Bears cant run downhill or can they? (Bears Can't Run Downhill - Robert Anwood)

Member Name: mtpatton

Product:	Bears Can't Run Downhill - Robert Anwood
Date:	20/06/09 (87 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Witty, funny read, Short explanations over all 'facts'

Disadvantages: Some facts are boring!

I'm sure that anybody over the legal drinking age will have experienced at some point in their drinking experiences one of the dubious pubs facts that Robert Anwood wittingly and cleverly writes about in this book.
The book is Atwood states not a book of facts, but a book or pub facts. These are two different entities. To understand the concept is simple for any fellow drinker among us. As soon as someone has a couple of pints they become an expert in any given topic matter, Hence while legitimate facts evolve unnecessary into an entirely different story.

The book contains 201 pub facts that are divided up into six-block sections of
- Nature - The natural world contains a wide variety of weird and wonderful animal which the knowledgeable pub genius is aware of
- Showbiz - People love to gossip about other people and therefore numerous stories are developed over time regarding musicians, movies stars and TV stars.
- The Law - How precisely were the laws first made and evolved to how we know them today
- History - Lets be honest, the winning parties only ever write history over time, and therefore some of it's got to be a bit made up hasn't it?
- Sports - People who are in the pub a lot tend to do fewer sports and hence do they try to bad mouth sports?
- Geography - Is, as the author puts it from his school, a very broad subject where none of the other subject matter fits into

Each of the dubious facts presented in the book have been researched extensively to prove or disprove each of the statements. I knew by the sub sections that I would like Nature, History and Geography. I wasn't sure how I would be able to handle the others.

Nature
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Obviously within this section of the book the title fact resides of bears cant run downhill. I was taught a similar myth when I was growing up that cows cant run downhill. Some excellent examples of the dubious facts uncovered in this section are
- Polar bears are left handed
- A mouse can fit through a hole the size of a biro
- The scientific name for a Gorilla is Gorilla, Gorilla, Gorilla.

Personally I found this section extremely easy to read as each of the statements was extremely well argued in a comical format. It is easy to tell that each of the 'facts' in this section was extensively well researched. This made me tackle the showbiz section hoping that this would beat my expectations.

Nature scores 8/10 - I learnt a lot of things in this section of the book. This section is 44 pages long and contains 32 of these facts

Showbiz
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The section of the book I was least looking forward to. I hate gossiping stories about celebrities that certain newspapers and magazine's rely on to actually sell anything, so would I like this section? Within here facts uncovered included

- Bob Holness was the first person to play James Bond
- Marilyn Monroe had six toes
- The Jackson's song blame it on the boogie was written by a different Michael Jackson.
This section actually surprised me, as it was a lot less gossipy then I feared, but was again based on solid facts. However it was still my least favourite section of the book

Showbiz scores 4/10, this section is 48 facts and is 60 pages long. I personally didn't like this section as some of the stories related to people I am not overly familiar with, it also seemed to take me a lot longer to read this part of the book

Science
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This part of the book to me could have either been a really thrilling part to read or potentially really boring but containing items like
- A study showed that a bowl of peanuts on a pub bar contained traces of 100 different types of urine
- The Earth has three north poles
- Tea does not actually contain caffeine but a similar substance called Teaeine

I think shows the quite wide-ranging aspect of the chapter and personally I found it one of the more enjoyable sections of the book.
This section is very well written and scores a respectable 7/10. This contains 27 facts and is 36 pages long.

The law
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Again another section that could have gone one of two ways like the science section as I must admit I find aspects of the law quite dull but again this was written in my opinion like the science section with many interesting aspects picked out like

- Its illegal to get divorced in Malta
- Computer games are illegal in Greece
- Brown sauce is legally allowed to contain 20% maggots
Like the science section I really quite enjoyed this one, which I didn't think I would.
It weights in with twenty pub facts and is 26 pages long.

History
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I like my history and study up to A levels in he subject simply because I like knowing where man came from and has evolved over time. I know that history can be extremely biased to the winning side for things like battles but many of the facts in this section aren't reliant on the winning teams. Pub facts highlighted here include

- Russians celebrate the October revolution in November
- Americans and Canadians celebrate thanksgiving in different months
- The bank of England was set up by a Scotsman
A good part of the book but I personally thought it was going to be better then it was. It weights in with 26 pub facts and is 34 pages long. Scores a 6/10

Sports
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Sports, to me, are one of my keen interests in life. I like most sports invented and like to know interesting facts about them

- 'Golf' originally stood for 'gentlemen only, ladies forbidden'
- The bloke who invented jogging, died jogging.
- Arthur Conan Doyle introduced skiing to Switzerland
A very good section that I always knew I would look forward to and was personally pleased that it appeared near the back of the book. If it was at the front and I didn't like it I probably would not have read on.

8/10 containing 17 pub facts and 24 pages long

Geography
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This broad subject contains pub facts like:
- There are no trees in Iceland
- The town Levan is the word Navel backwards because its in the center of Utah
- There is a park bench in Bristol that has its own postcode

Again this is a good section of the book and scores 7/10. It contains 30 pub facts and is one of the bigger parts of the book.
Conclusion

A book that I was able to read quite quickly due to the witty way that each of the pub facts is presented. I like the way the book is laid out in sections. Within the section each pub fact is in bold text and at the end of the fact is the verdict, with an interesting related fact. The author tries to argue both the pro and anti for the fact, unless it's a really stupid fact. This book reminded me of the QI book, but in my opinion is better then that book as I found it more enjoyable to read.

The book costs £9.99 in hard back, and is available in all good book shops.

Summary: A good read to birng amusing stories to anyones storytelling abilites