Random Kinds Of Factness: 1001 (or So) Absolutely True Tidbits About (mostly) Everything [Paperback]

Erin Barrett (Author), Jack Mingo (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 2005

This latest romp through history, politics, religion, and science from the dyno-duo Barrett and Mingo is sure to tickle the fancy of trivia buffs everywhere. Amuse your date, impress your boss, bore your kids, or be the 6th caller to win a pair of tickets to the nose-flute band concert! All because you know that a Twinkie in the microwave will explode in 45 seconds, that you have a 1 in 3,448,276 chance of dying from a snake bite, that 342 cases of tea were tossed into the "hahbah" during the Boston Tea Party or that white rhinoceroses are not actually white but grey (you'll have to read the book to discover why). Barrett and Mingo, partners in life and crime (er, writing) can do a thing or two with random facts, and this book ranks right up there. From the time the Wallace family made famous books of lists of one kind or another, readers have found fascination--or maybe just food for their obsessions--in books like Random Kinds of Factness.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Erin Barrett and Jack Mingo have authored 20 books, including How the Cadillac Got Its Fins, The Couch Potato Guide to Life and the best-selling Just Curious Jeeves. They have written articles for many major periodicals including The New York Times, Salon, Reader's Digest, and The Washington Post and have generated more than 30,000 questions for trivia games and game shows such as Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?. Their website, which lists their "This Day in History" nationally-syndicated column.

Erin Barrett and Jack Mingo are the authors of twenty books, and the best-selling Just Curious Jeeves, How the Cadillac Got Its Fins, and The Couch Potato's Guide to Life. As info-mavens and pop-culture commentators, they have written articles for many major periodicals and generated 30,000 questions for trivia games. They live in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Product Details

• Paperback: 215 pages
• Publisher: Conari Press (October 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1573242128
• ISBN-13: 978-1573242127
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.9 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #32,913 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #41 in Books > Education & Reference > Fun Facts > Trivia

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

71 of 71 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Bond with your spouse! Impress your boss! Bore your kids! Score a date!, October 18, 2005

By 

Janet Boyer "Author, Blogger, Mystic" (Pennsylvania) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Random Kinds Of Factness: 1001 (or So) Absolutely True Tidbits About (mostly) Everything (Paperback)

Yes, you can do all these things and more with the book Random Kinds of Factness!

At 215 pages, this amusing soft cover book provides fascinating trivia tidbits on subjects like Animals, The Body, Food & Drink, History, Men & Women, Plants, Holidays, Science, Sports, Transportation and much more.

Here is a sampling of some of the fascinating tidbits found in Random Kinds of Factness:

* Professional clowns register their faces with a face registry so that no two clown faces are exactly the same.
* Undereducated presidents are not a new phenomenon. Andrew Jackson, Andrew Johnson, and Zachary Taylor never even graduated from elementary school.
* Pigs kill more people than sharks every year.
* The Incas all had the same blood type (O+).
* Robert Lewis Stevenson wrote Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde during a six-day cocaine binge.
* Before she was a master chef, Julia child was a spy. She served in India and China during WW II.
* The term "freelancing" dates from the twelfth century when knights who lost their employment with royal houses offered themselves as mercenaries.
* Switzerland didn't allow women to vote until 1971.
* More people are injured each year on merry-go-rounds than on roller coasters.
* A simple, everyday yard mushroom can release more than one hundred million spores in an hour.

My husband and I spent several evenings reading this book cover to cover. It was a lot of fun to discover amazing trivia and share them with each other-often to much gasping and laughter. Despite the unattractive cover and one tidbit that was repeated ("Walt Disney's hobby was orchestrating model train wrecks"-pages 38 & 213), Random Kinds of Factness is a delightful trivia book that is both educational and entertaining.

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book! Great info!, June 18, 2009

By 

Katrina728 "katrina728" (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Random Kinds Of Factness: 1001 (or So) Absolutely True Tidbits About (mostly) Everything (Paperback)

I absolutely love this book. So many great and interesting facts in a short and witty format. Each fact is only a few sentences long. I bought some other trivia / reference books which devoted several pages to each topic. The short descriptions are much more enjoyable, as my husband likes to have material like this in the restroom...and let's face it, if I put "War and Peace" in there, he may never come out!

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great for random time-killing, July 21, 2010

By 

Philip Dhingra (Austin, TX) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Random Kinds Of Factness: 1001 (or So) Absolutely True Tidbits About (mostly) Everything (Kindle Edition)

This was the first Kindle book I purchased for my iPhone, and it's perfect for a little time-killing here and there. Each fact is no more than a page long, and so you can easily pick it up and put it down at random spots.