Trivia Book of Wow - Robin Why - ★★★.¾

AUTHOR: Robin Why

GENRE: Children's Nonfiction

RATING: 3.75 stars.

In a Nutshell: A mindboggling array of trivia from a wide range of topics. A great collection to open at random and delve into some tantalising brain fodder.

What you see in the title is exactly what you get in this book. It contains ‘wonderfully weird facts & whatnot for the seriously curious.’ And not just a few facts, but 1369 of them! There’s a reason why the author chose such a specific number as 1369, which you will learn right at the start of the book.

All trivia aficionados will enjoy this collection. It is not just the facts that are impressive, but the sheer range of topics. The details cover topics as varied as animals, sleep, human achievements, urban myths, funny lawsuits, strange weather, quotes, and a whole load more. The trivia could be fun or scary or informative or inspiring, sometimes even baffling. Some of the facts weren’t much of “facts” as they were observations, but these were far and few between. Most of the trivia was totally new to me. The author has undertaken a lot of research for this compilation, and it shows.

The collection of trivia is grouped by topic and subtopic. What I appreciated most that the trivia comes not in haphazard chunks of text but in neatly organised small paragraphs, with each para having its own heading. This makes the fact accessible to the target age group of 8 to 18 years. (Though I don’t know why it must be restricted to kids. Even adults will enjoy the trivia herein.)

That said, I’d have loved the facts to be numbered. We can take the author’s word for it when he says that there are 1369 facts. But having a bulleted number list would have made this claim concrete. The logical side of my head likes to see proof.

I enjoyed browsing through this book and checking out the amazing content, but there were a couple of things that would have enhanced my experience even more:

1. I’d have loved for actual photos to be present wherever possible. There are simple B&W illustrations on almost every page, but these don’t work as powerfully. Especially for realistic topics such as animal facts, a photo works much better than an illustration. I understand the cost constraints an indie author might have on legally sourcing supporting photographs, but there are many sites that offer free photo resources as well.

2. A part of me feels like the number of facts was too much for one book, especially for the digital edition. Of course, we don’t need to read all the facts at one go, but it might have been nice to develop this into a topic-wise series.

All in all, this indie offering is an entertaining and informative read. Not to be read cover to cover but to be flipped open at random and relished. Of course, the paperback would be a better way of implementing this method, but just in case you are looking for the digital version, it is currently available free to Kindle Unlimited subscribers.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the author through the Library Thing Early Reviewers Program. This review is voluntary and contains an honest opinion about my reading experience.