The Book of Useless Information [Paperback]

Noel Botham (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 26, 2006

Thousands of things you didn't think you needed to know-and probably don't.

All you never needed to know, and couldn't be bothered to ask.

One person's useless information could prove invaluable to someone else. Then again, maybe not. But to The Useless Information Society, any fact that passes its gasp-inducing, "not-a-lot-of-people-know- that" test merits inclusion in this fascinating but ultimately useless book.

Did you know...
- That fish scales are used to make lipstick?
- Why organized crime accounts for ten percent of the United States's annual income?
- The name of the first CD pressed in the U.S.?
- The shortest performance ever nominated for an Oscar?
- How much Elvis weighed at the time of his death?
- What the suits in a deck of cards represent?
- How many Quarter Pounders can be made from one cow?
- How interesting useless information can be?

The Book of Useless Information answers these teasers and will captivate readers with the joy of pursuing pointless knowledge.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

In 1995, a secret society of Britain's foremost thinkers, writers, and artists formed to trade and share in what founding member, playwright and journalist Keith Waterhouse, would call "totally bloody useless" information-usually over a pint or two at a local pub. Now, The Useless Information Society regurgitates its bizarre findings for American readers in this first of what they threaten will be several volumes.

Noel Botham is chairman and founding member of the UIS.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Perigee Trade (June 26, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0399532692
• ISBN-13: 978-0399532696
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 4.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (31 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #290,619 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

In 1995, a secret society of Britain's foremost thinkers, writers, and artists formed to trade and share in what founding member, playwright and journalist Keith Waterhouse, would call "totally bloody useless" information-usually over a pint or two at a local pub. Now, The Useless Information Society regurgitates its bizarre findings for American readers in this first of what they threaten will be several volumes.

Noel Botham is chairman and founding member of the UIS.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars readers: exercise critical thinking when reading this book, May 23, 2007

By 

Spacey "thespacewriter" (New England) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Book of Useless Information (Paperback)

Some of the "facts" cited seem to need fact-checking, particularly in the sciences, where some facts are presented in an incomplete way.

Also, in the quotes section, he quotes Al Gore as saying "I invented the Internet."

In fact, Gore has NEVER said this. It's an easily checked fact, and I'm surprised the authors did NOT check this canard out. You can check out the debunking of the Al Gore "fact" (myth, really) at snopes dot com, or legal minds dot com or any number of other places where honest people took the time to find out the truth.

This one mistake (coupled with other clumsily written "facts" in the book, make me wonder about the correctness of other "facts" they have published, and I haven't even gotten halfway through the book, yet.

Reader--caveat emptor. And now I'm kinda sorry I bought the book.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars This book is not accurate, June 23, 2007

By 

J. Speed "4th Grade Teacher" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Book of Useless Information (Paperback)

I love books full of facts. I just hate it when the facts are not true. Sirloin was not named after a king knighted a piece of meat. Mariah Carey did not say that quote about Africa, and Al Gore never dais that he invented the internet. What is the point of this book if you cannot trust it. It also does not contain a bibliography--so you cannot fact check. The best place to check out all of the false facts is at snopes. com.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars The Book of Useless Information Is Mostly Useless, August 14, 2007

By 

Notnadia (Currently upstairs.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Book of Useless Information (Paperback)

Wonderful idea, to gather tidbits of trivia and put them in one book. Trouble is, this poorly-written source of light reading not only cites no sources for its offerings of information, but it is so riddled with glaring errors of fact that it is mostly useless as a means of either broadening personal knowledge, or as a reference book.

For example, a very brief scan of its misinformation includes:

Page 60, where Ernest Vincent Wright's 50,000-word novel composed sans the letter "e" is listed as `Gatsby' when in fact the work in question is `Gadsby'. `Gatsby' as we all know is a novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald.

On page 165, the book claims that Christianity has 1,000,000,000 followers, and the religion with the next highest number is Islam, with half that many. In fact Christianity has more like 1,400,000,000 adherents, Islam in excess of a billion---and rising.

Page 5 has us reading that in 1812 Theodore Roosevelt completed a speech after being shot in the chest. Roosevelt wasn't even born until 1858!

Page 42 tries to convince us that probable comic strip ADHD sufferer Dennis Mitchell owns a dog known as Gnasher, when as everyone who reads Dennis the Menace knows, his pet is called Ruff.

Am I being too hard on this book? I don't know. Even allowing for typos and the occasional error, this book is undermined by its weaknesses, and I wouldn't recommend it just because you can't be sure you can trust it.

Which is a shame.