Customer Reviews

Presidential Trivia: The Feats, Fates, Families, Foibles, and Firsts of Our American Presidents

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this book, presidential trivia, is a quick read, easy to pick up and put down. it's choke full of tid bits that aren't commonly known about many of our presidents. pieces of it i found really touching (e.g., the guy in the electoral college voted against monroe where everybody else voted for him ONLY because he felt that Washington ought to be the only president unanimously elected). i also liked a quip on lincoln's height, at 6'3 3/4", once, when asked about his height, he said that he was "tall enough to touch the ground". great bedside reading or coffeetable reading. i really enjoyed it! while i'm no presidential scholar, the data presented by lederer appear consistent with the few books that i've read. nice job!

Richard Lederer is an interesting author of more than thirty books. Known as a "verbivore" (a word he coined in the early 1980s), Lederer's interests focus primarily on uncovering word origins, pointing out common grammatical errors and fallacies, and exploring palindromes, anagrams, and other forms of recreational wordplay.

Most recently he has focused his attention in another direction: Presidential Trivia, a fascinating book that will remind you of many of the facts you learned in school, but will also inform you of such odd items as how many of our presidents had no children, which is the birth state for the most of our presidents and which college boasts the most presidents as alumni.

Thirty of our forty-two presidents have been in the military -- do you know which ones they are? How about who was our heaviest president, or our tallest? Which president had the most pets? And do you know which president and his wife conducted the first Easter egg roll on the White House lawn? It's all there in this fascinating book.

Dr. Lederer asks who was president for the longest period of time, and explains that it was Franklin D. Roosevelt, who was elected to four terms and served from 1933 to 1945. He further explains that this is unlikely to happen again as long as the Twenty-Second Amendment is in effect, which states: "No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President more than once."

We find that William Henry Harrison was the father to ten children (four girls and six boys), one who became the father to another president, Benjamin Harrison. We learn that Bill Clinton was our most traveled president, with 133 trips abroad, that none of our presidents has been a single child, and that over half of our presidents have been lawyers.

One of our presidents exclaimed, "It's good to the last drop!" when drinking a cup of Maxwell House coffee. The company took their motto from that exclamation, and it's still in use today. If you don't know which president this was, he is also responsible for the popularity of the teddy bear, which is actually named after him... and if you don't know, then you'll just have to read the book.

The vice presidency is also covered briefly, including a comment from John McCain when he was once asked if he would consider becoming vice president. He responded, "You know, I spent all those years in a North Vietnamese prison camp, kept in the dark, fed scraps -- why the heck would I want to do that all over again?"

I wonder if anyone bothered to tell Sarah Palin about this when he asked her to be his running mate.

There's nothing in the book about her or any of the current presidential or vice presidential candidates, as the book came out before the conventions in 2008. It is notable, though, that Dr. Lederer has already done some sporadic writing on the candidates, and has observed the following:

"We are engaged in the most protracted presidential election in history. Many would claim that it is also among the most passionate and important. One thing's for sure: The 2007-2008 presidential election is among the most unusual that American voters have ever experienced."

This reviewer will agree fully.

Also suggested among Richard Lederer's excellent and usually humorous books are Anguished English, More Anguished English, The Bride of Anguished English: A Bonanza of Bloopers, Blunders, Botches, and Boo-Boos, and and a personal favorite The Cunning Linguist: Ribald Riddles, Lascivious Limericks, Carnal Corn, and Other Good, Clean Dirty Fun.

You can't go wrong with any of them, but don't miss Presidential Trivia, especially during this election season.

For those that like trivia and politics, this is the party book for you! Some chapters are questions and answers so we used it as a game, other chapters are just interesting anecdotes and events you've never heard of about presidents. We've had a lot of fun with it. Bought as "used" but it doesn't look like it had ever been looked at. Good, fast service.