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Schott's Almanac 2010entertaining collection of trivia and unusual facts I was given an earlier version of this book as a Xmas present, and it kept me smiling all through the holiday. It's printed to look like an old encyclopedia, but in fact it's a new compilation of the most amazing - and amusing - trivialities.
There's serious stuff too - such as legal and medical terminology [my old favourite 'borborygmous' makes an appearance - it means 'rumbling of the stomach'] heraldic colour symbolism, and how to wrap a sari. But it's the oddity of the juxtapositions items which gives the book its character. A list of bed sizes sits next to compound plurals [adjutants-general and filets mignons] and the rules for a game of Tug-of-War. If you want a list of the Beatles' UK number one singles, illustrated definitions of cloud types, or the names of suppliers to the Queen, including her Christmas crackers - it's all in here. This year's edition is separated into thirteen sections (Chronicle, The World, Society & Health, Media & Celebrities, Music & Cinema, Books & Arts, Sci, Tech, Net, Travel & Leisure, Money, Parliament & Politics, Establishment & Faith, Sport, and Ephemera). As it says on the cover "Schott's Alamanac presents the modern year with an archiac twist." There's serious stuff too - such as typographic terms explained, Greek deities, and commonplace terms in Latin and German - but it's the fun items which give the book its zest - such as Cockney rhyming slang terms, untimely celebrity deaths, and a schematic diagram of Dante's Inferno. I guarantee it will make you laugh. © Roy Johnson 2009 [other REFERENCE books] Ben Schott, Schott's Almanac 2010, London: Bloomsbury, 2010, pp.352, ISBN 0747598428
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