One-up Trivia by Ken Weber

The idea behind this trivia book is kinda novel. You take a commonly known fact and you build from it. For example, most people know that Hollywood icon James Dean meet an untimely death in an automobile accident. But did you know that Donald Turnipseed was the driver of the car that struck Dean’s? That's one-up trivia in a nutshell.

   Now Weber will sometimes two-up or even three-up the knowledge. Working from the James Dean example, the author went on to discuss how people who bought parts of the actors car went on to suffer some bizarre accidents as well, thus, Dean's Porsche 550 Spyder is considered by many to be cursed. Then Weber goes on to discuss superstitions of famous people.

    The premise seems very straight forward. But sometimes I felt like the author was grasping at straws to make a connection. In one instance, Weber talks about the use of the first commode in space then goes on to explain how Thomas Crapper was a real person and then our factfinder rolls into a rant about fake names. Though I thought that this was a very informative book and that Ken Weber is a very clear and concise presenter of facts and figures, discerning how he connects some of these factoids left me scratching my head.

  If you enjoy learning or are a trivia buff like me, you'll enjoy this 2006 book by Running Press. Just be aware that while you learn a lot of cool stuff, you will have to make some weird connections to get to your destination.

  Worth Consuming

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.