# Looking for books containing lots of information

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-books-containing-lots-of-information/796533>\
**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:** 3\
**Page:** 3

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**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 19, 2017, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-books-containing-lots-of-information/796533/41 "2017-09-19T02:15:53Z")

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> [@jtur88](#):
>
> Look in used book stores for old World Almanacs, at least 30-40 years old. Statistical data from several decades ago is nearly impossible to find anywhere else. Almanacs have to remove a useful fact, to make room for every new one they add. Also, pre-1960 almanacs will not have been scrubbed for political correctness.

We’ll if you’re going that route, [maybe someone has a set of old encyclopedias](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=833583) you could have.

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**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\
**Post date:** [September 19, 2017, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-books-containing-lots-of-information/796533/42 "2017-09-19T02:22:14Z")

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Carla Emery’s “Encyclopedia of Country Living” and Amy Dacyczyn’s “The Tightwad Gazette” are also chock-full of information about budgets and family living; how practical a certain factoid may be depends entirely on the person.

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**Author:** ![whitetho](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whitetho/32/1059_2.png) [@whitetho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whitetho)\
**Post date:** [September 19, 2017, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-books-containing-lots-of-information/796533/43 "2017-09-19T14:57:58Z")

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> [@Trinopus](#):
>
> 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.)

I agree with this suggestion, although the proper formulation should be “weaker and weakest”, don’t you think?.

> [@AllShookDown](#):
>
> Thanks for the ideas so far. I’d say he’s more into travel/history than trivia.

I’ll nominate _Holidays in Hell: In Which Our Intrepid Reporter Travels to the World’s Worst Places and Asks, “What’s Funny About This”_ by P. J. O’Rourke, where he travels to some of the worst places on Earth and also reviews the history of how they got that way.

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