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A review by oldenglishrose
1,227 QI Facts To Blow Your Socks Off by John Lloyd, John Mitchinson
3.0
We don't watch much television in our house (probably because we don't own one) but we do rather enjoy QI, not least because of the ever charming Stephen Fry. When I spotted this book available for the Kindle for only £0.20 I couldn't resist seeing how well the format of the television programme translated into book form. It also proved an excellent choice to test drive my new ereader.
This book delighted and frustrated me in equal measure. The facts in the book are the perfect blend of the bizarre, the amusing, the amazing and the downright strange: exactly what I would expect from the QI elves. These are the type of little snippets of information that you immediately want to share with other people, and I found myself reading quite a lot of it aloud. Had I been wearing socks they would indeed have been blown off.
I like the way that the facts are presented, one leading onto the next which is somehow related by tenuous but undeniable links between the two. It makes the book read, as John Lloyd says in the introduction like a poem to weird and incredible knowledge.
On the other hand, I wanted expansion, I wanted greater detail and I wanted more information. How do we know the centre of the universe tastes like raspberries? I assume it's to do with its chemical make up, but what chemicals? Why does it taste like raspberries? Who investigates this anyway? More than anything else, I wanted footnotes! The stuff in this book is genuinely fascinating and I wanted the opportunity to find out more if I so chose. Of course, this would have made it an entirely different book, and arguably not nearly so entertaining, so I can't win.
Overall, this is a great little book for providing amusement and incredulity. If I want to find out why the universe tastes like raspberries, I'll just have to look it up for myself.
This book delighted and frustrated me in equal measure. The facts in the book are the perfect blend of the bizarre, the amusing, the amazing and the downright strange: exactly what I would expect from the QI elves. These are the type of little snippets of information that you immediately want to share with other people, and I found myself reading quite a lot of it aloud. Had I been wearing socks they would indeed have been blown off.
I like the way that the facts are presented, one leading onto the next which is somehow related by tenuous but undeniable links between the two. It makes the book read, as John Lloyd says in the introduction like a poem to weird and incredible knowledge.
On the other hand, I wanted expansion, I wanted greater detail and I wanted more information. How do we know the centre of the universe tastes like raspberries? I assume it's to do with its chemical make up, but what chemicals? Why does it taste like raspberries? Who investigates this anyway? More than anything else, I wanted footnotes! The stuff in this book is genuinely fascinating and I wanted the opportunity to find out more if I so chose. Of course, this would have made it an entirely different book, and arguably not nearly so entertaining, so I can't win.
Overall, this is a great little book for providing amusement and incredulity. If I want to find out why the universe tastes like raspberries, I'll just have to look it up for myself.