Presented in handy pocket-size, this title catalogues the various misconceptions, mistakes and misunderstandings in 'common knowledge' that can make you wonder why anyone bothers going to school.

Intends to provide you great wisdom in the morning, several conversational bons mots for the afternoon, and many an enlightened smile after dark. This book contains the 13 principles of witchcraft, the structure of military hierarchy, clothing care symbols, a list of the countries where you drive on the left, and a nursery rhyme about sneezing.

A sporting book featuring topics which include: the rules of elephant polo; the perils of the Cresta Run; the intricacies of the Palio; the breathtaking antics of Kabaddi; or why surfing is the 'Sport of Kings' (in Hawaii).

A quiz book which answers brain-twisting questions. It asks readers to recall as many items as they can from a list, and to solve the hidden links between groups of questions. It also includes anecdotes, comments and curious facts.

Full title: 'Uncle John's Bathroom Reader - The Wonderful World of Odd'.

A clever, pacey thriller set around the search for a lost Shakespearean play.

Hundreds of questions you've never dared ask - the follow up to the hugely successful New York Times bestseller.

1001 (or So) Absolutely True Tidbits About (Mostly) Everything. A hilarious factual romp through history, politics, religion and science - full of plenty of useless information to impress your friends with.

A Macabre Miscellany is bursting with gruesome and chilling facts - modern and historic - about crime and punishment, imprisonment, torture and death by a terrifying range of methods.

A sixteenth installment of the trivia series is organized under short, medium, and longer-length reading segments and covers a wide array of subjects, from the origins of superglue and news stories about underwear to famous animals and Wild West heroes.

A visual history of the 20th century, the photographs in this volume cover events which range from the hard history of politics to new inventions, the arts, society and fashion. The images have been drawn from international agencies such as Life, Magnum, Picture Post and Stern.

A successor to Schott's Original Miscellany .

Contains hundreds of questions you'd only ask your doctor after your third martini.

Who were the five strangest mathematicians in history? What are the ten most interesting numbers? Full of thought-provoking mathematical mysteries, puzzles, and games, this text should enchant even the most left-brained of readers.

As an editor at Esquire , AJ Jacobs had built up knowledge of celebrity trivia - and the cure was going to take a long time. While others read a broadsheet at the weekend, or become casual newsnight enthusiasts, Jacobs elected to read the Encyclopaedia Britannica . Part assemblage of trivia, part journey through adulthood, this is fun to read.

This history of reading goes from the earliest examples of the clay tablets and cuneiform of ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt to today's digital revolution. It argues that it is the demands of the reader, acting alongside the will of the writer, that is the evolutionary motor of literary genres.

Bill Bryson describes himself as a reluctant traveller, but even when he stays safely in his own study at home, he can't contain his curiosity about the world around him. This book is his quest to understand everything that has happened from the Big Bang to the rise of civilization.

Asking questions about human motivation and living and reaching some conclusions, this book aims to be at the heart of things we see and do and the subjects that bedevil us: from parenting to crime, sport to politics, fat to cheating, fear to traffic jams.