This book also helped me discover what kind of genius I am: an idiot savant, minus the savant.
If you are like me, which I am positive at least one person out there is (my sympathies), you just don't have the time to read all 550,000 words of Tolstoy's War and Peace but you know it's going to be on life's test, then this is the book for you.
The MF team of writers is absolutely brilliant at reducing extremely complex and complicated material into terms that even someone with my limited mental faculties can grasp. I felt so energized and mentally refueled after reading this book I was able to assemble a fission bomb in my kitchen using simple tools like baking soda and peroxide. (Honestly, I don't understand why the terrorists are having such trouble, that thing exploded real good.)
Perhaps the best thing about the entire series of mental_floss books is how well they intertwine the elements of humor and sophisticated wit within nuggets of interesting facts. These writers know their audience: ADD suffering info junkies. The wisdom to combine information such as which geniuses were infected with syphilis with who suffered from drug addiction (in many cases both) takes a keen understanding of what the masses want to know.
There is no better way to impress your friends at a cocktail party that to rattle off histories greatest works of literature, and then follow up with a sweet anecdote about Mozart writing a dirty lyric for a canon which stated "Lick my [*blank*] nice and clean." The MF writers didn't include the actual word out of “common decency,” but I am guessing it wasn't his plate.
Article comments
1 - GL Hauptfleisch
Great article, Dawn, but what if your ADD-suffering pertains to even this book--is there a Mental Floss for Dummies available? And a Cliffs Notes for the Mental Floss for Dummies, too?
2 - Dawn
Muchos gracias Gordon!!! And if there were a way to distill knowledge even further, I would be first in line. I am so ADD I forget to forget sometimes.
3 - Matthew T. Sussman
Scenario 4: I'm a white male, age 18 to 35, looking to make money on the side by creating a bootleg version of Trivial Pursuit so I can stop selling other people's organs out of my van.
4 - Dawn
Mental_floss has an answer for even you, Matt.
5 - Natalie Bennett
This article has been selected for syndication to Advance.net, which is affiliated with newspapers around the United States. Nice work!
6 - Dawn
Awesome!!! Thanks NB!
7 - GL Hauptfleisch
This article has been selected as an Editors' Pick. Congratulations! But no fabulous prizes!