Trivia Books

I recently had to move and I lost a couple boxes of books. The first book I thought of was An Incomplete Education. Finding it wasn't lost made my day all by itself.

Chock full of stuff that you shoulda learned in school but didn't. I wasn't interested in it at first, but it was recommended to me by a family member and I'm glad it was. Funny And informative.

This is my favorite book. I am so looking forward to the update. The best way to read this book is to know just a little bit about a subject then use it to fill the gap. It is not detailed but just enough that you get the "gist" of things.

This is not a "breezy little book of interesting facts" you will have hours of fun reading. It actually assumes you know a great deal more about the items it intends to teach you than you probably do.

I would say it is as much fun as reading a text book, but in truth, it is as much fun as reading 3,684 text books. Yes, that much fun.

This is that rare book that is not merely bad, but despicable. Sadly, it serves as exemplar of the very problem it claims to attack, which according to the glib introduction, is "a world of bits and bytes, of reruns and fast forwards, of information overloads and significant shortfalls."

The authors are too much in love with their own cleverness to provide the curious reader with lucid information, preferring to sabotage clarity with cynicism and loading the text with parenthetical references to pop culture, to the reader, and of course, to the authors themselves.

"Five Composers Whose Names Begin with the Letter P" is a pithy chapter head for bookstore browsing, but should a more complete education really include Poulenc and not Debussy? And if Puccini was lucky enough to have the right initial, why not explain what makes his music perennially popular, rather than making the gratuitous observation that Verdi fans may find him vulgar? Now in its third presumably profitable edition, this book is that most vulgar of accomplishments, the triumph of marketing over content. Puccini's operas, in contrast, are awash in gorgeous melody.

This book is for fun, but many of the "facts" are wrong or debatable. To correct just one: The universe has not been assumed to be infinite for about 100 years. A very little research would have avoided this erroneous premise.

P.S. Benjamin Franklin made many clever remarks. So why attribute one to him that he didn't make?

This book is really fun to read when friends are over or at family get-togethers. The facts and trivia are really interesting!!! Perfect for giftss!!

some are interesting but most of these facts are boring and irrelivent. save your money and google what you dont know.

This isn't a bad book to have lying around. Birds that produce milk. The best-endowed animal of all!! (Barnacles!), and many other facts I thought I knew (who is America named after?) Male chickens? Etc. I had no idea...

I can't resist books like this, full of factoid essays on a wide range of subjects ranging from earwig wee-wees to the density in the asteroid belt. The book is like a box of chocolates. You read one 400-word essay and then another and then another, and the next thing you know you've read the whole book!

A mushroom is the largest living thing (it's almost all underground). The tallest mountain in the world (Mauna Kea, not Mount Everest--you knew that) is mostly underwater. (A fine distinction is made between "tallest" and "highest," but hey we're just having fun here in the spirit of trivial pursuit.) The guillotine of course was not invented in France, and French toast, well, isn't. Most of the earth's oxygen comes from algae, etc.

What Messrs John Lloyd and John Mitchinson do here that many trivial books do not do is elaborate well. For example on the entry about oxygen from algae, they let us know that oil and gas come from ancient algae. (Coal is what comes from ancient swampy forests.) They also mention spirulina, food from cyanobacteria that may one day feed humanity's hungry masses since it "yields twenty times more protein per acre than soya beans." So have another spirulina smoothie. Their entry on where you're most likely to get caught in a hailstorm (the Western Highlands of Kenya) elaborates on the size of hailstones (US record, seven inches in diameter hitting the ground in Aurora, Nebraska at 100 MPH in 2003) and how much damage they cause. But hailstorms can be good. A friend and I got caught in a furious hailstorm lasting maybe twenty minutes a couple months ago in Florida. Result: the car, which was caked with smashed-on insects from a cross country trek, as a result of the hard-driving hail, became as clean as if just out of the carwash! I kid you not.

Most of the juicy info in the book is just delicious, but of course I have a few cautionary notes to share. I like the question/answer format but sometimes, in their effort to surprise, the authors seem to be reaching for it a bit, as in "What's the single largest man-made structure on earth?" Not the Great Pyramid or the Great Wall of China, but the Fresh Kills garbage dump on Staten Island. Or, in "Where's the coolest place in the universe?" A lab in Finland in which a pieced of rhodium was cooled to within a billionth of a degree of above absolute zero. Problem here (aside from fooling us) is, how would they know? Maybe some creatures in the Andromeda Galaxy have cooled rhodium to within a trillionth of a degree above absolute zero.

But I'm nitpicking. A more serious criticism is that some of their information is not exactly accurate. They claim on page 65 that hippos are "strict vegetarians" but anybody who's seen the PBS nature special knows that hippos will muscle the crocs aside on occasion and bite into rotting flesh left on the riverbank. And on pages 105-106 they write that the word "gringos," sometimes used by people south of the border to refer to people north of the border, "is thought to come from the Spanish `griego' (Greek)--hence any foreigner (as in the English `it's all Greek to me')." Actually, "gringo" is a corruption of the words "green grow" ("...the lilacs and so does the rue") lyrics from a popular song sung by Anglos around the campfire at night as they travelled westward in covered wagons during the nineteenth century.

In some cases our clever authors equivocate and seem to have their trivia both ways. On page 19 they write "Ice cream may well be a Chinese invention...," while on page 74 they let us know that Nero (who did NOT fiddle while Rome burned) "also invented ice cream." In answer to the question, "What was the first animal to be domesticated?" they give no clear answer, instead they equivocate between reindeers and dogs around 14,000 years ago. I think most authorities would go with dogs.

Regardless of these minor criticisms, I can recommend "The Book of General Ignorance" as a "betcha can't read just one" sort of fun trivia collection.

This record book is the best that Guiness has put out. Full of large pictures, some that fold out, and more detailed explanations of the feats that are considered world records. Granted, some records are serious and important. Some, however are just silly and intertaining. This is definitely the book for the person who loves to know all the arcane things.

Great book - excellent for a gift. Great reading to see just how far some people will go to get their name in print.

Best value and great delivery. Delivered promptly as always and as I've learned to expect from Amazon.

This book did not have alot of records its more for kids a lot of 1st things done are records, glow in the dark pictures, and fold out pictures. to many pix not enough info.WWE wrestling which is fake is in there. I did not like it the old books are way better.

I got this from my library,and was so dissapointed! The book is so big and awkward to hold,and the info is no where near as detailed as I remember the paperback editions being. They can keep their 'Glow In The Dark' issue,I'm not the least bit interested in this direction,these formerly great books are now headed.

I wouldn't want this book if it was given to me free,let alone consider buying it!

If you like cocktail party nuggets of knowledge, then you'll enjoy this compendium. Each chapter contains an array of quirky topics, and each has a few paragraphs on the subject, which might be about odd subjects such as religions with supernatural females, or how certain emperors met their fate. It is the light hearted kind of tome you can pick up and put down repeatedly, and each time find something new.

Great book, which I suspected before I bought it. I was thrilled to find a topic I already had done quite a bit of research on and had also bored my family and friends to tears with... "Rock Stars who Died at 27" (might not be right on title, but you get my drift). I was so thrilled to see that I wasn't the only one expounding on it! Other than that, so much information, so interesting... well done.

There seems to be a trend over the last 10 years of books that try to make academic subjects more enjoyable and interesting--series such as the Idiot's and Dummies books, for example--which are often well done despite their light-hearted approach. This book seems to follow in their footsteps. Sure, it sometimes glosses over the subject matter, and doesn't go into a lot of technical detail, but if you consider that after reading one of the chapters in this book on, say, general science, history, or literature, the average person will probably know more than they remember from that college course of many years ago, these books do perform a useful service.

Of course, the pundits can always claim that they're just dumbing down their subject, but on the other hand, what better way to get the current semi-literate generation raised on MTV and video games to actually read something worthwhile for a change?

At this point I might fall into that category myself. :-) I was one of the "grinds," who studied sedulously and diligently while the other students were goofing off or partying, but what with the ravages of age and memory, much of that learning had been forgotten. When I read the chapter on art history, for example, I learned some new things, and many things that I had forgotten came back. Funny how powerful the principle of multiple association is, and memory psychologists have of course studied this in detail. But for me reading this book not only gave me some new insights but brought back so much that I had forgotten. So for me it was truly a little trip down "memory lane."

You'll find all the usual academic subjects here, as well as juicy tidbits and trivia such as "rock stars that died at 27." Sometimes the choice of a topic just seems to come from left field, such as in "The Ceremony of the Bambara People," in the Theater chapter, but it's all fun and you still learn a lot. (Oddly enough, my father, who was an amateur collecter of Africa art, had a Bambara antelope sculpture in his collection).

The book is well written and is just chock full of fun information, trivia, and facts. It's a fun, enjoyable, and even seductive little romp through many fields of learning, and gets points for performing a useful educational service. If people in this country just knew what was in this book they'd be a lot better off than they are now.

simply a delight to read. it's great to cram all of these random facts in when you have nothing else to do. even would make a great book for the loo.

Just as it promises, this is a fine book to get condensed knowledge on just about anything. It also stimulates you to research further on the subjects that intrigue you. Hmmm, I might have to pass this on to my teenage son and see if it stimulates his curiousity beyond video games...

I used this book to help me prepare for appearances on "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" and "The Weakest Link" and also to study for the "Jeopardy!" exam (which I passed). One of my questions on "The Weakest Link" was even something I had specifically seen in the book the night before the taping! I have since used the book as a handy reference numerous times.

I would perhaps ruefully suggest the addition of a certain piece of (in my opinion, obscure) information that was my downfall on "Millionaire" - that the lead singer of The Sugarcubes was Bjork. For the record, the "Millionaire" audience didn't know that either.

I highly recommend this book and am grateful to the author for his work in painstakingly cataloging so many facts.

I bought the book to prepare (cram, really) with about three weeks' lead time for my Jeopardy appearance. I can't say enough about the value of a reference like this when you have limited time. My friend and I used it over lunch and flipped through different categories each day. In turn, the things we went over gave us a springboard to look into other sources.

Remember, too, that if you're on a game show you most likely won't get questions so cut-and-dried as they appear in the book. ("Here's a fact; here's its location or date.") If you're studying with someone else, have them make up questions that use the info from the book.

The most helpful parts of the book involved frequently recalled figures and events of countries or eras. If you're asked about a Norwegian composer, you'll most likely answer, "Grieg." The author focuses on this level of information so that you know no more and no less than what you'll need in this situation.

But what good is easily accessible information if it's just plain WRONG? Other reviewers have noted the errors they found; for me, it came when he listed the director of Sunset Boulevard as Cecil B. DeMille... and then listed it correctly (Billy Wilder) on the very next page. And the director of Scarface: Jonathan Demme? Please. These are bush league facts that many non-trivia-geeks could recall at a moment's notice. Unacceptable.

I also noted some slightly odd choices for lists of "notables." Maybe it's just my perspective, but in some cases I'd never heard of a particular film or book that the author listed as a major work.

It's not expensive, so I'd recommend the purchase. However, keep your skepticism handy.

Every Jeopardy winner wants to cash in , and by and large this is a decent volume, but there are too many errors that I caught for it to be truly reliable. I wouldn't use a question from it without checking one other source. Clearly not all of these were carefully checked.

This book purports to offer information necessary to do well on game shows such as Jeopardy!, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, and so on. So of all things, such a source must be RELIABLE. This book is not reliable at all. It is fraught with so many errors that it's really not worth buying. Apparently Mr. Ferrill couldn't find anyone willing to edit his book. I could enumerate the errors that I found after carefully looking through the text, but I don't see what that would accomplish. Others have listed some errors that they found from quickly skimming it. That should tell you something.

Even if it were only the spelling errors and typos, I would say that this book is unforgivably sloppy; when writing a reference, especially one detailing trivia, it is essential that one proofreads carefully. One should not have typos such as "The designer of the TWA airpost" (rather than airport) being Eero Saarinen; the "probably pioneer" (rather than probability pioneer) being Blaise Pascal; a Japanese gangster being a Yasuka (rather than a Yakuza, I think); the Aztec god being Quetzaquadl (rather than Quetzalcoatl, unless that's an acceptable alternate spelling or a more recent transliteration of the spelling than I learned, which I suppose is possible); Kim Dae Jung did not win the "Noble" peace prize, but the Nobel; the Korean War Armistice Site is Panmunjon, not Panmunjom; the long wooden Swiss horn is an Alpenhorn, not an Alpinhorn; J.P. Morgan was a banking magnate, not a banking magnet; Lauasia was a "Northern" supercontinent, not a "Nouthern" one; Gneiss is "coarse" grain rock, not "course"; the author of "The Last Days of Pompeii" is Edward Bulwer-Lytton, not Edward Buliver-Litton; the Indians of Southern Florida are the Seminoles, not the Semiloles; Dave Barry is (was) the columnist for the Miami Herald, not Dave Berry; it is, shall we say, somewhat sloppy to say of James Knox Polk that "He was a ran on the platform of 'Manifest Destiny'..."; to say of Theodore Roosevelt that "he was the first president to travel outside the USA during his presidency to dedicate the Panama Canal" leads to the question, "did other presidents travel outside the USA during their presidencies for purposes OTHER than dedicating the Panama Canal?"; the ending year of Victoria's reign (1901) is left out of the table, although it is deducible by the fact that that is the year listed as the beginning of the reign of her successor; Eleanor of Aquitaine was "The Crusader Queen", not "The Cursader Queen"; Oberon is the king of the fairies, not the king of the faireis; the Democratic presidential nominee in 1984 was Walter Mondale, not Walter Monday; Marberry vs. Madison was declared unconstitutional, not "declaired" unconstitutional; the Territory bought from Mexico was the Gadsden Purchase, not the Gadsden Purchas; the Montana Freemen is a Militia, not a Malitia (although I'm sure their opponents consider the "mal" prefix appropriate); the 20th century Secretary of State from Maine was Edmund Muskie, not Edwin; the nickname of the sports teams from Wake Forest University is the Demon Deacons, not the Deamon Decons; the Senator from Texas is Phil Gramm, not Phil Grahm; Amelia Earhart was a pilot, not a pilor (whatever that may be); "Swashbucklers" is one word, not two (Swash Bucklers); Mount McKinley's native name is Denali, not Danili; the Battle of Leyte Gulf is "The largest sea battle in history; off the coast of the Philippines" NOT "The largest sea battle in history of the coast of the Philippines"; but the biggest error I found, the most truly unforgivable because it was unarguably an error of fact and not a typo or misspelling or grammatical error (as though those errors in a reference book were acceptable) was the identification of Alan Alda as "the Same Time Next Year & Catch-22 actor"; Alan Alda DID appear in "Same Time Next Year", but the Alan in Catch-22 was Alan ARKIN". Alan Alda did NOT appear in Catch-22, not even in a minor role.

Some may claim that this is picking nits, but how can you trust the information in a reference book that is so sloppily edited and proofread? It's ridiculous.

This book was jam-packed with both spelling and content errors; i am amazed that a man who considers himself a "Harry Potter authority" managed to misspell 'Ravenclaw' three times. Leading readers to believe that JK Rowling lives in Kensington (she lives in Edinburgh)and that zodiac ends in 'k', it makes me wonder a) if Lawrence pulled all his information off of casual fan sites who had no sources to back up their information, and b) whether anybody bothered to read this book before it was published.
There was some okay trivia, but none of it was incredibly challenging, and some of it was completely and utterly useless: i didn't buy the book to find out exactly how many copies of Order of the Phoenix were sold on the release date, or to find out information about some place that was used as a backdrop for one of the films. My advice: if you are an obsessive Harry Potter fan, like me, and are looking for a good trivia/companion book, DON'T choose this one.

Like others posting reviews, I can not fully enjoy any book that is jam-packed with mistakes. Blatant spelling mistakes repeated several times just chip away at an otherwise interesting compilation of facts about J.K. Rowling and the HP books and movies. The Multiple choice format could possibly be fun for a gathering of HP fans but was sometimes annoying when trying to flip forward and back between the answers. I'm rating it two stars for interesting content but horrible presentation.

A wonderfull mix of the old, new, and little known facts about Harry Potter and his creator, JK Rowling. Some people seem to forget that there is more to the Harry Potter books than paper and words. Someone actually has to WRITE them. This book rightly includes facts about JK Rowling herself along with the books and movies.

This was engaging and, like junk food, hard to put down after only a few pages. A very high degree of difficulty, especially for casual fans, but still fun.

This book delivered on the trivia exactly as promised but, I agree with the reviewer who is not interested in JK Rowling's midwife and favorite childhood book. HP fans want HP info and I think this book covered too much about the author. If I wanted a biography of JK Rowling I would have bought one. The same thing goes for the number of books published and the kind of paper they were printed on. I'm seeking a book on HP like "The Vampire Companion" published as the official guide to Anne Rice's "The Vampire Chronicles", or like "The Cat Who... Campanion" that have brief plots and character descriptions, maps, and other info on places, themes and symbols contained in the books. If you're looking for the same thing, skip this book

I ordered two (2) copies of Secret Lives of the US Presidents, which I never received. I did receive two copies of Radical Son by David Horowitz. When I inquired about this via email, your company said this was "gifted" to me. I thank you; my billing statement will or won't confirm that. I am still waiting for two (2) copies of Secret Lives of the US Presidents. I know the book is great, but there has been some confusion in delivery, and I would appreciate correction. Thanks for your inquiry.
Kim Christie

Nearly as interesting as this charming book was a read through its Amazon reviews. While SECRET LIVES is certainly praised herein, it's also lambasted for being too partisan left, or partisan right, or for not being titillating enough.

Yeesh. It must be hard to read a book when one's knee is jerking involuntarily.

One of the most critical (and currently highlighted) reader reviews takes issue with author O'Brien's research, citing the controversy of Thomas Jefferson siring children with his slave, Sally Hemmings. There is no controversy about this any longer; in 1998, geneticists proved a DNA link between Jefferson's and Hemmings' descendants.

While other male members of the Jefferson family might have accounted for this, an impressively extensive report done by the Thomas Jefferson Foundation found that "it is VERY UNLIKELY that Randolph Jefferson or any Jefferson other than Thomas Jefferson was the father of [Hemmings'] children." (Capitalization mine.)

Sorry to be so specific; in a more general vein, I found this book to be a perfect nighttime read, very funny, and a great refresher course on our presidents. Equal space is given to all, and as that allows obscure leaders like Franklin Pierce the spotlight, I was all for it.

When you think of secret lives of the the president you want to know all the dirt. Unfortunately this book does not deliver that. Very informative about details on the presidents that are not widely known, but not as interesting as I had hoped.

This is the most interesting book that I have ever read. Perhaps that is because I like politics and our presidents. But, every American should learn about their leaders, past and present.

Every now and then, the author exposes his liberal bias. What else would we expect from a presidential historian? If this offends you, read the book anyway. The author really criticizes, and praises, presidents of all parties.

I believe this author on most points as I have read some of his revelations elswwhere. And I have lived to witness our last 12 presidents, from Franklin D. Roosevelt until now.

You may learn as I did, that we have had just a few really good presidents. And a bunch of misfits. I believe the author correctly revealed that.

I recommend that anyone who cares about their country read this book.

i bought this as a gift for someone who enjoys presidential history, it presents all of our country's presidents in a playful light and has lots and lots of facts that are interesting, as well as nice little sketches of each of them. Its also a great bathroom reader type of book. Thumbs up

lots of good info, if you like fun facts this is a good book for you. I gave it as a gift and the person loved it.

Absolutely one of the most entertaining books in the house. Filled with mind boggeling information.

Next time you have an argument over facts, don't open your laptop, reach out for this huge book. I recommend it to everyone who's crazy about trivia. I also recommed another book, Eightstorm to anyone fanatic about innovation.

This book is marketed as a book of facts, and the other user reviews support this. I, however, see this as much more than a compendium of facts. This book is the ideal summary of everything one ought to know. While Google and Wikipedia would offer info-grabbers the answers faster, this 'textbook' provides a concise summary to just about everything, and can be read section by section, just like a textbook. It is quite literally a condensed 101 course to every subject you would find in a university's undergraduate catalog. It is a beacon of light in an era where 'training' has replaced education. If I were the founder of a college, I would make this book the required textbook for freshmen students. It is an introduction to everything everyone should know.

While many will say this book is good for trivia (and I am sure it is), I believe its main purpose is to find apposite information in a timely manner for the owner. Google is a very nice place to get information. But to walk to the computer, log on, perform a search, and sift through the results is a several step process taking time. Whereas, if one is looking for the Nobel Prize winner from three decades ago, or where the Olympics were held in the 1950's, all one needs to do is open this book up, and they will find the information very quickly. Much quicker than the internet, blasphemous as that may be in this internet-is-all era.

It should be noted that this does have its shortcomings however. In the medical section, "common" diseases are listed in alphabetical order, and believe it or not epilepsy is not listed, but Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever is! Under the heading for Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, it even says that approximately 1,000 cases are reported in the United States each year. If that is indeed the case, how did that make it onto their list of common diseases, when epilepsy is in fact one of the most common diseases affecting millions of people? They make no mention of their methodology for including, or not including, particular diseases, but oversights on areas such as this make me question the value of publications such as this. But even with that omission, this is a nice reference book to have on hand.

The internet clearly has its place as the place to go for exhaustive information on nearly any subject, but it should be noted that the tactile experience of books will never be replaced by silicon. To paraphrase mark Twain's famous expression: The reports of the demise of books have been greatly exaggerated.

This book provides little tidbits of information that we don't necessarily know about the first families. In some cases the authors left out some things that might have explained why the families were the way they were. The book becomes a bit tedious if read for too long a period of time. Read sparingly and soak it in, don't rush through it.

Former White House curator Clement Conger calls this one of the best White House books he's read. White House scholar William Seale also endorses it. I found it full of fasincating stories that really show what it was like for forty families to live in one house over 200 years.

I was so excited when I got this book. I love stories about Presidents. However, everything in this book I had read somehwere else. Same old boring stuff. No new pictures. Basically, I thought it was awful.

This book is a waste of time and money. It presents nothing that two other more significant works do not already present in more accurate, better edited ways. These two other works are: 1)Inside the White House: America's Most Famous House, The First 200 Years by Better Boyd Caroli, published by Canopy Books; and 2)The White House: Its Historic Furnishings and First Families by Betty C. Monkman, published by Abbeville Press. Caroli has much more research experience with the White House and the nation's first ladies, and Momkman actually worked in the White House Curator's Office.

If it were not for sloppy editing and factually incorrect information, the Whitcomb and Whitcomb book would be a nice addition to these two more accurate, and frankly more interesting works. Grammatical and punctuation errors pepper the entire book and really take away from its readability. Worse are the blatantly wrong facts presented in this book. For example, on page 371 in the chapter on Lyndon Johnson, Clark Clifford's wife is erroneously called "Mary." Her name was actually "Marny," which was a nickname for Margery (Margery Peperell Kimball). The authors interestingly cite Clark Clifford's memoir, Counsel To The President published by Random House, as a source of infomration for the chapters on Presidents Truman and Johnson.

On page 395, in the chapter about Richard Nixon, the authors state that Daniel Ellsburg was a psychiatrist. Had the two authors consulted Ellsberg's memoir, Secrets: A Memoir Of Vietnam And The Pentagon Papers, published by Viking Penguin, they would have seen that Ellsberg is indeed NOT a psychiatrist, but that he earned a doctoral degree in economics from Harvard and later worked in the Pentagon under Secretary McNamara. The authors are undoubtedly confused; there was a break-in at the office of Ellberg's psychiatrist (a Dr. Lewis Fielding...the real pshychiatrist), which was a scheme carried out by G. Gordon Liddy and E. Howard Hunt.

Another misconception put forth by Whitcomb and Whitcomb on page 395 is that the so-called "White House Plumbers" were the infamous Watergate burglars. The team known as the Plumbers consisted of four men: Liddy, Hunt, Bud Krogh, and David Young. Only Liddy and Hunt were present at the June 17th break-int. However, they were not members of the break-and-enter team. Hunt had recruited five cuban nationals and two Americans, one of whom (James McCord) worked for the CIA and was director of security for the Committee to Re-Elect the President (CREEP) to go into the Watergate. The authors negelected to consult the most accurate account of Watergate and events leading up to the infamous burglary, Watergate: The Corruption Of American Politics And The Fall Of Richard Nixon, published by Simon and Schuster. This book is the accompaniment to a documentary on Watergate developed by the BBC and the Discovery Channel.

These mistakes make me wonder what else the authors got wrong....and such factually inaccurate information really takes away from a historical work. I encourage readers to consult the Caroli and Monkman books for all things White House, as well as the independent biographies and memoirs of the presidents, first ladies, and their staff members (e.g., the memoir by Clark Clifford) instead of wasting their time and money on this sloppy attempt at historical writing.

I found this book full of information about the different Presidents and their families and how they adjusted to living in the White House.

There is a lot of information about earlier, less known Presidents, and I enjoyed reading those chapters.

I was also interested to read about all the pets over the years.
Every family seemed to have all sorts of animals.

It was interesting to read about the First Ladies and their "quirks". Mary Todd Lincoln ran up clothing bills that she tried to hide---just like Jackie.

Other stories that I found amusing were that Nixon would not allow guards or policemen to speak to him or Mrs. Nixon. Betty Ford couldn't understand why they ignored her greetings until this was explained to her.

Ronald Reagan served tea to Prince Charles who did not touch it because, as he explained later, he didn't know what to do with the little bag!

Many such amusing stories made this a truly enjoyable book. I recommend to anyone wanting to know about living in the White House.

The book is attractive and organized nicely. I planned to use it as a source for trivia games. I thought it would work well because of the Q and A format. However, many questions do not have simple one word answers and most are very specific. Even an expert would not know most of these answers. If you are looking to simply read interesting trivia, then it would be good. But, if you are looking for a source for games, do not buy it.

This is an excellent resource for the weekly trivia game where I live, an assisted living residence for people over age 60. All adult age groups - really, adolescents too - will enjoy this collection of Q's and A's.The questions cover a wide variety of subjects, and they are arranged logically and systematically. It's helpful that the answers are with the questions (on the back of the page), so you don't have to fumble around at the back of the book, trying to find the right set of answers, as you have to with so many trivia and quiz books. This nice, fat book is going to keep our weekly game well supplied with trivia questions for months to come!

Although I found this quiz book very tough going at first, once I found the answers in the back of the book I found myself getting the questions right about ninety per cent of the time! Come on give us a challenge!

The way this book is formatted, it overcomes some problems that many other trivia books share. For starters it is neatly categorized so that the reader can easily access trivia related to a particular (broad) category, instead of everything being scrambled together as is often the case.

secondly, it is in a question and answer format with questions on one side of a page and their answers on the reverse side. Frequently, I have found myself bouncing back and forth from the front section of a book where the questions are found to the back section for their answers. Just turning the page for the answer is really helpful.

Some of the answers do amaze you, while others make you laugh, or add to your store of useful knowledge.

Some examples:

Q. "What is unusual about Mona Lisa's eyebrows in ...Davinci's Painting?
A. "She has none."

Q. "What was the hometown of Sgt. Snorkel in Beetle Bailey?" A. "Pork Corners, Kansas"

Here's a great one:

Q. "On what vegetable did an ancient Egyptian place his right hand when taking an oath?"
A. "The onion, its round shape symbolized eternity."

I could go on and on, but let me end with just one more.

Q. "Where did the British regae band UB40 get its name?"
A. "From the code number on the British unemployment benefit card."

There are 5 thousand plus entries in every category from "A" (Arts and Literature) to 2 entries under "W" (War and the Military and The World).

You can have a lot of fun with this book, I know that I do.

while a lot of the info in this book useless info it is still a fun read.I got a long time ago and i still read it from time to time. i do not know if they still sale it, but i would say it is a good buy.