alka seltzer will make seagulls' stomachs explode.
Duck's quack doesn't echo.
Goldfish is the only animal that can see both infrared and ultraviolet light.
It's as if they just compiled everything interesting they'd ever heard with no fact-checking whatsoever.
Very poor.
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