The Book of General Ignorance

John Mitchinson · John Lloyd

Nov 2008 · Penguin Random House Audio · Narrated by John Mitchinson and John Lloyd

About this audiobook

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A shockingly counterintuitive book of trivia that cuts through the misconceptions that most of us call “facts” to show how wrong we are about . . . well, everything.

“Trivia buffs and know-it-alls alike will exult to find so much repeatable wisdom gathered in one place.”—The New York Times

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. 
 
Challenging commonly held assumptions in areas like history, literature, science, nature, and more, The Book of General Ignorance is a witty “gotcha” compendium of verifiably true answers to seemingly easy questions, like:

Who was the first American president?
Peyton Randolph.

How long can a chicken live without its head?
About two years.

How many legs does a centipede have?
Not a hundred.

How many toes does a two-toed sloth have?
It’s either six or eight.

Check out The Book of General Ignorance for fun entries and complete answers to these and many more questions. You’ll be surprised at how much you don’t know!

Ratings and reviews

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About the author

John Lloyd is the producer of the hit British comedy shows Not the Nine O’Clock News, Blackadder, and Spitting Image. He recently earned a lifetime achievement award from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA). John Mitchinson is a writer, and, with Lloyd, a producer for the British television show QI. They both drink at the same pub.