mental floss presents Condensed Knowledge: A Deliciously Irreverent Guide to Feeling Smart Again

by Will Pearson (Editor), Elizabeth Hunt, Mangesh Hattikudur

Loaded with meaty trivia and tasty, bite-sized facts!

mental_floss is proud to offer a delicious, hearty helping of brain-food that's sure to fire up your neurons and tantalize your synapses. Condensed Knowledge is a mouthwatering mix of intriguing facts, lucid explanations, and mind-blowing theories that will satisfy even the hungriest mind!

Ingredients include:

5 tiny nations that get no respect • 4 civilizations nobody remembers • 5 classics written under the influence • 4 things your boss has in common with slime mold • 3 schools of thought that will impress the opposite sex • 4 things Einstein got wrong • 5 classical tunes you know from the movies • 3 famous studies that would be illegal today • 2 religious mysteries solved by chemistry • 5 scandals that rocked art, and much more ...

Genres: Nonfiction, Reference, Trivia, Humor, History, Science, Sociology

345 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

Reviews

[Woodge · Rating 4 out of 5]

This compendium of factoids is a fun read but probably not something you'd read all at once. It's kind of like a bathroom reader (not that I'm doing that). And in fact, I did read this in several chunks over a span of months. Topics include art, history, science (biology, chemistry, physics, etc), pop culture, religion, economics, philosophy, and so forth. And it's written in a cheeky manner with all sorts of fun sidebars. I learned a lot! I remember some! Here's one thing sort of apropos from the religion section I picked up: Did you know there was a legend about a Persian god named Mithra that predates Jesus by centuries. Well, legend has it that Mithra was born of a virgin on December 25 and was visited by sheperds and magi. He had 12 disciples, healed the sick, and cast out devils. He rose again around the vernal equinox (March 21) and ascended into heaven. Sounds somewhat familiar, no?

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

If the purpose of this book, as the title proclaims, is to make me feel smart, then it failed at its purpose. I didn't feel that I was reading anything deep and engrossing; on the contrary, it felt like a guilty pleasure written for someone with ADD. However, it was undeniably fun, and a great thing to pick up when you only have a few minutes (in line at the grocery store, on the commuter shuttle, etc).

[Natalie · Rating 2 out of 5]

The title says it all - it's condensed knowledge. Once you start really getting into a topic the book covers, it stops and goes on to the next one, and you feel as if you haven't really learned much at all. The "Mental Floss" magazine is delightful and thoroughly covers its topics in minute detail, so I'd looked forward to reading this book expecting the same. If there was a subject on which I wanted to know more, however, I had to go running to Google.

[EuroHackie · Rating 3 out of 5]

mental_floss's first book and oof, does it show. This is a collection of listicles, divided into chapters by subject matter. Some sections are better than others (I personally found the geography and literature sections incredibly patronizing, whereas the biology and philosophy chapters were nigh on unreadable), and of course all of this is now 20 years out of date. Amusing, but better for dipping in and out of instead of a straight read-through.

[Kelley · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is of the type often called a "bathroom book" in that you can sit down with it and read bits and pieces of it at your leisure.

If you are not familiar with "Mental Floss" magazine, they are devoted to non-trivial trivia; odds and ends of history, science, the arts, geography that all have importance but are often ignored. This book follows the same philosophy that knowledge is fun and learning new "stuff" is entertaining.

It is well worth the time spent with it.

[Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

I subscribe to "mentalfloss" as I am a trivia freak! I love the mag and I enjoyed the book, although I already knew a good chunk of it. I had one problem with this book and it was not the book itself, but the fuckhead moron who took it upon themselves to correct a LIBRARY book in INK mind you,when they felt a fact or several were wrong. The book was true as of the time of publishing in 2004. Get a grip!

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anyone who knows me knows that I am a big fan of little bits of random knowledge. From the writers at mental_floss (my new favorite magazine), this book is perfect for reading when you don't have a lot of time but you want to feel smarter.

[Greg · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is really more a coffee table or bathroom reading book than a true book you would read cover to cover. It has short snippets about interesting topics so you can hope to glean some general trivia knowledge one morsel at a time.

[Eclarep · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book for those times when you don't have enough time to get invested in complicated things like plots. I read much of this book while traveling. It was interesting enough to make me forget about how afraid of flying I am.

[Tiffany · Rating 4 out of 5]

Random facts and history about everything from pop culture, art history, and religion to philosophy and on..and on, and on.

[Jennifer · Rating 1 out of 5]

I thought this was going to be a fun read of interesting historical facts. It wasn't. It read like a typical dry history book. I couldn't finish it.

[Tracey · Rating 2 out of 5]

A fun read for trivia mavens.

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Smug facts for smug people. What's not to love?

[Kristen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another great bedside book.

[Jamie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Recommended by Mr. Winslow himself! An awesome book, for both reading AND keeping in the shitter. My copy is kept in my guest room. It's awesome. All my guests think so.

[Trevor Oakley · Rating 4 out of 5]

I couldn't read something like this cover to cover. This book is best consumed in small doses, a la "Uncle John's Bathroom Reader". I shall say no more! =P

[Chad · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mental floss is a great magazine that is stocked full of trivia. They take complicated subjects and make them very entertaining

[Mark H · Rating 2 out of 5]

the magazine is great, but this book is a big yawn.

[Jan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love "trivia books" but this "condensed knowledge" read more like mini textbooks and I didn't have the patience to do more than skim through it, sad to say.

[Grace · Rating 3 out of 5]

Little tidbits of knowledgable goodness!

[Jen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love this magazine, and the book doesn't disappoint. A great compendium of trivia.

[Alan]

Trivia divided into sections on biology, chemistry, physics, economic, philosophy, and religion. A lot of fun. Good bathroom reading.

[Chelsea · Rating 3 out of 5]

fun. good bathroom book. :)

[Boogoalo · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love Mental_Floss wacked out attitude! Very fun

[Malin Friess · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm trying to get better at Jeopardy...and I can not remember if the tip of Africa is Cape Horn or the Cape of Good Hope. (It's the Cape of Good Hope). Cape Horn is the tip of South America.

[Caribbean · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book has some interesting information; however, the second part is oddly concentrated on dancing, which is very specific and not apparent from the title at all.

[Shauna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Simple random information put together in a book. At times I was fascinated and at other times I was bored. I love the style and idea though. Fun for a simple “huh” kind of read.

[Remo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Este libro me lo compré gracias al magnífico (grr) sistema de publicidad de Amazon. Cuando te compras un libro, te pone cuatro o cinco enlaces diciendo "Los consumidores que compraron el libro este que se acaba de comprar usted, también compraron..." y te pone unos cuantos libros de la misma temática que el tuyo. Y claro, es difícil resistirse; de ahí mi gruñido al decir que el sistema es bueno.
El libro en sí no rompe moldes. Se trata de una colección de miniartículos, en clave humorística, sobre los más diversos temas. Para que los lectores se hagan una idea, pongo los contenidos de la sección "ciencia":
4 Revelaciones extrañas sobre el sexo
6 estudios científicos inútiles (al estilo IgNobel)
4 hechos científicos que nunca habrías imaginado (es un decir, son muy conocidos para los freaks de lo CPI como yo)
6 científicos poco conocidos y que hicieron contribuciones a la ciencia comparables a las de Einstein
5 errores que hicieron avanzar la ciencia (esto es claramente serendípico, pero ellos no hablan de esta palabra)
6 errores que se convirtieron en productos comerciales (más serendipia, esta vez industrial, como las notas Post-it, y por ahí).
Además de hablar de ciencia, hablan de economía, historia, historia del arte, literatura, filosofía, teatro, biología... El libro es muy entretenido y seguro, seguro que cualquiera que lo lea acaba aprendiendo algo. Es, no quiero pecar de inmodestia, un libro claramente CPI. Mi nota: Recomendable.

[Debby · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book of organized lists of "random" facts in various subject areas was a decent sampling of topics that I wouldn't otherwise have sought out, so in that sense, it was an educational and reasonably entertaining read. It's a good book to have available when you have only small bits of time, but sitting down and just reading it for an extended period was kind of a "ho-hum" experience, as it was dry and draggy in spots. As to the "Feeling Smart Again" part of the title, I don't think I retained much of what I read, but I found it semi-interesting while I was actually reading it, and I did have quite a few "I didn't know that!" moments (none of which I can now recall! LOL).

[Sarah-Anne]

From the team that brought you the enormously successful magazine of the same name comes this trove of fun and useful information that blurs the line between great education and great entertainment.