Isaac Asimov's Book of Facts [Hardcover]

Isaac Asimov (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 23, 1991

Within the pages of Isaac Asimov's Book of Facts are many hours of entertaining and informative reading—little-known facts that will make you exclaim, time and again, "I didn't know that!"
Here are some of the intriguing facts you will find in this book:
-Emperor Caligula appointed his favorite horse as a consul of Rome.
-Eskimos use refrigerators to keep food from freezing.
-For distances of up to 150 feet, an alligator can outrace a man.
-In 1896, two men rowed across the Atlantic.
-The number of possible ways of playing just the first four moves on each side in a game of chess is 318,979,564,000.
-Jimmy Carter was the first U.S. president to be born in a hospital.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Isaac Asimov was unquestionably one of America's greatest scientific writers--from his mind came the awe-inspiring Foundation trilogy and the classic I, Robot. It hardly comes as a surprise then, that the brain of Asimov was overflowing with facts, statistics, and millions of trivial tidbits. His Book of Facts comprises 3,000 of these little information snippets. To organize this wealth of data are distinct subject areas--ranging from chapters titled "Art" and "Medicine" to more obscure ones such as "Salty Facts" and the amusing "Strange Rules, Laws and Customs." Did you know, for instance, that the Tinguian people of the Philippines have a very unique way of kissing? They put their lips close to each other's faces, and then quickly inhale. Or that in the Middle Ages the Europeans put their disobedient animals on trial? Well, you know now! Asimov's Books of Facts immerses the reader into a humongous vat of information. Asimov feeds the brain. --Naomi Gesinger

From the Inside Flap

Within the pages of Isaac Asimov's Book of Facts are many hours of entertaining and informative reading—little-known facts that will make you exclaim, time and again, "I didn't know that!"
Here are some of the intriguing facts you will find in this book:
-Emperor Caligula appointed his favorite horse as a consul of Rome.
-Eskimos use refrigerators to keep food from freezing.
-For distances of up to 150 feet, an alligator can outrace a man.
-In 1896, two men rowed across the Atlantic.
-The number of possible ways of playing just the first four moves on each side in a game of chess is 318,979,564,000.
-Jimmy Carter was the first U.S. president to be born in a hospital.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 512 pages
• Publisher: Gramercy; 1997 Edition edition (September 23, 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0517065037
• ISBN-13: 978-0517065037
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.4 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #831,213 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Asimov Didn't Write This, May 27, 2004

By 

Ray Edwards "Copywriter" (Spokane, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Isaac Asimov's Book of Facts (Hardcover)

In his autobiography, "I, Asimov", Isaac makes it clear he did not write this book. It was put together by someone else, and his name was attached to it through some kind of contractual mumbo-jumbo. That being said, it is an entertaining book.

18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful collection of facts and trivia, September 10, 2001

By 

"logosmd" (New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Isaac Asimov's Book of Facts (Hardcover)

Despite all the comments I have read regarding the accuracy of some of this book's facts, I found this collection to be extremely engrossing and downright fascinating. I enjoy reading such compilations of trivia, and I must say that this is one of the best - if not the best - I have read for two reasons.
First, the format of the book is fantastic. The hundreds of facts, which range from one sentence to around a paragraph, are sorted by topic and presented in a brief and accessible manner by the author. The topic-sorting and compression of the countless facts enable one to read the book selectively, if desired, and they also facilitate the option of reading it all at once or gradually. Second, and more importantly, I found the selection of content to be wonderfully diverse and intriguing, as well as entertaining and even fun. In fact (if you will pardon that expression), I found so many of the entries to be worthy of remembering and future reference that I decided to mark those that struck me as particularly interesting or valuable.
I would highly recommend this collection. However, given the accuracy issues some readers have brought up, it should be read with a skeptical mind (but what book should not be read that way?).

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is the most interesting book I have ever read. Buy it., October 12, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Isaac Asimov's Book of Facts (Hardcover)

I am fifteen years old and have been reading this book constantly for at least three years. It is massively interesting. I have a copy of this book that was printed in 1981, before some of the facts were disproven. Isaac Asimov is one of the best writers of the twentieth century. I just wish he had lived to release volume two and on.