Totally Awesome Book of Useless Information: A Delightfully Absurd Collection of Unusual Knowledge for Adults and Teens

Clouds weigh as much as two loaded aircraft. A single fungus in Oregon covers nine square kilometres. Australia once declared war on birds and lost. And somewhere on this planet, right now, a shrimp is punching hard enough to boil water.

This is a book of things you will never need to know, collected because they are true and because they are ridiculous — which turns out to be a surprisingly common combination.

Fully revised and expanded. Over 670 facts across 14 chapters, every one checked against at least two independent sources, with those sources listed at the back.

WHAT'S INSIDE

• More than 670 facts on the body, animals, space, history, language, food, money, invention, film and sport
• 14 Myth Busted pages taking apart the "facts" everyone repeats — Vikings and their horned helmets, sugar and hyperactive children, the Great Wall seen from space
• 14 Deep Dives: the man who could not form new memories, the war Australia lost to emus, the country that never existed
• A quiz at the end of every chapter, plus a final exam and answer key
• A party fact index for the ones that work best said out loud

Written to be safe to hand to a teenager and interesting enough to keep an adult reading. No swearing, nothing you would not want read out at the table.

Open it anywhere. Read one page. Ruin a dinner party.