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The Book of General IgnoranceAuthor: John Lloyd and John Mitchinson, forewords by Stephen Fry and Alan Davies The blurb
If you still think Henry VIII had six wives, that the earth has only one moon, and that Mount Everest is the world's tallest mountain, then you need this book. Urgently. The Book of General Ignorance throws fresh light on a question which has obsessed philosophers, scientists and men in pubs for most of history: what is truth and what is total hogwash? Thomas Edison stated that we know less than one millionth of 1 per cent about anything; Mark Twain thought it would take eight million years to master mathematics alone; Woody Allen said that some drink deeply from the river of knowledge, but others only gargle. This book will make you feel very small and silly. Is it "good"? Yeah it's alright. It's just a book of questions which it answers. You can imagine Stephen Fry reading it out if you wish. If you watch the show regularly, you'll be familiar with many of them, as they've been lifted directly from the first four series of the show. We don't know if any material has been written especially for the book, it's quite possible that some of the material has been culled from edited out sections of the recordings. It could do with an index, but I get the feeling that it would violate one of the central ideas of QI, in that you're meant to dip into it and find yourself reading other nearby unrelated interesting things. If you've been an avid viewer, we'd find it quite difficult to recommend shelling out the full cover price for it because you already know most of it - wait for the inevitable cheaper paperback edition if you're desperate. |
A comprehensive and humiliating catalogue of all the misconceptions, mistakes and misunderstandings in 'common knowledge', which will make you wonder why anyone ever bothers to go to school.