The Second Book of General Ignorance: Everything You Think You Know Is (Still) Wrong

Written by John Lloyd and John Mitchinson

Narrated by Julian Elfer

Just when you thought that it was safe to start showing off again, John Lloyd and John Mitchinson are back with another busload of mistakes and misunderstandings. Here is a new collection of simple, perfectly obvious questions you'll be quite certain you know the answers to. Whether it's history, science, sports, geography, literature, language, medicine, the classics, or common wisdom, you'll be astonished to discover that everything you thought you knew is still hopelessly wrong.

For example, do you know who made the first airplane flight? How many legs does an octopus have? How much water should you drink every day? What is the chance of tossing a coin and it landing on heads? What happens if you leave a tooth in a glass of Coke overnight? What is house dust mostly made from? What was the first dishwasher built to do? What color are oranges? Who in the world is most likely to kill you?

Whatever your answers to the questions above, you can be sure that everything you think you know is wrong. The Second Book of General Ignorance is a must-have for everyone who knows they don't know everything, and an ideal stick with which to beat people who think they do.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tantor Media, Inc
• Release date: Apr 30, 2019
• ISBN: 9781977346810

John Lloyd

John Lloyd is one of the most successful television comedy producers of all time, having been responsible for Not the Nine O'Clock News, Blackadder, QI and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

Reviews for The Second Book of General Ignorance

[collingsruth · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

If you are a religious watcher of the show, there is not a lot of new information, but it is packaged in the same playful and simple style that makes QI fun. It makes you want to annoy your friends with "Guess what I learned today!" so if that is the kind of book you are looking for, you're in luck.Reading this book just 6 years after the original publication some things are out of date, but that just means you can do your own research!

[shanaqui_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

As always, wonderfully entertaining for what it is. It's a whole bundle of totally random facts, most of them setting right false assumptions: naturally, it's not very organised, although there is a contents page if you want to try and skip to a specific point. It's a pleasure to read, and I really liked that it has quotes from the show at the end of some sections -- the only problem is that then generally I've seen the episode, so I'm not ignorant about that particular subject.

[bragan_8 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

QI -- for "Quite Interesting" -- is one of those weird, delightful British comedy/quiz shows where the aim is less to win and more just to have a fun and entertaining time. The format of this one is that all the comedians are asked a question which likely has an obvious answer. That answer is usually wrong, or at least not the one that's required -- those are generally much weirder, trickier, more obscure, or even downright unfair.This book, like The First Book of General Ignorance before it, is a collection of such questions with their answers (and, as on the show, sometimes vaguely related tangents, as well). An example: Where is the largest known lake? No, geography buffs, it's not the Caspian Sea! We never said it had to be on Earth, did we? Or that it had to be filled with water. And it turns out there's a really big methane lake on Titan.This stuff, admittedly, is nowhere near as hilarious and entertaining in book form as it is on TV, but as trivia books go, these are definitely high-quality, full of interesting little tidbits, and very readable. I also found myself admiring the structure of this one. Every question somehow manages to feel at least vaguely related to the one before, and yet they end up covering a very wide range of subject matter. One moment you're reading about Roman history, and before you know it, you've somehow seamlessly slid onto the topic of organ transplants.

[miaculpa-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

As someone with an unquenchable thirst for trivia and obscure knowledge I always enjoys books like this; lots of short entries delivering oddball facts that I like to squirrel away in the recesses of mind (usually displacing unimportant information like my date of birth or similar).Looking at random entries, I see that the coldest temperature ever recorded in England was -26.1 degrees Celsius at Newport, Shropshire on 10 January 1982. Never been there but I'll be sure to pack an extra jumper if I ever do.Similarly I find that the scientific term for creaking joints is "crepitus", a word I'm required to use with ever increasing frequency these days. And a shout-out to Lord Howard of Effingham, who led the English fleet against the Spanish Armada but for some reason it's Drake that gets the plaudits.

[shirezu · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Very similar to the first book. The idea wears thin after a while but was still interesting enough to get me through. I think I'll wait a while before I read the animal edition.

[wearylibrarian · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

This book is more of the same; more myth-busting, more correcting history. I didn't enjoy this book as much as I did the first book, feeling like the authors were stretching it a bit to find enough information for a sequel. Then 'chatter' at the end of each chapter is silly and I could have done without.