mental_floss magazine extends its quirky and entertaining approach to fascinating facts and information to book form and "forbidden knowledge."

Book Review: mental_floss Presents: Forbidden Knowledge

Tim Gebhart December 13, 2005 1 Comment 161 Views

4 Things to Know Before You Read mental_floss Presents: Forbidden Knowledge.: 1. It’s a collection of historical facts and trivia, to use a word that somewhat unfairly cheapens the content.; 2. The overwhelming majority of it consists of short, narrative lists much like this review but with lengthier and more informative entries.; 3. You will learn something.; 4. It’s compiled by the editors of mental_floss, a magazine that believes information can be presented in a funny and entertaining fashion.
3 Reasons the Book is Called Forbidden Knowledge.: 1. Each of the seven chapters centers on one of the Seven Deadly Sins: pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath and sloth.; 2. The first person thanked in the Acknowledgments is “the Devil for making a book about sins possible.” Following shortly thereafter are such luminaries as Caligula, Nero, Genghis Khan and Atilla and all the Huns.; 3. The editors are focusing on the stuff you shouldn’t know, not what you feel you’re supposed to know.
5 of the More Intriguing Topics.: 1. “9 Famous Bastards Who Made Their Mark.”; 2. “5 Greatest Syphilitics of All Time.”; 3. “3 Delicious Animals We Charbroiled into Extinction — and 1 That Tasted Nasty but We Killed It Anyway.”; 4. “War, What Is It Good For? Well, 3 Things, Actually.”; 5. “5 Inventions Better Than the Remote.”
3 Historical Figures You’ve Probably Never Heard of Who Make an Appearance and Why.: 1. Saragon the Great (ca. 2360-2279 BCE), heading the list of “9 Famous Bastards Who Made Their Mark.”; 2. Commodus (1651-192 CE), ranked first in “4 World Leaders Who Accomplished Absolutely Nothing”; 3. Ethelred the Unready, one of the “5 Laziest Kings of All Time.”
6 Historical Figures Who Make At Least Three Appearances in the Book: 1. Leonardo DaVinci.; 2. Napoleon.; 3. Alexander the Great.; 4. F. Scott Fitzgerald.; 5. Joseph Stalin.; 6. Genghis Khan.
3 Irritating Aspects of the Book.: 1. Stretching topics a bit, such as “6 Servings of Swine: The Worst Pork Barrel Politics Revealed” in the Gluttony chapter.; 2. Reading numerous lists in a row can be wearing. Although the magazine also loves lists (such as the “The 20 Most Annoying People in History”), it also incorporates content in a more straightforward narrative style.; 3. The effort to combat Irritation 2 with occasional sidebars, such as some individual’s “Horrible-Terrible, No-Good, Very Bad Day” or “Lies Your Mother Told You”, doesn’t work as well as in the magazine and tends to produce segments that do not necessarily fit the theme.
1 Glaring Mistake That Never Should Have Made It Into Print: 1. Spelling the names of John and Tom Fogerty of Creedence Clearwater Revival as Fogarty.
4 Handy Uses for this Book.: 1. You can pick it up any time you’re looking for something to do, even if only for a couple minutes. (Cross-reference: Item 1, “4 Reasons This Book is Fun to Read” below).; 2. Using a few minutes of spare time to gain actual historical knowledge.; 3. An entertaining Christmas present for the hard-to-buy-for who might actually read.; 4. It might come in handy if you’re ever on a game show requiring knowledge of interesting, arcane or slightly bawdy historical knowledge. Of course, unless you have a wonderful memory, you may want to ask first if you can take the book with you.
4 Reasons This Book is Fun to Read.: 1. You can take and read it anywhere, even the bathroom, for which it might be perfectly suited (in terms of available reading time, not content).; 2. You need not read it in sequential order. You can can skip around all you want and the odd-numbered pages always tell you which of the Seven Deadly Sins into which you have ventured.; 3. Although every fact is true (at least insofar as this reviewer knows), the quirky, humorous and tongue-in-cheek tone proves that learning need not be painful.; 4. How many other books can you read that actually call Ben Franklin a “man slut” — twice?