Customer Reviews

Do Fish Drink Water?: Puzzling And Improbable Questions And Answers

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

"Do Fish Drink Water?" is an entertaining journey through the world of questions, answers, and popular beliefs. Bill McLain, webmaster at Xerox PARC, provides some of the most unusual questions he has received about every topic imaginable, from the Wizard of OZ to the Coriolis effect and the green flash. He presents questions on history, science, folklore, and general trivia, with complete answers and entertaining facts. As an added benefit, the author also demonstrates how to find answers to those improbable questions. The reader can read a little, or a lot, although reading a little is like eating one potato chip. It's hard to stop at just one.

An ideal book for the inquisitive, McLain acts as a guide through a labryinth of seemingly unanswerable queries. The result is an entertaining and enjoyable excursion through fact and fiction. This is an ideal gift, especially for yourself.

I can't imagine why so many people would contact Xerox for answers to strange questions, but author Bill McLain is the company's webmaster, and he sure does get lots of e-mail. This book, named after one of the questions received on the website, is a good, mildly entertaining compilation of "gee whiz" trivia and interesting historical facts.

The book's twenty chapters (History, Food, Language, Science, etc.) contain answers to 127 questions selected by Mr. McLain from website inquiries. While this number may seem small, each question has a response of several paragraphs, followed by related "Factoids," then several more paragraphs of "Did You Know?" trivia, which may or may not be worthwhile information depending on your interest level. Eloquent prose does not abound, but I found almost all of the topics in this book to be interesting enough for me to hope that the author tries it again with a second volume. Unlike some of the other reviewers, I wasn't as turned off by the goofy asides that follow the questions. The inclusion of dozens of websites pertaining to specialty topics was a BIG plus, in my opinion.

If you're a trivia buff, or just love to spend time reading about how everything got to be the way it is, I would recommend adding this book to your collection. However, there are others of its type that are more comprehensive, and perhaps more interesting. Be careful when cross-checking the answers with those found in other references: I found it a little disconcerting that they contained either different or more wide-ranging answers to similar questions (e.g., "mind your p's and q's"). Still, I'm glad Mr. McLain took the time to translate the fun aspects of his job into this enjoyable book.

[If I was the parent of a junior high or high school student, I'd buy this book as a gift. Worthwhile websites . . . hint, hint!]

Do Fish Drink Water? The answer is yes, but it's mostly due to Osmosis. Did I just give away the ending of the book? No, rest assured. This book is a really funny and informative collection of facts that will answer all those questions that you always had. This book is written by Bill McLain who is the webmaster and Xerox and the book is a collection of questions he received. Now I am not sure why people were emailing the webmaster at Xerox to ask him about some of these things, but I am glad Bill collected all of those questions and put them in his book.

This is a really fun, educational book and a must-have.

I really enjoyed this book, but I made the mistake of trying to read it all in one sitting - it's a bit like eating too much ice cream (now I don't want anymore).

I really like McLain's style of writing and what I *really* liked was that he didn't stop at just answering the question - he gave you more information if you wanted it (which of course I did) and related details that might not be obvious to the layman reader. It's a truly compulsive read and it doesn't matter where your interest lies.

A great coffee-table conversation starter, this book keeps on giving - do yourself a favor and grab a copy: it's great.

I thought this was a great book and well worht what I paid for it. I was amazed by most of the facts in the book. There are some many questions and twenty different catagorys. Plus after the end of every catagory, Bill McLain (the author) gives you some web site addresses in case you would like to learn more about that spefic topic. If you enjoy useless facts like me,(in which case I am full of useless facts) you should definitally buy this book. Once I got the book in the mail, I could not put it down, I loved it. I liked it some much, I am reading it one more time. So if you are not sure if you should to buy it or not, it is well worth it, believe me.

A fun, right to the point book about some very interesting and unusual stuff. The whole family enjoyed reading it! Highly recommend buying this.

Pure, clean fun and a great learning experence. I'm not a trivia buff but the few books I have seen teach you little if anything useful or make you say "COOL!". hats off to you Bill McLain. By the way, WHAT IS THE ORIGIN OF THE WORD AMAZON?

What sets Bill McLain's book apart from other miscellaneous sound bytes of knowledge books is (a) it's the latest (b) the Q & A's were inspired by actual questions and answers from McLain's website, and (c) the organization, which allows McLain to elaborate and provide website addresses for additional information.

McLain's light-hearted, semi-corny style is also a plus, although the cutesy parenthetical asides after each question (e.g., "Where did the idea for underwear come from? (Not from Jockeys.)") sometimes miss the mark. There is also a Western bias in the text; for example the section on religion doesn't get east of Mecca, and even the section entitled "World" is almost exclusively concerned with sites Western. The information however, as far as I can tell, is textbook accurate with one puzzling exception. On page 219 McLain speculates about a planet revolving around Alpha Centauri. He writes: "Although the planet's terrain would probably be similar to earth's continents, islands, and oceans, the planet would be different in most other ways." He adds that "Temperatures would be much higher than those on earth and could be lethal to humans trying to live in the tropical regions. Life would prefer the cooler highlands." Amazing. How would or could he know this! More likely, if the descriptions of actual extra solar planets are to be believed, a planet revolving around Alpha Centauri (at least any one that we could become aware of) would be a gas giant like Jupiter or Saturn, and any talk of "tropical regions" or "cooler highlands" just so much terra-centered silliness.

Some of my favorite bits of knowledge found here: the amount of gold in Fort Knox; a rather thorough answer to whether water drains clockwise or counter-clockwise depending on hemisphere; why Eskimos don't die of scurvy; and what's the world's faster roller coaster. This is a nice entertainment and an easy read.

The content of Do Fish Drink Water? is largely quite entertaining, though its accuracy can oft be debated. Such references as the "osmosis of saltwater" (osmosis is singularly the diffusion of water, not salt) and other possibly incorrect conclusions detract from an otherwise amusing compilation of unusual questions and their answers.

Reading "Do Fish Drink Water?" was an absolute pleasure. I reccomend this book to all people, but especially those who carry an imense love for trivial knowledge. McLain, compiles tons of extraordinary, interesting, and odd facts into his wonderful book. Once you are done reading the book, you will have walked away with a neww view on almost anything, with a new apppreciation for evry obscurity. McLain also includes enjoyable anecdotes, which give a great backround to the book. This is an excellent book, which will capture your attention, thought, and memory, i reccomend it to all.