Editors Of Mental FlossRecensioner

A fun little bathroom reader, which is what I was hoping for.

A fun little bathroom reader, which is exactly what I used it for, lol. Fun little tidbits of trivia supposedly linked throughout the book, if not a bit tenuously at times, combined with humor, also strained at times. All in all it was fun and killed some time, maybe even learned a few things…

Nice little collection of trivia facts/things one ought to know pass as a genius. Amusing and informative.

I remembered the first Mental Floss book (History of the World) being funny, but not hilarious. I found some of What's the Difference hilarious and forced MT to listen to (in his opinion) way too much of it.

What's the Difference is a sort of cheat sheet for those things in life that are easy to mix-up: i.e. vs e.g. or The Illiad vs. The Odyssey or my personal achilles heel: Crazy Horse vs. Sitting Bull vs. Geronimo (I always mix these up!). They all start with a box at the top that includes a "Quick Trick" for telling the two subjects apart in a snap; some of them are really useful and some are more bent towards humour. Each vs. is two pages long with succinct, interesting and sometimes very funny summations of each subject.

This is the perfect book for long-term reading; since each vs. is only two pages long, it's easy to pick up and put down when you only have a moment to read. I, however, devoured it because I liked the writing, I love odd facts and there were more than a few of these that I found helpful. I had originally planned to skim through the ones I already knew the difference between, but found myself reading them just for the wisecracks.

A fun book; maybe a tad bit more fun than informative, but definitely worth it if you like fun facts.

Mental Floss Magazine is Recommended by Mrs. Rice! Browse them at the public library or use the public library's Zinio service to download them for free using your library card!

Quirky trivia and anecdotes

You will like this book if you are into trivia. It gives backgrounds on some common quandaries word origins/usage) and some political ones as well (Shia vs. Sunni).

Easy to put down and pick up at any time, as different especially are written as brief chapters in no particular order.

Ok to pick up as a freebie but not really worth a big investment. Better to enjoy their magazine and website for more current information.

Great book to read on the fly. I love anything Mental_floss does.

Please read my full review here: http://realbooks4ever.tumblr.com/post/70957387310

Please read my full review here: http://realbooks4ever.tumblr.com/post/70957387310

Fun easy little 'trivia' book to read. Sound facts, though there is no citations (but mental_floss is a pretty good accredited source, so there might be only small trivial issues), it's easy to read, and light, basically a bathroom book. Broken down into the 7 deadly sins, it ranges the gambit from tiny and trivial interesting facts to large facts that we don't know (but probably should) to things like you know X but it's really Y. Overall fun book.

The Mental Floss books are entertaining. No exception with this one. Origins of things one would have no idea to. They say learning something new each day is one of the keys to maintaining mental sharpness as we age. These books fit the bill.

Rating: 3* of five

The Publisher Says: The bathroom read to end all bathroom reads!

What does Greece (the country) have to do with Grease (the movie)? And what does Grease (the movie) have to do with greasy food? Plenty, if you ask the folks at mental_floss.

Based on the magazine's "Scatterbrained" section, the mental_floss gang has taken on the Mount Everest of trivia challenges: connecting the entire world through the juiciest facts they could find. How do you get from Puppies to Stalin; from Humpty Dumpty to Elizabeth Taylor; from the Hundred Years' War to 8 Minute Abs; or even from Schoolhouse Rock to Abstract Expressionism? You'll just have to open up the book to find out.

My Review: This was the perfect book to read while in the throes of this bloody cold. Perfect amounts of information, useless, and ideal amounts of stupid humor.

For example, St. Fiacre (an Irish dude) is the patron saint of de-hemorrhoiding one's self. Did you ever, even one time in your entire life, stop to ponder the existence of, or need for, such a saintly specialty? Apparently Fiacre (how on earth does one say this collection of letters?) healed the sick (men only!) by laying on of hands. Give that a minute to sink in.

The old perv.

I'd vaguely heard tell of the existence of a shadowy Dowager Empress with a lot of power in Chinese history. Didn't know she was called Cixi (suppose that rhymes with Trixie?) and didn't realize that, within months of her death in 1908, the Imperial part of Chinese history was history. She dies, the Emperor loses the throne, and China starts on the path to being our banker via a horrible stint under Mao (an engineered population-reducing famine, his INSANE edict to kill all dogs! The Rotten Shitheel!) (BTW these facts came from this weird little book, too).

Bite-sized morsels of interesting factlets (does anyone besides me remember a rice-paper-wrapped candy called Aplets, or Cotlets? I loved those things), many of which make me curious to go in search of context and depth (Cixi being a good example) for the stories. Perfect for a restless-brain day.

On the other hand, really not much use in the thing. I got it as a sale book. I wouldn't pay $12.95 for it!

This is a fun little collection of factoids about people and events through history, organized in sections based on the seven deadly sins. It is a bit dated in some cases, as it is about 10 years old, but the older info is still fascinating. When I find myself thinking that the world today is going to hell in a handbasket, I can reflect on these little tidbits and realize it's really not any worse than it's ever been. Humans have been getting up to cruel, crazy, and kinky things for as long as they have existed!

Forbidden Knowledge is a wonderful book of lists ostensibly arranged by a peculiar system. The book, trying to be as salacious as possible, organizes its lists into categories relating to the seven deadly sins. There’s a section on lust, one on envy, one on gluttony, and so on. It’s fun, but some lists are a bit of a stretch (such as the list of religious “Diets”, or conventions, in the gluttony section). All in all, I picked up some extra party trivia.

http://lifelongdewey.wordpress.com/2012/07/27/031-mental-flosss-forbidden-knowle...½

Fun read for trivia buffs presented in an appealing way. Categorized under the 7 Deadly Sins, there is a wide array of information.

Great little book full of interesting trivia and synopses of the 'important stuff' about a range of people (Viriginia Woolf, Santa Claus, Machiavelli) and things (Rosetta Stone, Magna Carta, the Koran). Did you know that if you have European heritage (although I'm not sure how the authors defined European) then you are almost definitely related to the Emperor Charlemagne? Great stuff!

The staff of Mental Floss magazine must have grown up loving The People's Almanacs as much as I did. I re-read those books over and over and when I left home my mom allowed me to take them with me. Mental Floss is for anyone who loves finding out weird bits of information about people and events from history, like the fact that the Ottoman Empire lost its footing when a lazy sultan, nicknamed "The Drunk", came to power and couldn't be bothered. It's a big book full of fun stuff.

This was an enjoyable book, and perfectly suited for reading before falling asleep since it is a collection of small (usually 1-2 page) snippets of information. As someone who likes reading before bed but has a hard time putting down a book with a good plot, resulting in much less sleep than intended, this is a great alternative. It's arranged around the 7 deadly sins, which helps give it some structure, however, some of the entries were a little dry and I mostly skimmed over the Sloth section. But overall, it's interesting and I certainly did learn a few new facts that I've been able to use in casual conversation and on one occasion it helped me answer a trivia question. If you're a fan of the magazine (which I am), then I think you'll enjoy this book. I've moved on to another of theirs, "In the Beginning", which is also nice bedtime reading.½

This is an entertaining collection of irreverent (and "naughty," as the cover claims) bits of history, easily digestible in small chunks and perfect for sampling over the lunch hour.

Scatterbrained is yet another mental_floss trivia book, and I enjoyed this one as well. Scatterbrained takes on the idea that every fact can be connected to one another. It starts out with Greece (the country) and ends with happy endings.

Favorite fact from the book: Lincoln's last words. While watching "Our American Cousin," Abraham Lincoln reached over to hold wife Mary's hand. She pulled away, embarrassed, asking "What will people think?" Lincoln answered "They won't think anything of it," was shot shortly afterwards.

[rbt/2006@uabookstore]