Customer Reviews

The Book of Totally Useless Information

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This book was a fun, fast, easy read. I was surprised how many of the tidbits I already knew, however. The book didn't have any introduction/preface or "final thoughts;" it just started off with the tidbits. I don't know what kind of introductory and closing remarks I was expecting, I just know it felt like the book had a rather jarring beginning and end.

One tidbit was worth the $5.58 I paid for "Land of 10,000 Lakes," I am often asked if the state really has 10,000 lakes. I always knew the state had more than 10,000 lakes, but now I can inform the inquisitors that Minnesota actually has 14,215 named lakes (pg. 117).

All in all, quite a fun read for $5.58. (It looks like they've raised the price since I bought my copy.

this book was very good and worth the money, but if you check the paperback book it costs more than the hardcover. why? because the hardcover is not 720 pages like it says. it is only around 180. so i did like the book, but i just wanted to point out the error in the advertisment.

Should useless information also be inaccurate? I received this book as a gift and have only browsed it for less than an hour and have found problems. Inaccuracies call into question the validity of all other "facts" in the book. First of all, Tar Heel is 2 words. I will allow that this is more of a spelling error and not exactly a factual blunder but still . . . Secondly, the siamese twins Chang and Eng settled in North Carolina and died there. I am (probably pretty obviously) a North Carolinian. I only spent 30-45 minutes and caught these two errors that deal with NC. It simply makes me wonder how many other errors there are in the book.

I like the idea of the book and am sure most of it is accurate. I just hate that you can't really trust anything you read in it 100% and if you can't trust that the information is correct, how can you repeat it? And if you can't repeat it (or trust you are answering that Jeopardy question correctly), what is the point of such useless information? And thus what is the point of owning this book? Useless information is fine; useless inaccurate information is not.

As a bathroom reader, this book is five stars, hands down. But being fair to other "serious" writers, I can only give it four. After all, it IS just a collection of short articles. But they're a very fun read.

Lots of fun tidbits and author comments as well. No English-speaking bathroom should be without this book.

There was nothing too special about this collection. Just a sparse collection of little facts about things we take for granted. It was interesting, but the skeptic in me wanted to know how the information was collected, but Voorhees fails to give us a bibliography. Most who know me know I love useless information, but for some reason this did not enthrall me all that much. If you can find this book in paperback cheap, and you like stupid little facts, go for it. But I would not pay more than 5 bucks for it

Thanks

I had to borrow this book from a friend, but I loved every page in it. I knew some of the information that was in the book, but 95% of it was new to me. I want to find more books like it. I think everyone will find something in the book they like.

SmartyPants is the nickname I've been crowned since owning this book! It's given me a lot of interesting conversation starters. The only complaint I have is the lack of an index, or table of contents so referencing this book can prove a bit timely.

Entertaining, educational and sometimes hilarious collection of seemingly useless information. Stories about Babe Ruth, why New Jersey is the Garden state and many other points of interest many people don't care about are included. Great little reference book for trivial information to wow friends and colleagues.

things you can even think of that they explane in fine detail. Great coffee table book

There was nothing too special about this collection. Just a sparse collection of little facts about things we take for granted. It was interesting, but the skeptic in me wanted to know how the information was collected, but Voorhees fails to give us a bibliography. Most who know me know I love useless information, but for some reason this did not enthrall me all that much. If you can find this book in paperback cheap, and you like stupid little facts, go for it. But I would not pay more than 5 bucks for it
Thanks