The Book of the Year by James HarkinMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
From the creative minds behind the No Such Thing As A Fish podcast which in turn comes from the brains behind the facts that go into the panel show QI, comes a compendium of unusual, funny, intellectual, daft and downright weird facts from throughout the year of 2017.
There's no prolonged prose throughout the book and instead we are presented with a list of facts from A through to Z with a description of each with interesting insights. Each fact stands out for it's unusual nature, as much like the facts in QI they all seem surprising in their own unique and bizarre way.
Breaking up the book are transcripts of conversations from the podcast, where the team discuss the facts that they've discovered. These are witty interludes and have on occasion made me chuckle out loud. The groups personalities really come through and I can remember listening to some of the facts on the actual podcast.
I did find the book a struggle, not because it's bad but just because I personally found it difficult to digest in the form it's presented. It's really a coffee table or loo time book, to read a few short facts every so often, where as every time I picked it up it was with the intention of finishing it, so I'd do a chunk and then leave it for months whilst I worked through a piece of fiction on the side. This is my own fault and for somebody more into non fiction reading I imagine this would score higher.
That being said, everything is well researched, well written and above all, entertaining! I won't spoil the book by relaying any specific facts, but there's not an entry that didn't interest me somewhat in the entire book.
Definitely recommended for fans of QI, the podcast or for people who just want something to dip in and out of which has some truly interesting, funny and unusual facts from 2017.
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