Publisher Description

Think of anything bad, from art heists to Genghis Kahn, and it's likely to be included in this wickedly smart and humorous guide to the seedy underbelly of basically everything. The brainiac team at "mental_floss," creators of the hit magazine and last year's "Condensed Knowledge," have scoured the darkest, dirtiest corners of history and the globe to gather this ultimate collection of the bad stuff you're not supposed to know and you certainly never learned in school.

Organized by theme, with chapters for each of the seven deadly sins, the book includes feuds, plagiarists, hoaxes, lies, schemes, scandals, evil dictators, mob bosses, acts of revenge, angry queens, cannibals and much more, all organized into bite-sized—albeit foul-tasting—lists (i.e."The Fascist Style Guide: Five Dictator Grooming Tips," "Four Biblical Girls Gone Wild" and "Three Delicious Animals We Charbroiled Into Extinction."). It's the perfect way to add some spice to a dull conversation and proves that learning can be not only easy, but exquisitely sinful.

Notes

Naughty and delightfully mischievous collection of facts and trivia about the dark side of human nature.

Author Biography

Will Pearson and Mangesh Hattikudur met as first year students at Duke University. Ignoring the lures of law school and investment banking, the pair co-founded mental floss and have been grinning ever since. Founded in 2001, mental floss magazine, with its tagline "feel smart again," has received rave reviews in a variety of publications. Published bi-monthly, it has 12,000 subscribers and a total circulation of more 70,000 copies (with an impressive 60 per cent sell-thru rate).

Review

"For the discerning intellect, Mental Floss cleans out the cobwebs."--Chicago Tribune "A delightfully eccentric and eclectic new magazine."--Washington Post "The titans of trivia."--Newsweek "A lot like that professor of yours who peppered his tests with raunchy jokes: it makes learning fun."--Newsweek "Part scholarly journal, part Spy magazine protege."--Charlotte Observer

Review Quote

"The titans of trivia."

Details