Open new and unusual worlds of knowledge. Borrow a trivia book from the Lititz Public Library.
Braintrust: 93 Top Scientists Reveal Lab-Tested Secrets to Surfing, Dating, Dieting, Gambling, Growing Man-Eating Plants and More! By Garth Sundem
Interviews with Nobel laureates, MacArthur geniuses, National Science Medal winners and other leading scientists provide more than 100 proven tips for daily challenges.
Mental Floss: The Greatest Lists in History of Listory edited by Ethan Trex, Will Pearson and Mangesh Hittikudur
Engrossing tidbits compiled from ten years of data-packed lists published in Mental Floss magazine.
American History Revised: 200 Startling Facts Than Never Made It Into the Textbooks by Seymour Morris, Jr.
Did you know that the two generals who ended the Civil War weren’t Grant and Lee or that three times a private financier saved the U.S. from bankruptcy?
Ripley’s Believe It or Not!: Dare to Look! by Geoff Tibballs
Compendium for people who love unbelievable facts and images, such as a portrait made from 200,000 dead ants, the man who traversed the English Channel by holding onto a bunch of balloons and the single human hair featuring paintings of 42 American presidents.
Writers Gone Wild: The Feuds, Frolics, and Follies of Literatures’ Great Adventurers, Drunkards, Lovers, Iconoclasts, and Misanthropes by Bill Peschel
Take a fascinating look at the bad behavior of the world’s greatest writers, such as Dashiell Hammett – who hired a woman to break up S.J. Perelman’s marriage, Richard Ford – who spat on a book critic and Dylan Thomas – who dodged machine gun bullets.
The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of Elements by Sam Kean
The search for undiscovered elements led researchers on intriguing journeys that played a part in world history, finance, mythology, war and the arts.
100 Essential Things You Didn’t Know: Math Explains Your World by John D. Barrow
The author uses basic math to answer 100 puzzling problems from everyday life, from the odds of winning the lottery and the method of determining batting averages to the shapes of roller coasters and the reasoning behind the fairest possible divorce settlements.
The Trivia Lover’s Guide to the World: Geography for the Lost and Found by Gary Fuller
Game-show style trivia questions and entertaining anecdotes enhance geographic knowledge through chapters arranged around themes.
Getting into Guinness: One Man’s Longest, Fastest, Highest Journey Inside the World’s Most Famous Record Book by Larry Olmsted
The author, who holds a world record, examines the history of the Guinness Book of World Records and shares stories of remarkable record holders including one woman who has set or broken 177 records.
Profiles in Folly: History’s Worst Decisions and Why They Went Wrong by Alan Axelrod
Engaging study reviews 35 of the greatest mistakes in history, the overwhelming majority decisions made by good, smart people whose poor judgment produced disastrous results.
How the States Got Their Shapes by Mark Stein
Our familiar state borders represent revealing moments in history, reflecting ideological intrigues, religious intolerance, military skirmishes and territorial disputes.
Because I Said So! By Ken Jennings
All-time Jeopardy champion exposes 125 warnings parents have traditionally passed down to their children, such as there’s never been a reported case of Halloween candy poisoning, chewing gum doesn’t sit in your stomach if swallowed, and poinsettias are not poisonous.
National Geographic Tales of the Weird edited by David Braun
True tales stories from National Geographic’s Daily News site provide information about often weird subjects like incredible flying sharks, mind-controlling fungus or the darkest planet in the universe.
Originally published on April 26, 2013 in the Lititz Record Express.