Charles Panati

At first I found the details about early uses of aphorisms tedious, but have came to enjoy them, and even began wishing that the one from Ancient Greek be written in Greek characters. Chasing down the origins of all these sayings must have taken years.

For me, this book is 4.5 stars. I quite got into it, and want to look at it again from time to time.

After a while you can come to know what you're going to get from Charles Panati. Lots of little articles full of facts (at least I hope they are) that you can't wait but to drop into conversation so as to sound intelligent.

"Panati's Extraordinary Endings of Practically Everything and Everybody" muses on death for a while before moving onto other, just as upbeat topics like cemeteries and last wills and testaments. He eventually gets back to deaths with references to varying forms of capital show more punishments and species extinctions, stretching from the trilobite to the quagga and heath hen.

If I was a bogan and left reading material next to the toilet, this would be the sort of book you'd find in my bathroom. show less

The title "Extraordinary Origins of Everyday Things" is somewhat misleading as only a handful of the origin stories Panati covers could be described as anything more than somewhat interesting. Granted, there are a few eye opening origins studied, such as how barbiturates were created and others also held my interest but, even beyond the lack of extraordinariness, the facts that its 1980s publication and its America-centeredness also leave one underwhelmed.

There is still content to pique your show more interest though, so don't give up on this too early. show less

I love books full of trivia and facts and tidbits of history, and Charles Panati excels at exactly that. This (and the other books in the series) can be opened at nearly any page and read through for any length, and you'll come out with something useful for a conversation, to start your own research, or just to think about.