I Used to Know That: Stuff You Forgot From School

By Caroline Taggart

This small but mighty collection will trigger your memory with fun facts you learned in school-from adverbs to the Pythagorean Theorem. Witty, engaging, entertaining-a book you'll pick up again and again.

Author Caroline Taggart discovered two things while researching this book and talking with other people: One, everybody had been to school. And two, they had all forgotten entirely different things. Contained in this handy little book are the facts that you learned in school, but may not remember completely or accurately. Covering a variety of subjects, this book features all the most important theories, equations, phrases, and rules we were all taught years ago.

Rediscover:
* History: The first president to occupy the White House was John Adams in 1800
* Religion: The seven deadly sins and the names of the twelve apostles
* Literature: In which Shakespearean play "The quality of mercy" speech appears
* Science: The periodic table of elements devised by a Russian chemist in 1889 includes the symbol for lead (Pb), silver (Ag), tin (Sn), and gold (Au)
* Nature: How photosynthesis works

The information-presented in easy-to-retain, bite-sized chunks-is accurate and up-to- date. It will touch a chord with anyone old enough to have forgotten half of what they learned at school. Here is a perfect gift for every perennial student.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Readers Digest
• Release date: Oct 19, 2010
• ISBN: 9781606522677

Caroline Taggart

Caroline Taggart worked in publishing as an editor of popular non-fiction for thirty years before being asked by Michael O'Mara Books to write I Used to Know That, which became a Sunday Times bestseller. Following that she was co-author of My Grammar and I (or should that be 'Me'?), and wrote a number of other books about words and English usage. She has appeared frequently on television and on national and regional radio, talking about language, grammar and whether or not Druids Cross should have an apostrophe. Her website is carolinetaggart.co.uk and you can follow her on Twitter @citaggart.

Reviews for I Used to Know That

[martensgirl · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I'm not sure what the author was trying to achieve. It is too lightweight to be a reference book, nor did it make me nostaligic about my school days.

[tam2603 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Unfortunately it got rather boring for me in the chemistry section as I had advanced courses in Chemistry in school. The physics and biology part were interesting.
All in all it was rather superficial (which wasn't so surprising given the length of the book and the complexity and vastness of topics to cover).

[nmhale_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The premise of the book is that we all learn a wealth of information in school, but forget a great deal of it, because it doesn't pertain to our everyday life. This book promises to refresh our memories of generally known subjects of information, that are probably familiar to us, but the details are lost in the recesses of time. As such, the book is divided in sections according to subject matter, such as reading or math. The most common areas of school study are utilized, followed by a final chapter that collects bits of knowledge from a variety of the elective type studies, the fine arts and mythology and the planets and so on.As the introduction indicates, I did find that I knew much of the material covered or had studied it at some point. If I could, I would be a perpetual student - too bad no one actually pays me for that - so I rather enjoy reading scholastic material, even a book like this that doesn't go deep, it just skims the surface of stuff you should know. Perhaps the best use for the book, though, is for a bit of fun trivia quizzing amongst friends, or to relieve boredom on road trips. Indeed, we did use it for that latter purpose. There's nothing special about this book, but it does make you feel a touch smarter, and can offer entertaining quizzing games with creative application.

[bergs47 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Hardly anything new here. Can't see how in today's modern age that you would need it as a reference as anything said is very easily obtained with 2 clicks.

[vickiln · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The information-presented in easy-to-retain, bite-sized chunks-is accurate and up-to- date. It will touch a chord with anyone old enough to have forgotten half of what they learned at school. Here is a perfect gift for every perennial student.This is a very informative fun book that brought back to mind things I'd long forgotten. It is a great book to have sitting on your desk for reference. I plan to frequently read random chapters of this book just to give my brain a workout.

[brknhrt_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I Used to Know That is a fun and interesting book with many tidbits of information that can be used for a quick reference guide or to brush up a little on the major subjects of Math, Literature, English, Science, History, Geography, and General Studies. Authors of classic literature, fractions, geometry, algebra, the skeletal system, periodic table, U.S. presidents, countries and their capitals, and planets are just a few of the topics covered in this jammed packed little book. This is an entertaining book for those interested in trivia. It would also be good for quizzing school-aged children or to just remember facts that haven’t been needed for a few years.