Knowledge Stew: The Guide to the Most Interesting Facts in the World, Volume 1 (Knowledge Stew Guides)


Daniel Ganninger - 2015
    Improve your knowledge and find things you've never heard before, or learn the facts behind the facts you already knew.So sit back, grab a spoon, and help yourself to a heaping bowl of Knowledge Stew.

F in Exams: The Best Test Paper Blunders


Richard Benson - 2008
    Celebrating the creative side of failure in a way we can all relate to, F in Exams gathers the most hilarious and inventive test answers provided by students who, faced with a question they have no hope of getting right, decide to have a little fun instead. Whether in science (Q: What is the highest frequency noise that a human can register? A: Mariah Carey), the humanities (Q: What did Mahatma Gandhi and Genghis Khan have in common? A: Unusual names), math, or other subjects, these 250 entries prove that while everyone enjoys the spectacle of failure, it's even sweeter to see a FAIL turn into a WIN.

Andy Roddick Beat Me with a Frying Pan: Taking the Field with Pro Athletes and Olympic Legends to Answer Sports Fans' Burning Questions


Todd Gallagher - 2007
    But some debates can never be settled no matter how much you run up your bar tab arguing with your friends. Well, it’s time to answer your questions once and for all: • Could an average guy start in the WNBA?• Would sumo wrestlers make great NFL linemen?• How easy is it for pro athletes to get laid? • How good are pro golfers at miniature golf?• Do pro athletes really play drunk or high?• How would a fan hit against a major league pitcher?To settle more than thirty of sports’ greatest (and most ridiculous) debates, Todd Gallagher has teamed up with coaches, general managers, and athletes—including LeBron James, Mike Tyson, Dwyane Wade, Johan Santana, Eddie George, Jose Canseco, and many others. But Gallagher didn’t just ask questions. He put these debates to the test—literally. He sent an all-midget lineup up against a pro baseball team. He swam freestyle against a doggie-paddling Olympic gold medalist. He recruited America's #1 darts player to test that uncanny accuracy in beer pong. And, yes, he stuck a frying pan in tennis star Andy Roddick’s hands and went to battle.The results are hilarious and enlightening. Best of all, once you have the answers you’ll be able to shut up the next loudmouth who tries to debate you at the bar.

Maphead: Charting the Wide, Weird World of Geography Wonks


Ken Jennings - 2011
    Much as Brainiac offered a behind-the-scenes look at the little-known demimonde of competitive trivia buffs, Maphead finally gives equal time to that other downtrodden underclass: America's map nerds.In a world where geography only makes the headlines when college students are (endlessly) discovered to be bad at it, these hardy souls somehow thrive. Some crisscross the map working an endless geographic checklist: visiting all 3,143 U.S. counties, for example, or all 936 UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Some pore over million-dollar collections of the rarest maps of the past; others embrace the future by hunting real-world cartographic treasures like "geocaches" or "degree confluences" with GPS device in hand. Some even draw thousands of their own imaginary maps, lovingly detailing worlds that never were.Ken Jennings was a map nerd from a young age himself, you will not be surprised to learn, even sleeping with a bulky Hammond atlas at the side of his pillow, in lieu of the traditional Teddy bear. As he travels the nation meeting others of his tribe--map librarians, publishers, "roadgeeks," pint-sized National Geographic Bee prodigies, the computer geniuses behind Google Maps and other geo-technologies--he comes to admire these geographic obsessives. Now that technology and geographic illiteracy are increasingly insulating us from the lay of the land around us, we are going to be needing these people more than ever. Mapheads are the ones who always know exactly where they are--and where everything else is as well.

Inconspicuous Consumption: An Obsessive Look at the Stuff We Take for Granted, from the Everyday to the Obscure


Paul Lukas - 1997
    He wanders the aisles of supermarkets, hardware stores, and secondhand shops, taking obsessively detailed notice of products and services that are either too obscure or weird for us to notice, or so ubiquitous that we've stopped seeing them at all. He reviews them all in his acclaimed 'zine, Beer Frame: The Journal of Inconspicuous Consumption. In Inconspicuous Consumption you'll find the very best of these hilarious reviews - 100 products and services that add up to an irresistible read. From kitschy novelties and wildly unappetizing food products to beautifully functional items, Inconspicuous Consumption is a delightful celebration of the sometimes elegant, sometimes ridiculous, and always unsung fringes of our late-twentieth-century consumer culture.

Five Hundred Mile Walkies


Mark Wallington - 1986
    His two-legged companion is Mark. This is a heroic study of survival against the odds, as together they take a journey, up hill and down dale, with rucksacks full of kennomeat, along Britain's longest coastal footpath - from Somerset to Devon, from Cornwall to Dorset.

101 Secrets of the Freemasons: The Truth Behind the World's Most Mysterious Society


Barbara Karg - 2009
    Edgar Hoover to brilliant imaginer Walt Disney and bad boy of baseball Ty Cobb, Freemasons have influenced every aspect of American life. Yet this secret society remains as controversial and mysterious as ever. In this book, you'll learn the truth about: The power and meaning behind the symbols, rites, and rituals Alleged connections with Jack the Ripper, the KKK, and the Holy Grail Freemasons vs. the Nazis The centuries-long rivalry with the Catholic Church Freemasonry's growing influence here and abroad As the largest--and oldest--fraternal organization, the Freemasons will continue to shape the world we live in for the foreseeable future. With this tell-all guide, you'll unravel the mystery of this intriguing society--one secret at a time!

How Sachin Destroyed My Life ...but gave me an All Access Pass to the world of cricket


Vikram Sathaye - 2014
    The book documents his incredible journey of Indian Cricket as he takes us inside dressing rooms, hotels and the inner thoughts of leading cricketers. With a foreword by Sachin Tendulkar, this book is laced with crackling humour and brimming with interesting anecdotes, insights, quotes, and candid photographs, from cricketing legends like Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Yuvraj Singh, Virender Sehwag, among others. This book promises to reveal many more inside secrets!

Who Stole My Spandex?: Life in the Hot Flash Lane


Marcia Kester Doyle - 2016
    Who Stole My Spandex? is a witty selection of stories from Doyle’s madcap world of menopausal pitfalls, wardrobe malfunctions, and a family full of pranksters. This clever compilation includes laugh-out-loud pieces like "Queen of Klutz,” "One Size Fits None," and "Hands off my Egg Roll!" From couples' colonoscopies to nightmare holidays to disappearing spandex, no topic—no matter how crazy or unimaginable—is too taboo. With a heavy dose of self-deprecating humor, and a dash of sentiment, this marvelous collection of anecdotes will resonate with anyone who’s ever felt the call of nature at exactly the wrong time. Welcome to the nuthouse that Marcia Kester Doyle calls home.

You Might Be a Zombie and Other Bad News


Cracked.com - 2011
    Some facts are too terrifying to teach in school. Unfortunately, Cracked.com is more than happy to fill you in:* A zombie apocalypse? It could happen. 50% of humans are infected with a parasite that can take over your brain.* The FDA wouldn't let you eat bugs, right? Actually, you might want to put down those jelly beans. And that apple. And that strawberry yogurt.* Think dolphins are our friends? Then these sex-crazed thrill killers of the sea have you right where they want you.* The most important discovery in the history of genetics? Francis Crick came up with it while on LSD.* Think you're going to choose whether or not to buy this book? Scientists say your brain secretly makes all your decisions 10 seconds before you even know what they are.If you’re a fan of The Oatmeal or Frak.com and hate being wrong about stuff, you’ll love what you find in You Might Be a Zombie from the twisted minds at Cracked.

The World According to Clarkson


Jeremy Clarkson - 2004
    He has, as they say, been around a bit. And as a result, he's got one or two things to tell us about how it all works; and being Jeremy Clarkson he's not about to voice them quietly, humbly and without great dollops of humour.In The World According to Clarkson, he reveals why it is that:Too much science is bad for our health'70s rock music is nothing to be ashamed ofHunting foxes while drunk and wearing night-sights is neither big nor cleverWe must work harder to get rid of cricketHe likes the Germans (well, sometimes)With a strong dose of common sense that is rarely, if ever, found inside the M25, Clarkson hilariously attacks the pompous, the ridiculous, the absurd and the downright idiotic, whilst also celebrating the eccentric, the clever and the sheer bloody brilliant.Less a manifesto for living and more a road map to modern life, The World According to Clarkson is the funniest book you'll read this year. Don't leave home without it.

Stuff I Forgot to Tell My Daughter


Michele A'Court - 2015
    But you haven't been me, yet ... You should listen.' Liberated from the daily minutiae when her daughter left home, Michele A'Court suddenly found the time she'd never had as a parent - to think about being a parent. Mostly, she spent the time wondering if she'd told her daughter everything she needed to know - such as how to store ginger, get rid of bloodstains, calculate GST, stop your tights snagging, the meaning of feminism ... that sort of thing. So she began to make a list. The list became a hit solo comedy show. And then the list kept getting longer. So now it has become a book. A funny, wise, honest and maybe even useful book. Turns out I raised a determined young woman with her own very clear ideas about how to live her life. Who saw that coming? I blame the mother.

Mommy Knows Worst: Highlights from the Golden Age of Bad Parenting Advice


James Lileks - 2005
    . . a time when parents everywhere strove for the American Dream—manicured lawns, a shiny car in the driveway, and perfect children playing in the yard. Raising kids was simpler back then, or was it?In Mommy Knows Worst, you’ll be treated to a visual feast of past parenting neuroses—as well as insight into why concerned moms and dads were driven to buy “delicious” baby laxatives, douse their baby in oil and put him in the sun, and strap Junior into a car seat that bore a strange resemblance to scrap metal. If you’re a baby boomer who lived through this childhood torture, well, we’re sorry. But if humor really is the best medicine (rather than bicarbonate of curd and mustard plaster, as was previously recommended for childhood ailments), then Mommy Knows Worst is cheaper than therapy.Photographs, advertisements, magazine articles, and government-issue parenting guides, which seemed so helpful in their day, are given a whole new slant by the master of the genre, James Lileks. Mommy Knows Worst is a rollicking tribute to old-fashioned parenting that gives us a whole new reason not to forget our past—it’s hilarious!

Zeus Grants Stupid Wishes: A No-Bullshit Guide to World Mythology


Cory O'Brien - 2013
    In reality, mythology is more screwed up than a schizophrenic shaman doing hits of unidentified. Wait, it all makes sense now. In Zeus Grants Stupid Wishes, Cory O’Brien, creator of Myths RETOLD!, sets the stories straight. These are rude, crude, totally sacred texts told the way they were meant to be told: loudly, and with lots of four-letter words. Skeptical? Here are just a few gems to consider: � Zeus once stuffed an unborn fetus inside his thigh to save its life after he exploded its mother by being too good in bed. � The entire Egyptian universe was saved because Sekhmet just got too hammered to keep murdering everyone. � The Hindu universe is run by a married couple who only stop murdering in order to throw sweet dance parties…on the corpses of their enemies. � The Norse goddess Freyja once consented to a four-dwarf gangbang in exchange for one shiny necklace. And there’s more dysfunctional goodness where that came from.

And Now...An Oral History of "Late Night with David Letterman," 1982-1993


Brian Abrams - 2014
    In this definitive oral history of "Late Night," Letterman’s NBC 12:30 am talk show that aired from 1982 to 1993, writers, producers, executives and actors share revealing stories — from the origins of the "Top 10" lists and "Stupid Pet Tricks" to the battle over who would replace Letterman’s mentor, Johnny Carson, as host of "The Tonight Show," to Letterman’s final days at 30 Rock before moving to CBS for "The Late Show." Brian Abrams has been described as "the Ken Burns of presidential alcoholism." His first book, "Party Like a President: True Tales of Inebriation, Lechery, and Mischief from the Oval Office" (Workman Publishing), is scheduled for release in February 2015. He has written for Playboy, Heeb, High Times, Mental_Floss and other publications, and has contributed to the books "I’m a Lebowski, You’re a Lebowski: Life, The Big Lebowski, and What Have You" and "Reefer Movie Madness: The Ultimate Stoner Film Guide." He lives in New York City. Cover design by Adil Dara.