Really, really eclectic but wonderful collection of trivia and facts. I love this kind of information, like the secret language of knitting my wife is using to crochet blankets and gifts. Or an exhaustive chart on garment care symbols or should I happen to mosey past a lost cow, I'll know who owns it if it is branded with a set of symbols, so that also assumes I have the book with me because I'll never remember this stuff. Lots of fun for lovers of collections of random knowledge. ( )

I love these types of books. I picked it up on a whim at a neighborhood tag sale, and when I got home, and opened it, I was giddy with the eccentric variety of useful facts contained within.

A page of English Public School plan, the solution to the Hampton Court Maze, English/Continental glove size conversions … all on two facing pages. Then there’s seriously useful stuff, like the molecular structure of caffeine, the Glasgow coma scale, and how to read Hazmat warning plates. And the generally useful stuff, like an egg sizes scales (both traditional and modern), clothing care symbols, and clothing/shoe size conversions between British, American and European standards.

MT and I laughed at some of the silly things it includes too, like Scottish clan war cries, WWII Postal Acronyms and the degrees of Freemasonry.

I delight in collections of useful and less-than-useful information; as this book has a bit of both, it’s a gem of a find for me and my personal library. And of course, I’m curious about whether or not there’s an updated edition. ( )

Love it love it love it. And that some much of it is pointless: it's great. ( )

I found this book in the discard books for sale at the local library. And, there's a reason for it being discarded - this edition was published in 2003. Some of the information is outdated, especially pertaining to history (list of American presidents, for example). However, that does not detract from the book - Its one of the best trivia books I've read. Organization is great, subject matter is interesting, timely, and serious. There is no fluff to this book.

Highly recommended, but I suspect a more recent edition will be better. ( )

This is really a book for dipping into rather than reading but I did enjoy my journey through it. The miscellany included often provoked a laugh such as the entry listing some of Anatole's meals (Anatole is the chef of Bertie Wooster's Aunt Dahlia, in case you are not a Wodehouse aficionado). If you have any taste for trivia, this is worth browsing! ( )