Better for it.
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A smashing little book, packed full of fascinating facts and wisdom. Everyone who wants to succeed in life should be equiped with this indispensable tome. Armed with its gems of knowledge you can move in on the party bore and like an erudite knight in verbal armour, you can rescue the lady of your dreams from the clutches of this evil tyrant. And as he reels under the tirade of crushing wit, finish him of with a vernacular coup de gras.
I can't get enough of this kind of book and fortunately there are a number of excellent examples about at the moment, including Charlie Brookers 'Dawn of the Dumb' and Alan Bates' uniquely imaginative 'The Post Box at the Crossroads'.
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It's all wrong, I tell you
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The thesis of this book is that much of our `common sense' knowledge is made up of micro-myths, and most of these myths are mistaken. This is quite radical, if you think of it. If so much of the trivia of everyday knowledge is wrong, how much else of what we know for true is false? Maybe that's the appeal of such books, and this is a particularly good one with lots of random factoids I'd never read before, presented in a racy, engaging style. On the other hand it may all be a sad lad obsession (all the authors are male), appealing to the inner Mr Logic in us blokes. Chicken Tikka Massala was invented in Glasgow, Nelson never wore an eye-patch, we are only 60 miles from outer space (upwards), why biros are called bics in France...as my girlfriend kept saying when I informed her of such gems, "Sorry, why would I want to know that?"
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