Ben Schott

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 show more 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. show less

This is pretty much indistinguishable from the real deal - Schott mimics Wodehouse perfectly. It's laugh-out-loud funny, and an all-around fun read.

I listened to the audiobook, and the narrator channels Hugh Laurie's Bertie Wooster very convincingly.

The deceptively thin Schott's Original Miscellany is a large and delightful collection of bizarre, interesting, or even sometimes useful bits of trivia such as how to wrap a sari, the knights of the Round Table, a discussion on pencil hardness and a the "to be or not to be" speech presented in Pig Latin.

Schott presents his facts in a completely serious manner that disguises a bit of dry wit. I read the book from cover to cover, sometimes laughing, sometimes saying "I didn't know that!" and show more sometimes just agog at the fact that such information is collected in one tome. I mean, where else could you find instructions for measuring bra size on the page facing the schematic of Dante's Inferno?

This is a five star book all the way and would make a perfect gift for any trivia fan. I'm just sorry I waited so long to buy it and I'm not sure how I ever lived without having the Irish Code Duello or Archaic Golf Club Nomenclature or various Sesquipedalians at my fingertips. Thanks Mr. Schott--I look forward to the next two! show less

Disclaimer: I was given a free copy of this book in return for an honest review.

What a treat to get an unexpected sequel to Ben Schott's excellent "Jeeves and the King of Clubs".

I'm usually wary of Wodehouse pastiches – anyone wanting to see what bilge they can be might want to consult any recent speech by our beloved PM – but Schott captures the joy of PG's writing. His linguistic dexterity is more than up to the task (this review could easily be a stream of quotes from the book) and show more he gets the often-unrecognised tightness of Wodehouse's writing. All with a brand new set of japes and angles for Bertie to be drawn into.

Just the thing for dark and gloomy evenings in dark and gloomy times. Top-hole. show less