Other Book of Perfectly Useless Information
Book Reviews | Dec 8th, 2006
Author: Mitchell Symons
Publisher: Harper Entertainment
Genre: Trivia
Pages: 341
Retail Price: 9.99
Buy on Amazon.com link
This is the third in a trilogy of random trivia books (the others being This and That Book of Perfectly Useless Information). I received all three to review, and they’re all similarly structured and at about the same medium-level of entertainment.
The problem with all three is a heavy use of pop culture, which might appeal to the lowest common denominator, but I’d rather know that the tongue is the fastest-healing part of the body (page 216) than the fact that Nicole Kidman and Naomi Watts both attended the same high school (page 63). It’s hard to beat weird-ass, disgusting zoological tidbits, and lists of “celebrities who never married” and “movies that should’ve gotten Oscars” and “actors who use their middle names” don’t do it for me.
But there is a lot of interesting stuff crammed in these books, and I like that there’s no table of contents. While info is connected under headers (except for truly random stuff, which I like best), there’s little other organization, which make them good books for while you’re on the shitter. They’re great flip-through or randomly-turn-to-any-page books. I just wish they included more science-oriented content instead of “celebrities who don’t like their feet.” One thing the author doesn’t know is that there’s a big difference between the trivial and the superficial!
Bottom Line: Trivia, but not always interesting
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