# Looking for books containing lots of information **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 17, 2017, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-books-containing-lots-of-information/796533 "2017-09-17T13:52:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![AllShookDown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d9b06d/32.png) [@AllShookDown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AllShookDown)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2017, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-books-containing-lots-of-information/796533/1 "2017-09-17T13:52:55Z")
I’m looking for a book or two for a Christmas gift for my brother-in-law. My sister says he loves books with lots and lots of information in them. For example, he’s read their encyclopeidas four times. She gave him “Atlas Obscura” for Father’s Day and he loved that. He has a book about baseball stadiums that he’s read over and over again. Suggestions? ---
**Author:** ![Terminus\_Est](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terminus_est/32/3087_2.png) [@Terminus\_Est](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terminus_Est)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2017, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-books-containing-lots-of-information/796533/2 "2017-09-17T14:03:14Z")
_The Straight Dope_ by Cecil Adams ---
**Author:** ![jnglmassiv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f07891/32.png) [@jnglmassiv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jnglmassiv)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2017, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-books-containing-lots-of-information/796533/3 "2017-09-17T15:24:42Z")
[The Bathroom Reader series](https://www.bathroomreader.com/) might work here. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2017, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-books-containing-lots-of-information/796533/4 "2017-09-17T15:55:17Z")
[Does it have to be _true_ information?](https://smile.amazon.com/More-Information-Than-You-Require/dp/1594483647/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1505663622&sr=1-4&keywords=john+hodgman) ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2017, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-books-containing-lots-of-information/796533/5 "2017-09-17T16:00:49Z")
Are those “[Book of Lists](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Book_of_Lists)” books still around? ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2017, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-books-containing-lots-of-information/796533/6 "2017-09-17T16:01:56Z")
> [@Terminus\_Est](#): > > _The Straight Dope_ by Cecil Adams All five volumes. ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2017, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-books-containing-lots-of-information/796533/7 "2017-09-17T16:08:57Z")
**An Incomplete Education** : [https://www.amazon.com/Incomplete-Education-Things-Learned-Probably/dp/0345468902](https://www.amazon.com/Incomplete-Education-Things-Learned-Probably/dp/0345468902) **The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy** : [https://www.amazon.com/New-Dictionary-Cultural-Literacy-American/dp/0618226478/ref=sr\_1\_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1505664487&sr=1-1&keywords=Book+of+cultural+literacy](https://www.amazon.com/New-Dictionary-Cultural-Literacy-American/dp/0618226478/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1505664487&sr=1-1&keywords=Book+of+cultural+literacy) ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2017, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-books-containing-lots-of-information/796533/8 "2017-09-17T16:58:43Z")
CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics. Okay, it’s very tightly focussed information, but, boy howdy, that book contains a LOT of information! As a much lesser offering…but a heck of a lot of fun…the Big Secrets trilogy (Big Secrets, Bigger Secrets, Biggest Secrets) by William Poundstone. (Actually, the first book is the best one, and the next two are weaker and weaker.) The Straight Dope books by Cecil Adams are lots of fun…as are the comparable rumor-busting books by Jan Harold Brunvand (The Baby Train, The Mexican Pet, Curses Broiled Again, etc.) Another fun offering in this vein is The New Apocrypha, by John T. Sladek. It’s a quick and dirty survey of the kind of total nonsense that some people believed in at the time of the writing – and which too darn many people still believe in today. He hits things like Nostradamus, psychic detectives, creationism, etc. As one reviewer said on Amazon, “'The New Apocrypha; belongs on the bookshelf right next to Martin Gardner’s ‘Fads & Fallacies In The Name Of Science’ and James Randi’s ‘Flim-Flam’. Better than that you cannot get.” Struth! ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2017, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-books-containing-lots-of-information/796533/9 "2017-09-17T17:25:41Z")
Get him post graduate legal volumns…You should able to find them at estate auctions…He can actually teach himself the law. Wouldn’t that be fun ? ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2017, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-books-containing-lots-of-information/796533/10 "2017-09-17T17:30:28Z")
> [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](#): > > Are those “[Book of Lists](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Book_of_Lists)” books still around? I highly recommend [_The People’s Almanac_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_People%27s_Almanac) (3 volumes), also published by David Wallechinsky and Irving Wallace, between 1975 and 1981. Some of it is out of date, and they do include a lot of bullshit, but there’s a lot of interesting esoterica in them as well. Used copies can be found on Amazon for a few bucks, and new copies are around $50. ---
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2017, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-books-containing-lots-of-information/796533/11 "2017-09-17T18:20:06Z")
The World Almanac is updated every year and contains a huge amount of information in a small book. ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2017, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-books-containing-lots-of-information/796533/12 "2017-09-17T18:52:48Z")
If he is into trivia I really enjoy this book by Ken Jennings (of Jeopardy! fame): [Ken Jennings Trivia Almanac](https://www.amazon.com/Ken-Jenningss-Trivia-Almanac-Questions/dp/0345499972/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1505674284&sr=1-1&keywords=ken+jennings+trivia) mmm ---
**Author:** ![AllShookDown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d9b06d/32.png) [@AllShookDown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AllShookDown)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2017, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-books-containing-lots-of-information/796533/13 "2017-09-17T21:36:11Z")
Thanks for the ideas so far. I’d say he’s more into travel/history than trivia. ---
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2017, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-books-containing-lots-of-information/796533/14 "2017-09-17T21:37:01Z")
Trying out for Jeopardy? ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2017, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-books-containing-lots-of-information/796533/15 "2017-09-17T22:21:11Z")
The Grout, known to non-music-majors as [A History of Western Music.](http://books.wwnorton.com/books/webad.aspx?id=4294977603) I tried using a highlighter in mine and ended up with about four solid yellow pages and kinda gave up on that idea. ---
**Author:** ![swampspruce](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/swampspruce/32/261_2.png) [@swampspruce](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/swampspruce)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2017, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-books-containing-lots-of-information/796533/16 "2017-09-17T22:27:05Z")
[Liquid Intelligence](https://www.amazon.ca/Liquid-Intelligence-Science-Perfect-Cocktail/dp/0393089037). At the end of it, if he isn’t one of the world’s best mixologists, he’s not trying.Plus, you learn some chemistry, physics, biology and what happens to second hand scientific equipment! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![CheshireKat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cheshirekat/32/1207_2.png) [@CheshireKat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CheshireKat)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2017, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-books-containing-lots-of-information/796533/17 "2017-09-17T23:32:49Z")
Bill Bryson’s [A Short History of Nearly Everything](https://www.amazon.com/Short-History-Nearly-Everything/dp/076790818X) ---
**Author:** ![Dale\_Sams](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/779978/32.png) [@Dale\_Sams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dale_Sams)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2017, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-books-containing-lots-of-information/796533/18 "2017-09-17T23:46:24Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > I highly recommend [_The People’s Almanac_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_People%27s_Almanac) (3 volumes), also published by David Wallechinsky and Irving Wallace, between 1975 and 1981. Some of it is out of date, and they do include a lot of bullshit, but there’s a lot of interesting esoterica in them as well. Used copies can be found on Amazon for a few bucks, and new copies are around $50. It’s ridiculous I got beat on a recommendation for The People’s Almanac. “A lot of BS” Well considering the first chapter is “Predictions by psychics” ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2017, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-books-containing-lots-of-information/796533/19 "2017-09-17T23:54:48Z")
Mental Floss has a lot of a good trivia books available. Look them up on amazon as an Author and you will see. I also liked their World History and US History books. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2017, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-books-containing-lots-of-information/796533/20 "2017-09-18T00:20:50Z")
There are loads of [_QI_ books on Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/Qi-General-Ignorance-Noticeably-Stouter/dp/0571270972), and the podcast team are releasing a book later this year too. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-books-containing-lots-of-information/796533.md?page=2)