1,411 Quite Interesting Facts To Knock You Sideways

From facts about historic murders to eww-inducing information about toilet bowl germs, this handy and browsable guide offers hours of tidbits and trivia sure to surprise readers and impress their friends. The authors—researchers for a BBC quiz show—have penned several previous trivia compendia in this series, and their ability to find truly offbeat oddities is impressive. What's even more remarkable is their skill in organizing the book in a "degrees of Kevin Bacon" way—with each page moving seamlessly and cleverly into the next one's "theme." It's fun to learn, for example, how music trivia can lead into wine, then into Greek philosophy, and then into illnesses. The entries are one-sentence long, and the authors provide links to further research (and for verification) on each at the end of the book. Unfortunately, while most summaries are clearly stated and can be taken at face value, some may require more explanation—"Cremation causes silicone breast implants to explode," for example.