The Book of General Ignorance

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Effect::: Think Magellan was the first man to circumnavigate the globe, baseball was invented in America, Henry VIII had six wives, Mount Everest is the tallest mountain? Wrong, wrong, wrong, and wrong again.

Misconceptions, misunderstandings, and flawed facts finally get the heave-ho in this humorous, downright humiliating book of reeducation based on the phenomenal British bestseller. Challenging what most of us assume to be verifiable truths in areas like history, literature, science, nature, and more,

The Book of General Ignorance is a witty “gotcha” compendium of how little we actually know about anything. It’ll have you scratching your head wondering why we even bother to go to school.

Revealing the truth behind all the things we think we know but don’t, this book leaves you dumbfounded about all the misinformation you’ve managed to collect during your life, and sets you up to win big should you ever be a contestant on Jeopardy! or Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.

Besides righting the record on common (but wrong) myths like Captain Cook discovering Australia or Alexander Graham Bell inventing the telephone, The Book of General Ignorance also gives us the skinny on silly slipups to trot out at dinner parties (Cinderella wore fur, not glass, slippers and chicken tikka masala was invented in Scotland, not India).

Thomas Edison said that we know less than one millionth of one percent about anything: this book makes us wonder if we know even that much.

You’ll be surprised at how much you don’t know! Check out THE BOOK OF GENERAL IGNORANCE for more fun entries and complete answers to the following:

How long can a chicken live without its head?
About two years.

What do chameleons do?
They don’t change color to match the background. Never have; never will. Complete myth. Utter fabrication. Total Lie. They change color as a result of different emotional states.

Who invented champagne?
Not the French.

How many legs does a centipede have?
Not a hundred.

How many toes has a two-toed sloth?
It’s either six or eight.

How many penises does a European earwig have?
a)Fourteen
b)None at all
c)Two (one for special occasions)
d)Mind your own business

Which animals are the best-endowed of all?
Barnacles. These unassuming modest beasts have the longest penis relative to their size of any creature. They can be seven times longer than their body.

What is a rhino’s horn made from?
A rhinoceros horn is not, as some people think, made out of hair.

Who was the first American president?
Peyton Randolph.

What were George Washington’s false teeth made from?
Mostly hippopotamus.

What was James Bond’s favorite drink?
Not the vodka martini.User friendly.

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Customer Reviews

For the dedicated informavore, cracking the first page of this book is like ushering a person with a drinking problem into an Oktoberfest celebration. Consisting of over two hundred questions that many people THINK they know the answer to, The Book of General Ignorance proceeds to deflate the readers' pride in their own knowledge with both dispatch and humor.

With queries ranging from "What human artifacts can be seen from the moon?" to "What would you use to overpower a crocodile?", the authors cover topics ranging from astrophysics to particle physics, from the sex lives of earwigs to the homicidal habits of hippos, all in clear and humorous prose.

It would be tempting to look at this book as simply a larger and more explicit version of picking up a box of Trivial Pursuit cards and going through them one by one. And if you're someone that has actually done this (Sadly....I'm one of those people), you'll love this book. For many readers, delightful as the tidbits provided are, it will leave one with the odd and unfulfilling feeling one gets when one goes to a party, not having had dinner, and all that is available is a vast array of tasty appetizers: one gets stuffed, but keeps vaguely missing the main meal. That said, there is a takeaway message or two that have lasting substance.

The first message from author John Lloyd, who quotes from the man who DIDN'T invent the light bulb (Thomas Edison) "We don't know a millionth of one percent about anything." Secondly, Lloyd feels that in addition to drives for food, shelter, and sex, mankind has a fourth drive: curiosity. And we should indulge this drive. Lastly, much that we think we know, we are in error about. The book, in a funky and funny way, is a call to humility, a call to lay aside pomposity, cockiness, and fear, the better to take off whatever lenses we have been gazing at the world through and to take a fresh look at information that is often staring us in the face. Information that just might push back the shoreline of ignorance just a few feet. As narrow as that newly uncovered beachfront might be, it is bound to hold fascinating clues to what is under that ocean of ignorance that we humans so badly want to explore.

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