Kategoria BISAC: Reference >> Curiosities & Wonders

For the bestselling miscellany market, an NPR librarian's compendium of fascinating facts on history, science, and the arts

How much water do the Great Lakes contain? Who were the first and last men killed in the Civil War? How long is a New York minute? What are the lost plays of Shakespeare? What building did Elvis leave last? Get the answers to these and countless other vexing questions in a All Facts Considered. Guaranteed to enlighten even the most seasoned trivia buff, this treasure trove of ""who knew?"" factoids spans a wide range of intriguing subjects.

• Written...

Every object around us contains the history of all the people and places that brought it here. But rarely is that history explored. In this book, instead of breaking an object apart to reveal those stories, they are told by building the object a guitar named Storyteller from scratch.

The text and illustrations reveal the rich lives of the people, places, and projects that breathed life into it. The stories range from people who were pioneers in landscape restoration to those involved with automobile manufacturing. The places include the high arctic, tropical forests, and...

The pantheon of error making is large and always growing. History is replete with notables who have made serious mistakes, who have every right to hide their red faces from the limelight: people like Columbus, Gutenburg, Washington, Einstein. All of them -- and many others -- have had to overcome the errors of their ways to make their marks in the world.

This book presents the many ways in which error has become ingrained in our government, science, medicine, and...

Franz Kafka, frustrated with his living quarters and day job, wrote in a letter to Felice Bauer in 1912, "time is short, my strength is limited, the office is a horror, the apartment is noisy, and if a pleasant, straightforward life is not possible then one must try to wriggle through by subtle maneuvers."

Kafka is one of 161 inspired--and inspiring--minds, among them, novelists, poets, playwrights, painters, philosophers, scientists, and mathematicians, who describe how they subtly maneuver the many (self-inflicted) obstacles and (self-imposed) daily rituals to get done the work they...

Illustrated with more than 250 images, Rock Creek Park A to Z entertains as it answers questions that arise with every twist and turn of the valley and every entry from A to Z:

• How did the rocks get into Rock Creek?
• In whose famous footsteps might you be walking each time you visit?
• What can be done to preserve the Park in in the face of major threats to its environment?
• Where was Abe Lincoln nearly shot down by a Confederate sniper?
• When is the best time to observe songbirds migrating into the Park?
• Why...

A playful and diverting, yet always scientifically rigorous look at those simple mysteries that are yet to be solved

Why are so many giraffes gay? Has human evolution stopped? Where did our alphabet come from? Can robots become self-aware? Can lobsters recognize other lobsters by sight? What goes on inside a black hole? Are cell phones bad for us? Why can't we remember anything from our earliest years? Full of the mysteries of life, the universe, and everything, this is a fascinating and unputdownable exploration of the limits of human knowledge of our planet, its history and culture,...

Don'ts for Golfers was first published in 1925, as part of a series that included Blanche Ebbutt's Don'ts for Husbands and Don'ts for Wives. This pocket-sized facsimile edition contains hundreds of tips for golfers of all abilities. The advice, ranging from technique and fashion to etiquette on the course and in the Club House, provides an entertaining snapshot of life in 1920s Britain.

Don'ts for Husbands and Don'ts for Wives were republished by A&C Black in 2007 and have sold over 380,000 copies to date.

'Don't over-indulge yourself in eating and drinking during the non-golfing...