– I received a free copy in exchange for an honest review. –
To be published by Printers Row Publishing Group on 13 Sept 2016
Goodreads | Amazon
Find the answers to hundreds of life’s most perplexing questions in this entertaining collection from the editors at Portable Press (the team behind the best-selling, award-winning Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader line). Do Geese Get Goose Bumps is 224 pages of simple explanations for complex topics—everything from “Why is air transparent?” to “Why do late-night commercials always offer to throw in a second, identical product ‘at no extra cost’?” Clearly written and thoroughly researched, this book will shed new light on science, history, politics, sports, animals, food, pop culture, and more. Some sample questions:
Can an elephant cry crocodile tears? Why do clouds float? Why is abbreviation such a long word? What’s in a hot dog? Why does Hawaii have interstate highways? What did they call a photographic memory before the invention of photography? Why does Superman wear his underwear on the outside? Why do dogs come when you call them, but cats ignore you? What’s a male ballerina called?
And much, much more!
I chose this book because…
I want to be that kid that knows random, irrelevant, useless trivia. I’m always so impressed when people know random things. Like wow, if this kid knows this little thing, what else is in that brain? Genius. They humbly say that it’s useless, and perhaps it is, but it’s so cool. It makes for fun conversation and is exciting to share with friends, and what’s life about but good company and good conversation?
Upon reading it…
This book is written in a quickfire question-answer format with the answers about two to three paragraphs long. It’s a pretty standard humorous and easily digestible non-fiction with random, irrelevant, useless, cool trivia–more or less what I expected.
In fact, I had some friends over and we had a girls night of ddeokbokki and Toy Story 2, and I noticed on Stinky Pete’s box there was a picture of an outhouse with a moon on it; just that afternoon I had read the “Why were there moons on outhouse doors?” section in the book, so I shared with my friends this newfound knowledge. There were “oooooh”s all around. Who knew I’d be making connections between this book and real life so soon? And for this question about outhouses of all questions!
(Another random, irrelevant, useless, cool fact about Toy Story 2: When the chicken dude says “Don’t touch my moustache!” over the phone to the person buying in Japan, it’s supposed to be a bad American accent of the Japanese “You’re welcome!” which is “どういたしまして” (dōitashimashite). I was watching this with two Japanese friends, so they get the credit for catching onto that and sharing it with me.)
Other questions I especially enjoyed learning the answers to were “How many bees does it take to make enough honey to fill one cup?” and “How many cups of coffee would you have to drink in order to kill yourself?”
★★★★☆
Q: What’s the difference between an underarm deodorant and an antiperspirant?
A: To answer that question, we first must ask why armpits smell so bad in the first place. The answer: bacteria poop…
Q: Why don’t woodpeckers get headaches?
A: If you tried slamming your face against a maple tree 20 times per second with the same force that a woodpecker uses, you probably wouldn’t survive the attempt…
Q: How come some animals can be domesticated, and some can’t?
A: …Domestication works only if the humans are in charge. Solitary animals like grizzly bears don’t go for that. And as far as cats are concerned, it’s possible that they domesticated us.