The Book of General Ignorance

By: John Mitchinson, John Lloyd

Narrated by: John Mitchinson, John Lloyd

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A shockingly counterintuitive book of trivia that cuts through the misconceptions that most of us call “facts” to show how wrong we are about . . . well, everything.

“Trivia buffs and know-it-alls alike will exult to find so much repeatable wisdom gathered in one place.”—The New York Times

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.

Challenging commonly held assumptions in areas like history, literature, science, nature, and more, The Book of General Ignorance is a witty “gotcha” compendium of verifiably true answers to seemingly easy questions, like:

Who was the first American president?
Peyton Randolph.

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

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

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

Check out The Book of General Ignorance for fun entries and complete answers to these and many more questions. You’ll be surprised at how much you don’t know!©2007 John Mitchinson and John Lloyd; (P)2007 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

“Trivia buffs and know-it-alls alike will exult to find so much repeatable wisdom gathered in one place.”
—New York Times

“The Book of General Ignorance won’t make you feel dumb. It’s really a call to be more curious.”
—The Associated Press

“Ignorance may be bliss, but so is learning surprising information.”
—Hartford Courant

“You, too, can banish social awdwardness by having its endless count of facts and factoids at the ready. Or you could just read it and keep what you learned to yourself. Betcha can’t.”
—New York Daily News

“To impress friends with your cleverness, beg, borrow or buy John Lloyd and John Mitchinson’s The Book of General Ignorance, an extraordinary collection of 230 common misperceptions compiled for the BBC panel game QI (Quite Interesting).”
—Financial Times

“This book would make even Edison feel small and silly, for it offers answers to questions you never thought to ask or had no need of asking as you already knew, or thought you knew, the answer.”
—The Economist

“Trivia books, like any kind of mental or physical addiction, are both irresistible and unsatisfying. By the standards of the genre, this one has something approaching the force of revelation. Answering silly questions suddenly seems less important than taking the trouble to ask a few.”
—Melbourne Age

“Eye-watering, eyebrow-raising, terrific . . . moving slightly faster than your brain does, so that you haven’t quite absorbed the full import of one blissful item of trivial information before two or three more come along. Such fine and creative research genuinely deserves to be captured in print.”
—Daily Mail

“This UK bestseller redefines ‘common knowledge’ with factoids that will inform and entertain (or at least liven up your next cocktail party).”
–OK! Magazine

Great book but goofy clips

This book overall was informative and refreshing. The two authors mixing up the reading was nice. There were a few times where they inserted random sound clips (like a mooing cow) which was unnecessary. Overall a great listen.

nice for Qi fans

facts from the program Qi read by the creators, fun for fans of the program

Cyanobacteria, weak gods, and historical foibles shaped tour life

You know that kid who is always like “did you know blah blah blah about dinosaurs” and then gives a fact that is really cool, but has no relevance? Now, imagine you are eating carrots and that kids fact ends with some logical blanket statement like “and that’s why carrots are orange.” Both black carrots and rainbow Dino’s are actually in this book, for example, and are real and important to why our media Dino’s and carrots are orange and brown. Point being - although you won’t get from this book any new thing, youll learn how interesting all the current things are!

Interesting method for an audio book. I enjoyed it

I really enjoyed the sound effects they added to the reading. Made for an entertaining listen.

Very informative.

I recomend this audio book to any person one hundred percent. Very good book. Thank you!