A World of Curiosities: Surprising, Interesting, and Downright Unbelievable Facts from Every Nation on the Planet (Who or Why or Which or What?) 1st Edition

by John Oldale (Author)

13 customer reviews

ISBN-13: 978-0452297838

ISBN-10: 0452297834

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From Afghanistan to Zimbabwe: everything you never knew you never knew about every country on Earth.A scientist by training and an explorer by passion, Dr. John Oldale has logged half a million miles visiting more than ninety nations. Now, he celebrates our weird and wonderful world in a cornucopia of fascinating facts brought vividly to life through the unexpected stories behind them. Touching on history, travel, politics, natural history and more, he paints a unique portrait of each country from the mightiest to the most miniscule. You won't find the following in your average travel guide:

· Why is kissing on trains banned in France?

· In what country are litigants expected to present their case at court in the form of a poem?

· Which war did women win in 1929 just by sitting down?

· If Panama hats aren’t from Panama, where are they from?

· Who eat fresh camel dung as a cure for dysentery (and why does it work)?

· Why were US disk jockeys once told they could play birthday requests on any day except the one requested?

· Which modern dictator banned old age, libraries and gold teeth, and was later replaced by his dentist?

· And 2,000 more funny, trivial, poignant, and telling facts

A must for active and armchair globe-trotters alike, A World of Curiosities will engross anyone who is at all curious about the world beyond their door. Explore and enjoy.

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Editorial Reviews

Review

“Turn to any page in this compendium of countries and you’ll be surprised and amazed by its vast array of far-flung facts from around the world. Sure to satisfy of the appetite of any lover of trivia.”—Don Voorhees, author of The Book of Totally Useless Information

“An absolute winner! A fascinating and entertaining spin around the world, its oddities and its secrets.”—Noel Botham, author of The Book of Useless Information

“Jam-packed with facts of every description from the horrific to the hilarious. My life has been richer since I read that, in order to cram more showings into the day, one cinema in South Korea made The Sound of Music shorter by cutting out the songs.”—Caroline Taggart, author of I Used to Know That

About the Author

John Oldale speaks five languages, has outrun knife-wielding brigands (twice), and has been rescued from a sub-Antarctic beach. He lives with his family in a former village pub in Hampshire, England.

Series: Who or Why or Which or What?
Paperback: 320 pages
Publisher: Plume; 1 edition (April 24, 2012)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0452297834
ISBN-13: 978-0452297838
Product Dimensions: 6 x 0.8 x 9 inches
Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 13 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,172,885 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #918 in Books > Humor & Entertainment > Trivia & Fun Facts
- #1677 in Books > Humor & Entertainment > Puzzles & Games > Trivia
- #6526 in Books > Humor & Entertainment > Pop Culture > General

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Sotto voce

Bona fide, abundant, true facts

June 12, 2012

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

Mr. Oldale, an Englishmen, lawyer scientist and perhaps born 100 years too late tells us in the preface ... "The root of my trouble is that I'm fascinated by every aspect of our planet, and, due to this, am completely unable to think of anything that I could happily leave out."

"Curiosities" is exactly what the title says. The book is completely and wonderfully overstuffed to deliver a 360º reading experience in grey scale block printing on Farmer's Almanac-like paper. It is an information-compendium of curiosities, organized by every country on the planet and utterly fascinating. Here you can find such data as the genetic mutation of 'blondes' from out of Scandinavia or the organizational structure of the Chinese Triads or Global Domination-Best efforts to date by conqueror, populations and land mass ... and 300 more pages of similar data. Oldale organizes his indefatigable flow of facts in an eccentric, beguiling way that reveals as much about his own affections as his selected subjects.

5-Star amazing! This a priority gift to just the right person.

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Jewels

Interesting and Fun

October 31, 2016

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

This book is a well organized informative book that highlights a bit about several countries. It's a book you can pick up, turn to any page and find something of interest. Lots of somewhat obscure info as well. Fun read.

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Neal

Quick fun Facts

February 17, 2014

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

This book is a lot of fun and gives short interesting facts on every country in the world. It's almost like a Ripley's Believe it or not, but most of the facts are more interesting and not necessarily weird like Ripley's but still fun. You can stop anywhere in the book and pick it up again whenever.

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Theresa May

endlessly entertaining

July 9, 2014

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

Love geography? Love trivia? Mix the two together, add a lot of fun, and you have this book. If they taught geography this way in school, no kid would miss a class. Pick up a copy, and you won't want to put it down.

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Sabe

Five Stars

January 13, 2015

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

Love it.

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D. Greco

He loves trivia and odd facts and this is perfect as he is studying world geography this year

January 5, 2016

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

My 14-year-old son is really enjoying this book. He loves trivia and odd facts and this is perfect as he is studying world geography this year.

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cateast@covenantplayers.org

came fast - thanks

January 5, 2013

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

Thanks - it came before Christmas - so I was able to wrap it and sneak it under the tree.

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Patricia P. Surrey

Not as intesting as it seems

July 19, 2012

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

There are many such books of triva available. This one seems a little dry. It is arranged that you can jump to any section you wish but the info is available for free on Google.

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Most recent customer reviews

Ann-Marie Chilton

Five Stars

I enjoyed it

Published on February 21, 2015

Courtney Jensen

Decent bathroom book.

Decent bathroom book. Worth skimming, but not really worth "reading." What the author did best was peruse thousands of Wikipedia pages and gather up the interesting...Read more

Published on September 10, 2014

Meaghan

A delightful assortment of trivia

This is a very impressive collection! I have long been a compiler of useless facts and trivia and I've seen it all before, so to speak, but 95% of the information in this book was...Read more

Published on June 27, 2012

MathildeG

Impressive.

Very interesting book, full of details a traveler will enjoy. Intellectual sometimes and fun always.Very nice presentation, eye catching.Read more

Published on May 21, 2012

Sam Vaknin

The Oldale Curiosity Shop

The classic gazetteer is a numbing compilation of places: their names, their coordinates in an attendant eye-taxing mini-atlas, and some raw data, usually presented in an utterly...Read more

Published on May 5, 2012

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