When you read two books in a row that point out how much you don’t know, it’s a humbling experience. However, it’s enjoyable to share that lack of knowledge with other people.
The Book of General Ignorance by John Lloyd and John Mitchinson lists things that the average person doesn’t know. This collection of 230 common misperceptions was compiled for the BBC panel game QI (Quite Interesting), so it has a British slant. But whether you’re British or American, there are questions that will arouse your curiosity.
Did you think that Teflon was invented as a byproduct of the space program? Wrong! Stone Age people lived in caves, right? Wrong. Cinderella’s slippers were not made out of glass. The Book of General Ignorance dispels myths about animals, history and popular culture in a fun book for trivia buffs.
Rick Beyer’s The Greatest Presidential Stories Never Told collects 100 stories for presidential history buffs. I’ll confess I’m a big fan of Beyer’s previous books, The Greatest Stories Never Told and The Greatest War Stories Never Told. In conjunction with The History Channel, Beyer compiles fascinating little books with two-page entries for each historical fact. His latest book is 200 pages of presidential trivia.
These strange and fascinating stories are presented in chronological order, beginning in 1620, with the story of a man who washed overboard from the Mayflower. John Howland was rescued, which saved three presidents. His descendants include Franklin D. Roosevelt and the two George Bushes. As a side note, if he had died, we would not have had Humphrey Bogart, Alec Baldwin, or Joseph Smith, founder of the Church of Latter-day Saints.
Which former president sided with the south in the Civil War, and even served in the Confederate Congress? John Tyler. Grover Cleveland, in his job as a sheriff in New York, was once an executioner. Beyer’s books are all fascinating for readers who enjoy history.
If you’re willing to feel ignorant, and enjoy learning what you don’t know, it’s worth picking up Lloyd and Mitchinson’s The Book of General Ignorance and The Greatest Presidential Stories Never Told by Rick Beyer.
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