Schott's Original Miscellany - Ben Schott

Every so often I am faced with a question I don't know the answer to. Like what gift you are supposed to give on a first wedding anniversary. Or who won the World Cup in 1994. I could look the answer up on the internet but that involves getting the laptop out of its case, plugging it in, switching it on.... Instead, far easier to pluck this book from its handy location on my living room bookcase and keep my fingers crossed that the answer I need is inside - it invariably is. This book contains all the useful pieces of information you might ever need to know and also a lot that you won't but which are nevertheless very interesting. Here's a random ...  Read the complete review

This is one of those books that you will never sit down and actually read but simply pick off the book shelf, read a few pages and then put it back again. It's perfect for people who love quizzes, as it's full of weird and wonderful information. The blurb on the inside cover describes it as a book like no other, which is entertaining, unpredictable and utterly addictive. I certainly wouldn't disagree with any of this, but the £9.99 RRP that this tiny little book holds, seems to be on the steep side for me. The book is written by a man called Ben Schott, but other than that, it doesn't really give any more background information other than delving ...  Read the complete review

I first became aware of Ben Schott when he had a piece in the Telegraph on a Saturday. I was a few snippets of stories, lists or weird and wonderful facts. Then came Schotts miscelleany, a collection of both useful and useless information but all equally as interesting. I then got it for several friends as Christmas presents and have since bought it's spin off miscellanies on Food and Drink and sport for at least two other people. This book is such a must have for any bookshelf, as reference for those things you just won't find in an encyclopeadia and as something to just pick up now and again, which I often do, meaning for just ten minutes and am still fingering through ...  Read the complete review

So, upon my return to DooYoo, what could I review that seemed somewhat different?? I've done a number of CD's and DVD's, but no books....but I fancied a book with a difference, and then happened to stumble across Schott's Original Miscellany.... Ben Schott conceived and wrote this book in 2002, with an updated version coming in 2003 making a couple of amendents to any potential errors in the original version. Quite simply it is the perfect book for anyone, like myself, who loves useless information... Brought from Ottaker's for £9.99 in hardback with dust cover, these 158 pages of information, is the so-called gospel of pub quiz knowledge, or just ...  Read the complete review

Random isn't really a word I like. It's becoming overused in society today, people wearing it like a little badge to try to prove how individual they are. But there is no other word to describe this book than random. So what is it? It look like an old Victorian Hardback in style, open it up and there's lists and lists of stuff you thought you'd never need to know. And that you don't need to know. But it's always nice to know things isn't it? I first happened on this book by seeing a review on a website somewhere, and then when killing time in Luton Airport I saw it and remembered the review and bought it on the spot, and it ...  Read the complete review