The Book of General Ignorance (original 2006; edition 2007)

by John Mitchinson (Author)

Series: QI Book of General Ignorance (1)

Members	Reviews	Popularity	Average rating	Mentions
2,529	40	6,336	(3.71)	61
Reference. Nonfiction. Humor (Nonfiction.) HTML:NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER � 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. 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. 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....… (more)

▾Book information

Member:	Jansi12
Title:	The Book of General Ignorance
Authors:	John Mitchinson (Author)
Info:	Crown (2007), Edition: First, 288 pages
Collections:	Your library
Rating:
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The Book of General Ignorance by John Mitchinson (2006)

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The QI Annual 2009 by John Mitchinson (peter_vandenbrande)

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English (36) Spanish (1) Swedish (1) Danish (1) Portuguese (Portugal) (1) All languages (40)

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Showing 1-5 of 36 (next | show all)

Meh…it was ok, I guess. A majority of the things they presented I already knew, a lot others were semantics, and some of it was pretty regional, especially the end, where I had never even heard of some of the stuff they were talking about. It was obviously more Britain-centric hence why I hadn’t heard of it, definitely not relevant to US readers. Oh well, need to find a new “bathroom book”. (

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MrMet | Apr 28, 2023 |

I think I'm going to have to make myself a "random trivia" shelf or something, because I've been quite enjoying this sort of book lately. This is the best of its type that I've read (or actually, listened to. I listened to the audiobook via Scribd). I'm a big QI fan, so I felt secure that this book was well-researched (unlike some trivia books where I occasionally doubt some of the facts that I read). (

)

widdersyns | Jul 19, 2020 |

Who invented champagne? What did Robert Bunsen invent? What color is a panther? If you think you know all these, think again.

Based on the amazing trivia show QI, this book has answers to these and many other oft cited trivia about science, history, technology and popular culture. Readable in easy to digest chapters, it's a great companion for either a toilet visit, impressing your spouse and in laws of just getting a bit smarter than yesterday (

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andycyca | Aug 6, 2019 |

Mind expanding (

)

Brightman | Aug 31, 2017 |

Everything you think you know is wrong

jhawn | Jul 31, 2017 |

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▾Other authors

» Add other authors (12 possible)

Author name	Role	Type of author	Work?	Status
John Mitchinson	—	primary author	all editions	calculated
Mitchinson, John	—	main author	all editions	confirmed
Stephen Fry	Preface	secondary author	all editions	confirmed
Fry, Stephen	Foreword	secondary author	some editions	confirmed

▾Series and work relationships

Belongs to Series

QI Book of General Ignorance (1)

Belongs to Publisher Series

Is contained in

QI Boxset by John Lloyd

Is expanded in

The Book of General Ignorance : The Noticeably Stouter Edition by John Lloyd

▾Awards and Honors

Distinctions

New York Times bestseller (Advice, How-To & Miscellaneous – 2007)

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Canonical title

The Book of General Ignorance

Original title

The Book of General Ignorance

Alternative titles

The QI Book of General Ignorance [Pocket Edition]

Original publication date

2006

People/Characters

Important places

Important events

Related movies

QI (2003 | IMDb)

Epigraph

Dedication

First words

People sometimes accuse me of knowing a lot. (Foreword)

There's an idea going about that the human race basically understands how the universe works.

Quotations

The term "smoking" is a late seventeen-century coinage; until then it was referred to "drinking smoke".

Last words

(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)

Disambiguation notice

Publisher's editors

Blurbers

Original language

Canonical DDC/MDS

032.02

Canonical LCC

▾References

References to this work on external resources.

Wikipedia in English (12)

A Little Pretty Pocket-Book

Barry (dog)

Blue whale penis

Draft:List of common misconceptions

File:QI-Book.jpg

Freshkills Park

List of myriapods of Sri Lanka

Mars

Quite Interesting Limited

The Book of General Ignorance

Timeline of United States inventions (before 1890)

Vair

▾Book descriptions

Reference. Nonfiction. Humor (Nonfiction.) HTML:NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER � 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.

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. 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....

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