The Book of General Ignorance | John Mitchinson, John Lloyd

The Book of General Ignorance | John Mitchinson, John Lloyd | Great Book!

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The Book of Genera...

	The Book of General Ignorance John Mitchinson, John Lloyd Harmony, 2007 - 288 pages average customer review:based on 52 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Excellent fact book for those who crave to be in the know

I bought this book as a gift to a college professor and he absolutely loved it. It is quite addictive.

Great Book!

Bought this as a gift for my dad. He loves it. He's been reading a little bit each night.

Read the Questions Carefully and Think Before Answering

We all have a knee-jerk reaction to blurt out answers to questions about what's the biggest, tallest, most dangerous, etc. But like many of the better quiz shows, the answers often require thinking a little more broadly. "When did the last Ice Age end?" The answer is that we are still in it. But you could easily start to answer with when the last ice age that ended was over.

This reminded me of the oral exam I had to earn honors in college. The three professors started off by asking me which peace treaty ended the Hundred Years War. I thought and thought and couldn't think of one. I told them that answer and felt like a fool. It turned out there was no treaty. So beware of the way questions are phrased.

Despite my warning, the authors caught me several times jumping to conclusions about what the question meant, even though I knew the answer to what was intended. That gave me a good laugh at myself.

The better questions were ones that raised issues of contrast: "What's the largest thing a blue whale can swallow?" It's not as large as you might imagine.

I had fun with the book. It was a good time filler for a long, many-stop plane trip. It would also be a fun read for a few minutes before falling to sleep . . . probably giving you something interesting to think about as you doze off.

My only concern was that one of the answers didn't fit my experience . . . the one about which way the water swirls into the drain in the northern and southern hemispheres. I was actually on a ship once that kept going north and south of the equator, and the direction of the swirls shifted with our location relative to the equator. I'm not convinced this answer is right that it's the shape of the basin and drain that counts for the direction of the swirls. I don't remember seeing any swirls in the southern hemisphere that weren't opposite to the ones I've seen in the northern hemisphere.

As a result, I wonder if the answers came from book or Internet research rather than painstaking research. If so, don't bet your last five dollars on any of the more obscure answers. They might be wrong.

But have fun anyway.

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Examining the ignorant

Most of what we have learned has been passed along by either observation or opinion and we seldom take time to examine facts.

Here are the facts concerning many of the assumptions we have made, only because we really were not concerned with the truth of the matter.

This book will not change the outcome of one's life, but it certainly will enhance the flavor of every day living.

The Book of General IGnorance

Another addition to my collection of books which either correct many of our mistaken notions of how the world really works, or answer those nagging little questions about life, the universe, and all that stuff (with many apologies to the late, great author Douglas Adams). A great, enjoyable, and highly informative book. Keep it in your bathroom for special occassions when you need a short read. If you liked this book, I would also recommend "Why Do Clocks Run Clockwise"(David Feldman), "Don't Know Much About History"(Kenneth C. Davis), and "Extraordinary Origins of Everyday Things"(Charles Panati), although the latter is sort of dry and reads more like a text book, but highly informative.

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