Tuesday, April 25, 2017

Review: 1123 Hard to Believe Facts by Nayden Kostov

1123 Hard to Believe Facts
by Nayden Kostov

30522577A compilation of the most interesting and verified facts, suitable for a broad audience. This is the result of years of sifting through history and reference books on a myriad of subjects as well as searching the Internet and paying attention to the news.

Most trivia books are insufferably boring. This book promises to be different, packed with interesting, educational and fun ingredients; it seeks to entertain as well as challenge. It will provide you with never-ending intellectual ammunition for a lifetime of dinner parties. You will amaze your friends and family by recounting to them that the greatest Chinese pirate of all times was a woman, or that herrings use flatulence to communicate! 

The book will be your strongest ally in combating social awkwardness and will arm you with plenty of ice-breaking pieces of trivia, suitable for any occasion.

My Take:
There's a lot of interesting statements in this trivia book, little factoids that were in some cases titillating, in other cases I had to do some research to determine the veracity.

1123 hard to Believe Facts is packed with interesting tidbits concerning animals, world events, natural disasters, political and popular figures, places, and other odd bits of information, much of which is suitable for discussion starters. 

Content:
Even though this is non-fiction, figured I'd better put a bit about the content in here. The F-bomb is dropped, there's even a picture of it, because there's a town over in Europe by that name. Go figure. The Tower of Babble strikes again. 

There are some adultish tidbits of information that are listed in the mix, but for the most part the author keeps the conversation starters pretty civil. There's no real Christian content, pro or con, but from a secular standpoint there's a good deal of interesting factoids for general consumption.

With an organized bulleted list of facts and figures it's hard to give a proper rating. The wording of most of the facts was interesting, and in that respect I found the book well written. Five Stars.


About the Author:
Born in Bulgaria, I have lived in places like Germany, Belgium and Iraq, before settling down with my family in Luxembourg. With varied interests, I have always suffered from an insatiable appetite for facts stemming from an unrestrainable intellectual curiosity. It has certainly influenced my academic background and career: after acquiring Master degrees in Greek Philology, German and English Translation, I graduated in Crisis Management and Diplomacy and, most recently, undertook an MBA. 

My career has been equally broad and diverse, swinging from that of an army paratrooper and a military intelligence analyst; through to that of a civil servant with the European Commission, and presently, that of a clerk, performing purely financial tasks in a major bank. Member of MENSA.