1,411 QI Facts To Knock You Sideways

Exactly what the cover says it is, this book follows-on from the previous "1,227 and 1,339" Qi lists of facts books in presenting the reader with the stated number of facts to "Knock You Sideways" (1,411), "Make Your Jaw Drop" (1,399) and "Knock Your Socks Off" (1,227). Interesting enough to dip into on an ad hoc basis and invaluable to those who attend / set quizzes as facts are quirky enough to be used in a simple "True or False" round or in other, more complex, forms of questions. Look forward to the next book in the series - perhaps, "1,555 Facts To Test Your Wife's Patience With"?

An ok fact book to keep you busy while on a train or travelling to work. Although as the book itself admits, a lot of the facts might not be true by the time you've read through the book? All in all a nice silly facts book you can use while out with friends, although they may not be your friends if you recite all 1411 of them.

a fountain of information that you can dip in and out of .when you are 85 you tend to forget things so I have been through this book a number of times [still forget !]

I love all of these QI books and this one is no exception. The facts are very loosely grouped and each small section links to the next. The facts are in tiny 'sound bites' but, if anything in particular intrigues you, you can access the QI web site to explore more detail about every item. The frustration remains, as always, that you try to remember hundreds of items because they are utterly fascinating and end up not remembering any at all. Some corkers are: There are more plastic flamingos in America than real ones. There are more statues of lions in the world than real ones. 6% of drivers deliberately swerve to kill animals. There is only one stop sign in all of Paris. A male capuchin monkey will have sex with any female that throws a stone at him. 5% of cats are allergic to humans. Sir Bruce Forsyth is four months older than sliced bread. Humans speak more languages than there are species of mammal. Ladybirds can fly as fast as a racehorse can run. Leo Fender couldn't play the guitar. The group Oasis is named after a leisure centre in Swindon. And that's just in the first 10% of the book! Buy this and wriggle with glee!

As with all of the QI books, this is full of, well, facts to knock you sideways. bruce forysth is older than sliced bread. You can take a salamander's brain out, slice it up, put the slices back in a different order and it still works. and so on. The research is staggering and the books make you stop and wonder with marvel at how staggeringly marvellous the universe is. So why 3 stars? Because the book is literally just the facts. nothing else. All of the references are available on the QI website, but I found stopping to look them up disruptive. I prefer the earlier books that have some of the background and context in them.

I bought this for my 16 year old nephew for a present and he couldn't put it down. He kept shouting out random facts all day long and at some point during the day nearly everyone picked up the book and I would see them laughing or telling someone else some useless piece of information. Really good buy - very please!

This is a great book to have in the toilet. Whether you're making a very quick visit, or taking a nice long break from DIY, you're sure to leave the bathroom with a few new and interesting facts to share with your partner and kids! Highly recommended bog book, but not something you would want to sit and read anywhere else to be honest.

Not disappointed

fact fun

Funny and interesting. Material to bring up in conversations....

Very funny and enjoyable

I must admit I was knocked sideways with this book, enjoyed the facts from the first to the last and that's a fact.

Got this book as a present and found it most entertaining - obviously not serious reading, but light fun and sometimes the starting point of my own but if 'research'.