The Book of General Ignorance

By: John Mitchinson, John Lloyd

Narrated by: uncredited

New York Times best seller.

Misconceptions, misunderstandings, and flawed facts finally get the heave-ho in this humorous, downright humiliating book of reeducation based on the phenomenal British best seller. 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 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.
• How many legs does a centipede have? Not a hundred.
• How many toes has a two-toed sloth? It’s either six or eight.
• 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.

©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 awkwardness 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)

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

Very informative.

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

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 Very Boring

Some interesting facts when the book started, however later majority of the facts were very boring and the things that one had no historical idea or to connect the dots. Only good for probably who have good command of overall history, I consider myself average in history and have read quite some books on history, however the book discusses so many abstract and unknown things that it is difficult to stay interested for the whole length of the book. Plus the book has heavu Eurpoean facts and influence.

Performance

The performance was 🗑️. Though everything else was really good and it is a ABRIGED audio book I recommend this book for 3-4hr plane trips. So a good time killer.

Fun Little Book

This was a fun read, several of the facts are more widely known I would say, but many were new to me. There were parts that would drag on about things like fruit and nut classifications that I found incredibly boring.

It did glide seamlessly through subjects rather than exploring a subject and all of it's points, then moving on to another. I enjoyed it the way it was done however in comparison to the others that mentioned it in their reviews.

Lots of Fun

I loved the bite sized facts that blend into each other. easy and fun to listen to.

Get this!

A fine book and a fine narration team, get this book! It's a good thing.