Schott's Original Miscellanyby Ben Schott
Rating: ★★★★★
isbn: 9780747563204
Publication Date: November 4, 2002
Pages: 159
Genre: Non-fiction, Reference
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
I love these types of books. I picked it up on a whim at a neighborhood tag sale, and when I got home, and opened it, I was giddy with the eccentric variety of useful facts contained within.
A page of English Public School plan, the solution to the Hampton Court Maze, English/Continental glove size conversions … all on two facing pages. Then there’s seriously useful stuff, like the molecular structure of caffeine, the Glasgow coma scale, and how to read Hazmat warning plates. And the generally useful stuff, like an egg sizes scales (both traditional and modern), clothing care symbols, and clothing/shoe size conversions between British, American and European standards.
MT and I laughed at some of the silly things it includes too, like Scottish clan war cries, WWII Postal Acronyms and the degrees of Freemasonry.
I delight in collections of useful and less-than-useful information; as this book has a bit of both, it’s a gem of a find for me and my personal library. And of course, I’m curious about whether or not there’s an updated edition.