The Second Book Of General Ignorance, by John Lloyd and John Mitchinson
A Latent Book Club Audiobook Review
The Latent Book Club Loves Audiobooks. They’re a way to cram more books into your life. This week, we take a look at a book that demonstrates the expansiveness of what you don’t know, courtesy of the BBC TV show QI.
How Everything You Thought You Know Is Wrong (to give it its full title) replicates in book form the surprising facts that watchers of the UK TV panel show QI (which apparently stands for Quite Interesting) are regaled with on a weekly basis. The concept of the show, for the uninitiated, is to ask a question to which the answer seems obvious, ie: ‘how many legs do an octopus have?’ and when a panel member invariably answers ‘eight!’ A klaxon blares and points are automatically deducted, as the real answer (two - interestingly containing 2/3 of the octopus’ brain) is revealed by the knowledgable host.
This is not an exercise in one-upmanship. The host of QI, latterly Stephen Fry, more recently Sandi Toksvig always approaches the real answer with humour, humility and a gentleness which allows us to laugh at what we don’t know - and only formerly thought we did. The book carries on the same vein of being illustrative of the depths of our ignorance, and provoking curiosity, rather than boorishly giving a list of ‘I-told-you-sos.’ This is a necessary device: merely illustrating to the reader what an idiot they are would, we think, be unlikely to sell many copies.
John Lloyd needs little introduction for fans of UK Comedy - he has worked on all the classic greats, from The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to To The Galaxy, to Blackadder and QI itself. John Mitchinson is the lead researcher for QI. The ‘Two Johns’, as they are known, clearly relish their task of edifying their audience on subjects they formerly thought they had some idea about.
This is a clever, thought provoking, and surprisingly intellectually challenging book. It is presented as a series of questions, and a longer, expansive, and more correct answer follows them. For example: ‘What colour are oranges?’ Followed by the answer - ‘That depends. In many countries oranges are green, even when ripe, and are sold that way in the shops.’ A mini-essay about the nature of the orange follows.
Each of these questions comes up in a micro-chapter. From examining the physical copy of the First Book of General Ignorance that adorns my bookshelf, I can say it it seems that the answer to any question is about a page and a half in the hardback. This second edition - bizarrely the only one in the series of three available on Audible -retains this short question and answer format, with 213 micro chapters making up the audiobook.
Q: What is the strangest substance known to science?
A: H20… It is a liquid that behaves so differently from any other, that theoretically it shouldn’t exist. There are 66 known ways in which water is abnormal, most peculiar being that nothing else found in nature is found simultaneously as liquid, solid, and gas.
The order of the subjects is interesting. They’re not always thematically linked, but each subject has some relation to the question that previously followed that the pace of the book flows nicely.
The book is ably, and kindly read by Julian Elder, who is just the perfect choice for it. He adopts the affable manner of a QI host, and for that reason remains a compelling listen even when wading through dense facts.
It’s hardly a ripping yarn, but I felt myself being compelled to listen on the walk home. The content was interesting, but nothing that required complete concentration - indeed, due to the density of information on offer, you would not too be perturbed if you switched off for a little bit. This book also has the advantage that you can dip in and out at will without needing to keep track of its overall contents.
I noted on my listen that not all the answers were entirely correct; but I was heartened to hear there is an acknowledgement of that fact, and an encouragement for pedants to get in touch to make corrections for future editions.
Overall, it’s a book of facts, so can hardly hold itself up to Brideshead Revisited, for example, as an audio novel. That said, it doesn’t need to. It is compelling in its own right and a worthy listen for that reason.