The Book of General Ignorance

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The Book of General Ignorance

The UK cover.
Author John Lloyd
John Mitchinson
Illustrator Mr. Bingo
Country Flag of the United Kingdom United Kingdom
Language English
Subject(s) Trivia
Publisher Faber and Faber
Publication date 5 October 2006
Media type Hardback
Pages 282
ISBN 0307394913
Followed by The Book of Animal Ignorance

The Book of General Ignorance is the first in a series of books based on the final round in the intellectual British panel game QI, written by series-creator John Lloyd and head-researcher John Mitchinson,[1] to help spread the QI philosophy of curiosity to the reading public.[2] It is a trivia book, aiming to address and correct the "comprehensive and humiliating catalogue of all the misconceptions, mistakes and misunderstandings in 'common knowledge'" - it is therefore known not as a 'General Knowledge book, but as "General Ignorance".[3] As well as correcting these all-too-common mistakes, the book(s) attempt to explain how the errors have been perpetuated, and why people believe inaccurate 'facts' to be true.[4]

Contents

[edit] Publication history

The US cover of the book.
The US cover of the book.

First published by Faber and Faber in Britain on 5 October 2006, The Book of General Ignorance has since been published in the USA (on 7 August 2007 by Harmony Books) and in France as Les autruches ne mettent pas la tête dans le sable: 200 bonnes raisons de renoncer à nos certitudes (on 3 October 2007 by Dunod). A surprise Christmas 2006 best-seller in the UK, the book became "Amazon's number one Global bestseller for Christmas 2006."[5][6] By the end of January, 2007, it had sold more than 300,000 copies, and has since passed half a million.[7] (The - unexpectedly[8] - high sales convinced all parties that more books should follow, and 2007 saw not merely a sequel, but a separate annual, also.)

In the United States, the differently-covered (left) American printing (downplaying links with the TV series, which is yet to air on American shores) received good reviews from both Publishers Weekly,[9] and the New York Times, who recommended it in their "Books Holiday Gift Guide".[10] It subsequently spent six weeks in the top 15 places on the New York Times Best Seller list for "Hardcover Advice" books, between the 9th of December and the 13th of January.[11][12]

[edit] Background

The title "General Ignorance", designed both to emulate and parody general knowledge quizzes, was first used to describe the final round of the panel game QI, which was created by Lloyd and features Mitchinson as head researcher.[13] Appearing initially in the unbroadcast pilot (subsequently available on DVD), the round has varied little in content and style since, although the questions have perhaps become slightly more obtuse. From the start, the round consisted of several deliberately-misleading questions which appear to have obvious answers that are actually inaccurate. (For example, black boxes are in fact orange, for ease of recovery.) The pilot also introduced the concept of penalising answers that were overly predictable, especially obvious jokes: one such question in the pilot was, "What is sixth most popular name for a baby boy in Germany?" The answer to the question is "Tim". However, QI's regular panellist Alan Davies answered with the overly-predictable suggestion "Adolph", allowing host Stephen Fry to produce a pre-prepared piece of card reading "Adolph," whereupon the obvious-but-inaccurate answer was revealed to carry a penalty score of -10 points.[14] When the pilot was shown to the then-controller of BBC Two (Jane Root), it was this feature that particularly caught her attention, and penalties became a regular feature throughout the programme.[15] Due to the nature of the questions in the final round, however, the majority of penalties still feature during "General Ignorance".

While most episodes are structured around a theme topic beginning with the Series' initial letter (each Series is alphabetically structured, with Series 5 being "E", etc.), "General Ignorance" contains questions on a range of diverse subjects, linked only by common misunderstanding. Occasionally, the round differs - in particular during the Christmas specials. During the course of the "B" Series special, Fry and Davies swapped places for "General Ignorance", with Fry attempting to answer questions ostensibly written by Davies to stump him.[16] During "D"s Christmas Special, all the "GI" questions revolved around saints.[17]

[edit] Structure

The Book of General Ignorance contains a list of 230 questions, most of which previously appeared in episodes of QI. Each question explains the correct answer, and usually attempts to show why people tend to make the wrong assumptions, or believe certain urban myths. Each book contains two forewords, one by Fry, the other by Davies. Davies' initial "foreword" was credited as "Four words," which read simply: "Will this do, Stephen?"[18]

[edit] Critical reception

An earlier version of the cover with a typo
An earlier version of the cover with a typo

Response to the book has been mostly positive, both critically and commercially. One critic, Jennifer Kay, said, "The Book of General Ignorance won't make you feel dumb. It's really a call to be more curious."[19] Liesl Schillinger in The New York Times praised the book for gathering "so much repeatable wisdom... in one place," asking the rhetorical question of interested parties - "In the Information Age, can you afford to remain ignorant of these precious factoids?"[20]

Doug Brown reviews the book for Powell's Books, noting (not unreasonably) that it has a "UK-heavy emphasis", but that "Overall The Book of General Ignorance is a lot of fun, and you're guaranteed to learn something you didn't know (but thought you did)."[21] Aileen Marshall rates it with five stars (of five) for the Librarian Book Review at TeensPoint.org, writing:

"This book is just fun to read, alone or with your spouse or friends. And it broadens your horizon. Even if you don't plan on attending a trivia-gameshow anytime soon, your newly acquired knowledge will be beneficial when the need for smalltalk arises."[22]

The book was favourably reviewed in other places, among them such American newspapers as the Los Angeles Times, Monsters and Critics, USA Today, Seattle Times, Chicago Sun-Times and Seattle Post-Intelligencer.[23] However, some reviews had complaints. Kirsten Garrett suggested in her review that, The Book of General Ignorance "is in danger of being too smart for its own good. In fact, a bit smart-arse."[24] She also noted that:

"It's a disgrace that in a book of this kind there is no index. It's not possible to look up a subject about which you are ignorant."[25]

Marcus Berkmann drew attention to the over-abundance of similarly themed books (to which the QI title - and series - clearly owe a certain debt), commenting that:

"A book of the show has become all but necessary, if only to allow us to ingest this information at normal brain speed, and because such fine and creative research genuinely deserves to be captured in print. So it's slightly disappointing that the book arrives in the question-and-answer format made so familiar by last year's big hit Does Anything Eat Wasps? There are actually about 20 such books out this year, all asking these quirky questions (Do Sheep Shrink In The Rain? Do Fish Drink Water?), all piled up in Waterstones, making book-buyers feel a bit depressed."[26]

Berkman's complaints however, are countered by his admission that "this book is already the amusing trivia success of the season," containing many "eye-watering" and "eyebrow-raising" facts, even if he thinks it a little smug.[27] His reference to Does Anything Eat Wasps? would be fairer if he had also fully noted that The Book of General Ignorance, based on the "terrific show" QI does not so much ape its New Scientist forebear, as it's televisual roots - in a question and answer round of a comedy quiz show.[28]

Both the "question and answer" format and indexing issues were addressed for the follow-up The Book of Animal Ignorance, which opted for an alphabetised structure (with contents page), and stand-alone facts, rather than responses.

[edit] Technicalities

Other critics note that many of the book's "facts" are actually spurious technicalities, rather than 'genuine' facts (which somewhat misses the point of both the programme and the book, which is uncommon and obscure knowledge and facts). For example, the most widely circulated example is that the authors claim that Everest is not the world's "tallest" mountain, suggesting that one should in fact measure from undersea base to peak - thus claiming that Mauna Kea in Hawaii is in fact the "tallest" mountain. However, the book avoided the point that, when people speak of Everest being the "tallest" they mean "highest" mountain, they are actually referring to it being the highest point - above sea level, which it is.

[edit] Sequels

A "Pocket edition" of The Book of General Ignorance was published on 3 April 2008.[29] A second book in the series, The Book of Animal Ignorance, was released in the UK almost exactly a year after The Book of General Ignorance, on 4 October 2007.

On the first of November, 2007, another QI spin-off title was produced: The QI "E" annual, intended as the first of a continuing series focusing on the respective Series' alphabetic theme.[30] The annual featured contributions from most of "QI"s guest-panellists, as well as esteemed comedian Rowan Atkinson. It is not yet known whether 'prequel' annuals for the letters A, B, C and D will subsequently see print.

[edit] References

  1. ^ The People Behind QI. Accessed February 12, 2008
  2. ^ The QI Philosophy. Accessed February 12, 2008
  3. ^ The Book of General Ignorance at the QI Shop. Accessed February 12, 2008
  4. ^ Mitchinson, John; Lloyd, John (2006-10-05). QI: The Book of General Ignorance. Faber and Faber, xv. ISBN 0571233686. 
  5. ^ Everything QI: Quite Interesting, the QI Blog. January 31, 2007. Accessed 5 February, 2008
  6. ^ Wray, Richard (2007-02-03). QI News: QI is Amazon's Global Bestseller Worldwide. The Guardian. Retrieved on 2007-07-29.
  7. ^ General Ignorance at the QI Shop. Accessed February 5, 2008
  8. ^ Everything QI: Quite Interesting, the QI Blog. January 31, 2007. Accessed 10 February, 2008
  9. ^ Web-Exclusive Reviews: Week of 8/6/2007. Accessed February 5, 2008
  10. ^ Grimes, William. "Reading Fun Before Frosty Melts Away, and After", New York Times, New York Times Company, 30 November 2007. Retrieved on 2008-02-04. 
  11. ^ Hardcover Advice (English). The New York Times (2007-12-09). Retrieved on 2008-02-05.
  12. ^ Hardcover Advice (English). The New York Times (2008-01-13). Retrieved on 2008-02-05.
  13. ^ The People Behind QI. Accessed February 10, 2008
  14. ^ "Pilot". QI.
  15. ^ QI Series 1 DVD Factoids
  16. ^ "Series B Christmas Special". QI. 2004-12-26. No. 12, season B.
  17. ^ "Series D Christmas Special". QI. 2006-12-15. No. 13, season D.
  18. ^ Davies, Alan; Lloyd, John and Mitchinson, John (2006-10-05). QI: The Book of General Ignorance. Faber and Faber, xv. ISBN 0571233686. 
  19. ^ Kay, Jennifer. "Everything You Think You Know Is Wrong", San Francisco Chronicle, 2007-07-30. Retrieved on 2007-08-01. (English) 
  20. ^ Schillinger, Liesl (2 September 2007). THE BOOK OF GENERAL IGNORANCE: EVERYTHING YOU THINK YOU KNOW IS WRONG. The New York Times. Retrieved on 2008-04-23.
  21. ^ Powell's Books "Review-a-Day". Accessed February 10, 2008
  22. ^ "This book is for people who know they don't know a lot." reviewed by Aileen Marshall. Accessed February 10, 2008
  23. ^ QI News: Book of General Ignorance. Accessed February 10, 2008
  24. ^ Kirsten Garrett at the RN Bookshow (12 March 2007) "The Book of General Ignorance (review)". Accessed February 10, 2008
  25. ^ Kirsten Garrett at the RN Bookshow (12 March 2007) "The Book of General Ignorance (review)". Accessed February 10, 2008
  26. ^ Berkmann, Marcus (2006-12-08). QI News: Critic's view. Retrieved on 2007-07-20.
  27. ^ Berkmann, Marcus (2006-12-08). QI News: Critic's view. Retrieved on 2007-07-20.
  28. ^ Berkmann, Marcus (2006-12-08). QI News: Critic's view. Retrieved on 2007-07-20.
  29. ^ The Pocket Book of General Ignorance. QI. Retrieved on 2008-04-18.
  30. ^ QI Talk Blog - QI Book Releases For 2007. Created 19 April 2007. Accessed 15 June 2007.

[edit] External links

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The Book of General Ignorance · The Book of Animal Ignorance · Quite Interesting Limited