“Knowledge is power” or so they say, and you can never have too much knowledge. If you thought that you know everything, sadly you are wrong (there is too much information to know and the stuff you do know might not even be correct). If you read The QI Book of General Ignorance written by John Lloyd & John Mitchinson (the creators and head-researcher of the popular television show QI ) the book put paid to that idea very quickly. It is a trivia book that aims to address and debunk many of the misconceptions, mistakes and misunderstandings in ‘common knowledge’ about everything that you think you know – it is therefore known not as a ‘General Knowledge’ book, but as ‘General Ignorance’. After finishing reading the book, your knowledge improves, you are much happy with the things you know and you can start impressing your friends and family once again with your vastly improved knowledge, correcting their misconceptions about “facts” they know and even starring in pub quizzes again.
But sorry to put a dampener on your showing off, everything you think you know may STILL be wrong! After all, one book can’t cover absolutely everything!
- Do you think that octopuses have eight legs? Well, you could be wrong as they might only actually have two.
- If you think oranges are actually orange in colour, then you would be wrong again. Time for a rethink.
- And we all know that bats are blind, don’t we? Actually, that’s a misconception and they really aren’t.
It’s crushing finding out that things you believed to be true are actually factually incorrect – I bet you Googled the above to see if they are true or not! If you want to know the answers to these and many more pieces of trivia, including what animal drinks the most, does eating chocolate give you acne and what actually came first, the chicken or the egg then The Second QI Book of General Ignorance is the book to pick up. It really is a Quite Interesting book of trivia that will educate, entertain and electrify your brain.
Overall, The Second QI Book of General Ignorance is packed with hundreds of extremely interesting facts that dispel common misconceptions, mistakes and misunderstandings. It informs and entertains the reader, delivering fun facts with an air of authority and a humorous tongue in cheek style.
The Second QI Book of General Ignorance is a worthy extension of the original book, packed with hundreds more interesting facts. As with the first book in the series, it is a totally fascinatingly fun and brilliant handbook for lovers of trivia, pub quiz players and enthusiasts of general knowledge.
Each fact is asked as a question, such as How much does a cloud weigh?, and answered in a few paragraphs (a majority about a page long) that explains the answer in good detail. If you are curious, an average cumulus cloud weighs about 100 elephants – you’ll have to read the book to understand the answer.
It is a book that can be read from cover to cover or dipped in and out of, reading facts at random or using the contents and index pages. It also has a great introduction written by Stephen Fry.
A very well researched and interesting book written with humour providing a fun way to boost your knowledge and correct any misconceptions around knowledge that you already possess whilst learning new things along the way.
Rating: 5/5
RRP: £9.99 (Paperback) / £4.99 (Kindle)
Available to buy from Amazon here.
