Think Magellan was the first man to circumnavigate the globe, baseball was invented in America, Henry VIII had six wives, Mount Everest is the tallest mountain? Wrong, wrong, wrong, and wrong again.

Misconceptions, misunderstandings, and flawed facts finally get the heave-ho in this humorous, downright humiliating book of reeducation based on the phenomenal British bestseller. Challenging what most of us assume to be verifiable truths in areas like history, literature, science, nature, and more.

The Book of General Ignorance is a witty "gotcha" compendium of how little we actually know about anything. It'll have you scratching your head wondering why we even bother to go to school.

Revealing the truth behind all the things we think we know but don't, this book leaves you dumbfounded about all the misinformation you've managed to collect during your life, and sets you up to win big should you ever be a contestant on Jeopardy or Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.

Besides righting the record on common (but wrong) myths like Captain Cook discovering Australia or Alexander Graham Bell inventing the telephone, The Book of General Ignorance also gives us the skinny on silly slipups to trot out at dinner parties (Cinderella wore fur, not glass, slippers and chicken tikka masala was invented in Scotland, not India).

Thomas Edison said that we know less than one millionth of one percent about anything: this book makes us wonder if we know even that much.

"If you think you're a trivia expert, British TV men Lloyd (producer of the hit comedy shows Spitting Image and Black Adder) and Mitchinson (writer for Quite Interesting) may disabuse you of the notion that you're a true scholar of random facts-and quickly. Their surprisingly lengthy tome is jam-packed with real answers to a number of less-than-burning questions-camels store fat, not water, in their humps; only five out of every 100,000 paper clips are used to clip papers; the first American president was in fact Peyton Randolph — that you nevertheless may be embarrassed to have completely wrong. Although some of the entries rely on technicality more than actual excavation of obscure fact (Honolulu is technically the world's largest city, despite the fact that 72% of its 2,127 square miles is underwater), these page-length entries prove entertaining and informative, perfect for trivia buffs and know-it-alls; it also makes a fine coffee table conversation piece and a handy resource for prepping clever cocktail party banter." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

"If you think you're a trivia expert, British TV men Lloyd (producer of the hit comedy shows Spitting Image and Black Adder) and Mitchinson (writer for Quite Interesting) may disabuse you of the notion that you're a true scholar of random facts-and quickly. Their surprisingly lengthy tome is jam-packed with real answers to a number of less-than-burning questions-camels store fat, not water, in their humps; only five out of every 100,000 paper clips are used to clip papers; the first American president was in fact Peyton Randolph-that you nevertheless may be embarrassed to have completely wrong. Although some of the entries rely on technicality more than actual excavation of obscure fact (Honolulu is technically the world's largest city, despite the fact that 72% of its 2,127 square miles is underwater), these page-length entries prove entertaining and informative, perfect for trivia buffs and know-it-alls; it also makes a fine coffee table conversation piece and a handy resource for prepping clever cocktail party banter." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

"I've always suspected that, for many men, the secret thrill of parenthood is hero worship. Up to the age of 12, many kids treat their fathers the way fathers wish their wives would — as kings of the family castle. In my experience, this is manifested along two equally wonderful tracks. One is the hugs and squeals that greet the father's entrance into his domain. My wife does this, too. Well, once.... Washington Post Book Review (read the entire Washington Post review) If memory serves, it was June 1988. I think there was a tax refund involved.

The other track involves questions. You know: Daddy, where does earwax come from? Daddy, why does Rover smell his ... well, you get the picture. Questions allow fathers to bask in the role of Oracle and Fount of All Knowledge. This is heady stuff. Most fathers know the easy answers and bluff their way through the tough ones. The other day, my 11-year-old, deeply engaged in his first Shakespeare, hit me with 'Dad, what does forsooth mean?' I said, 'Yo.' He smiled, kissed me on the cheek and said, 'Thanks, Dad.' King, baby! King!

But there is a certain breed of intellectual father who wants to answer these questions with, you know, actual true facts. For him, two new books have arrived: 'Father Knows Less,' by Wendell Jamieson, and 'The Book of General Ignorance,' by John Lloyd and John Mitchinson. Both books offer answers to scads of tough questions. The book to buy is Jamieson's. You think your family throne is wobbly? Read this. You'll extend your reign by years.

Jamieson, an editor at the New York Times, pads 'Father' with all manner of stories about his family's life in Brooklyn. While nice enough, this is standard Bob Greene/Bill Geist material. What makes the book worth reading is the questions Jamieson researches to sate his son Dean's curiosity. He makes it a family project. He and Dean actually track down experts to get the facts. For instance, in an attempt to confirm that chewing gum really does take seven years to pass from one's body, they interview the head scientist at Wrigley. It turns out that while there's not much data on the topic, the man from Wrigley is pretty sure we're talking days here, not years.

Why does your skin wrinkle in the water? The Jamiesons go to the magician David Blaine, who once submerged himself for 177 hours, presumably making him the world's expert on shrinkage. Blaine, whom I had dismissed as a bit of a blowhard, crafts a wonderful and surprisingly focused explanation.

While father and son wander wide in their search for knowledge, the best entries in the book relate to bodily pains and functions. My kids are sadly past the earwax stage, but I'm gonna find someone to ask me about it anyway because I can really nail that mother now. Oh, and the post-Popsicle brain freeze? That's here. How many hairs on a human head? That's here, too. The answer, it turns out, is about 100,000.

Of course, forget the kids, these are just the things I wanted to know. There are lots of questions here my two boys never asked. Are rainbows hot or cold? Why does the chef wear a big white hat? Why is it red for stop and green for go? Oh, and my favorite: Why are the roads in car commercials always wet? Jamieson finds an expert for every one. Daddy, what's a record? The Jamiesons ask Dick Clark. Priceless.

The same, alas, cannot be said for 'The Book of General Ignorance.' I suspect the problem with this book is that the authors are British. They provide answers to dozens of questions, a few of which, like the one about missionaries in cannibal pots, are interesting enough. But too many of their answers are only technically correct. For example: What's the world's tallest mountain? Their answer: Hawaii's Mauna Kea, which is actually taller than Mount Everest if you measure from the sea floor. All right, technically, they're correct. But it's a smart aleck's answer. Trust me on this. If your child tries Mauna Kea at school, he's gonna get beat up.

When did World War II end? According to Lloyd and Mitchinson, 1990. Apparently someone forgot to sign something. Anyway, these are the kind of cutesy answers that will leave your children bloodied and scarred for life. The entire book, in fact, left me worried about the British educational system. Are there people over there who really want to know what was odd about Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer? Or what dolphins drink? Or what German uniforms were made of in World War I? Or, here's a good one, how many penises a European earwig really has? I mean, who even knows what an earwig is? These aren't questions anyone would actually ask. These are factoids the authors have found and formed into questions. 'General Ignorance' is at best a bathroom book. I'm sure your British guests will stay in there chuckling for hours.

Oh, just in case you were wondering, the earwig thing? The answer is two. They keep a spare because the first one tends to break.

Who knew?

Bryan Burrough is a special correspondent at Vanity Fair.

" Reviewed by Bryan Burrough, Washington Post Book World (Copyright 2006 Washington Post Book World Service/Washington Post Writers Group)
(hide most of this review)

"We don't know a millionth of one percent about anything." Lloyd and Mitchinson (a producer and writer, respectively, for British television), begin their British bestseller with this quote by Thomas Edison, the non-inventor of the lightbulb according to them. They proceed to clear up 229 other common misconceptions entertainingly but without references. Originally published in Great Britain by Faber and Faber Ltd., London, in 2006. Annotation ©2008 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

"[D]oes a thorough job of disproving most of what those misguided teachers taught us." Chicago Sun-Times

"The Book of General Ignorance won't make you feel dumb. It's really a call to be more curious." The Associated Press

"Ignorance may be bliss, but so is learning surprising information." Hartford Courant

"You, too, can banish social awkwardness by having its endless count of facts and factoids at the ready. Or you could just read it and keep what you learned to yourself. Betcha can't." New York Daily News

"To impress friends with your cleverness, beg, borrow or buy John Lloyd and John Mitchinson's The Book of General Ignorance, an extraordinary collection of 230 common misperceptions compiled for the BBC panel game QI (Quite Interesting)." Financial Times

"This book would make even Edison feel small and silly, for it offers answers to questions you never thought to ask or had no need of asking as you already knew, or thought you knew, the answer." The Economist

"Trivia books, like any kind of mental or physical addiction, are both irresistible and unsatisfying. By the standards of the genre, this one has something approaching the force of revelation. Answering silly questions suddenly seems less important than taking the trouble to ask a few." Melbourne Age

"Eye-watering, eyebrow-raising, terrific...moving slightly faster than your brain does, so that you haven't quite absorbed the full import of one blissful item of trivial information before two or three more come along. Such fine and creative research genuinely deserves to be captured in print." Daily Mail

Think Magellan was the first man to circumnavigate the globe, baseball was invented in America, Henry VIII had six wives, Mount Everest is the tallest mountain? Wrong, wrong, wrong, and wrong again.

Misconceptions, misunderstandings, and flawed facts finally get the heave-ho in this humorous, downright humiliating book of reeducation based on the phenomenal British bestseller. Challenging what most of us assume to be verifiable truths in areas like history, literature, science, nature, and more,

The Book of General Ignorance is a witty gotcha compendium of how little we actually know about anything. It'll have you scratching your head wondering why we even bother to go to school.

Revealing the truth behind all the things we think we know but don't, this book leaves you dumbfounded about all the misinformation you've managed to collect during your life, and sets you up to win big should you ever be a contestant on Jeopardy or Who Wants to Be a Millionaire,

Besides righting the record on common (but wrong) myths like Captain Cook discovering Australia or Alexander Graham Bell inventing the telephone, The Book of General Ignorance also gives us the skinny on silly slipups to trot out at dinner parties (Cinderella wore fur, not glass, slippers and chicken tikka masala was invented in Scotland, not India).

Thomas Edison said that we know less than one millionth of one percent about anything: this book makes us wonder if we know even that much.

You'll be surprised at how much you don't know Check out The Book of General Ignorance for more fun entries and complete answers to the following:

How long can a chicken live without its head?
About two years.

What do chameleons do?
They don't change color to match the background. Never have; never will. Complete myth. Utter fabrication. Total Lie. They change color as a result of different emotional states.

Who invented champagne?
Not the French.

How many legs does a centipede have?
Not a hundred.

How many toes has a two-toed sloth?
It's either six or eight.

How many penises does a European earwig have?
a)Fourteen
b)None at all
c)Two (one for special occasions)
d)Mind your own business

Which animals are the best-endowed of all?
Barnacles. These unassuming modest beasts have the longest penis relative to their size of any creature. They can be seven times longer than their body.

What is a rhino's horn made from?
A rhinoceros horn is not, as some people think, made out of hair.

Who was the first American president?
Peyton Randolph.

What were George Washington's false teeth made from?
Mostly hippopotamus.

What was James Bond's favorite drink?
Not the vodka martini.

The #1 British bestseller reveals all of the hugely entertaining misconceptions, mistakes, and misunderstandings in common knowledge.

John Lloyd is the producer of the hit British comedy shows Not the Nine O'Clock News, Blackadder, and Spitting Image.

John Mitchinson writes for the British television show QI, and drinks in the same pub as John Lloyd.