Tag: Q.I. Book of the Dead

John Lloyd and John Mitchinson – The Second Q.I. Book of General Ignorance | Review

Title: The Second Q.I. Book of General Ignorance

Author: John Lloyd and John Mitchinson

Type: Non-Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 349

Rating: 8/10

 

John Lloyd and John Mitchinson - The Second Q.I. Book of General Ignorance

John Lloyd and John Mitchinson – The Second Q.I. Book of General Ignorance

 

If you’ve read my review of the original Q.I. Book of General Ignorance then you ought to know roughly what to expect. Lloyd and Mitchinson, the two men who were behind the show’s creation in the first place, are back again to debunk some more of the myths and misunderstandings that plague our modern society. If you’re anything like me then you like to be correct, and this book is the perfect book to help you be just that.

I mean, this really is just an extension of the first book – it’s as simple as that. There’s so much material out there for the authors to choose from that they could continue to write General Ignorance books almost indefinitely, and so it’s kind of a relief to know that they’ve tried a few different ideas, like the Q.I. Book of the Dead and the Q.I. Book of Advanced Banter.

Because of that, I felt compelled to give this book a slightly lower rating than the previous one, purely because other than the fact that my copy of the second book is a hardback in contrast to the paperback I own of the first book, they might as well be exactly the same. They say that when you’ve hit upon a winning formula, you should stick with it – whilst that’s true, I feel as though a couple of changes could have helped this book to stand out, and not to be overshadowed.

So put simply, if you haven’t read the original Q.I. Book of General Ignorance, you might as well read that instead of this. Then you can move on to this one if you just can’t get enough of it – the content of both books is certainly interesting enough to keep you going. Plus, you can always read it aloud to yourself in your best Stephen Fry voice to make it feel like you’re actually on the show!

 

John Lloyd

John Lloyd

 

Click here to buy The Second Book of General Ignorance.


John Lloyd and John Mitchinson – Advanced Banter: The Q.i. Book of Quotations | Review

Title: Advanced Banter: The Q.i. Book of Quotations

Author: John Lloyd and John Mitchinson

Type: Non-Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 432

Rating: 7/10

 

John Lloyd and John Mitchinson - Advanced Banter: The Q.i. Book of Quotations

John Lloyd and John Mitchinson – Advanced Banter: The Q.i. Book of Quotations

 

The problem that we have here is that there’s not enough about this book that makes it feel like a Q.i. book – sure, it’s written by the show’s creators and it includes a prologue by Stephen Fry (and even a jokey proverb by Alan Davies), but once you actually get into it, it’s just the same as every other collection of quotations that are on the market.

It’s actually kind of daunting to read it, because there’s such a huge amount of information packed in such a (relatively) small amount of space. It’s just back to back quotations from the start to the finish, and if that’s what you’re looking for then that’s a great thing. I guess I was just hoping for them to be put in context – more context than the fairly arbitrary categorisations that the authors use.

That’s why I gave this book a seven, my default rating for any book which is professionally written but which nevertheless leaves a little to be desired. There’s nothing wrong with this book at all, but I can’t help feeling like it could’ve been a little better. All of the other Q.i. books are packed full of context, and I would have liked to have known a bit more about some of the people who are quoted here.

 

John Lloyd

John Lloyd

 

Still, there are plenty of quotes here that I’d never come across before, and it does also have a useful index at the end for you to look up the people that you’re interested in. There’s a good variety of sources, too – on the cover alone, they reference Billy Connolly, Steve Martin, Dolly Parton, Albert Einstein and P. G. Wodehouse.

You’d expect nothing less from Lloyd and Mitchinson – they’re clearly two guys who like to do their research, and they’ve done plenty of research here, and so there was always going to be a certain amount of skill shown here. It’s just a bit of a shame that it didn’t live up to its full potential, and I’d go so far as to rank it as the worst of the collection.

So I’d suggest that you try one of the other Q.i. books, like the Q.i. Book of the Dead or even just The Book of General Ignorance. If you still want more then you can move on to this one afterwards. Let me know what you think once you’ve read them!

 

John Mitchinson

John Mitchinson

 

Click here to buy Advanced Banter: The Q.i. Book of Quotations.