Did you know that Linda Hamilton had a body double in the movie “Terminator 2: Judgment Day” and did you know that the stand-in was Linda’s identical twin sister Leslie? Have you heard that female turkeys don’t gobble? And did you know that for every cockroach you see in your home (or office), there are likely 1,000 more in hiding? If you love reading random facts about just about every topic under the sun, then pull up a chair, grab a copy of The Gigantic Reader and get ready to have a lot of fun.
The Gigantic Reader is over 550 pages of facts, presented in brief snippets, most no more than a page in length. The subject matter varies widely, from sports, to history, Hollywood lore, music and even animal behavior. Interspersed between these entertaining and curious facts are one page “Fast Facts.” These fast facts are simple one or two line reports such as, “The first stolen car was reported in St. Louis, MO, in 1905,” or “Babies are born without kneecaps…”
Perhaps the most enjoyable segment of The Gigantic Reader are the “Flubbed Headlines.” “Have you driven a Fjord lately?” “Kids make nutritious snacks,” and “Local high school dropouts cut in half,” are just a few of the offerings.
The Gigantic Reader is not really a book that one would read from front to back. Rather, it is the sort of book to pick up often, flip through, settle on a page or two, and then read more later. While there is a ten-page (!) table of contents at the front of the book and an index at the back, there is no real organization. Page to page, the topics jump all over. That, however, is part of what makes this book so much fun. Rather than stick to a topic that you might be most interested in, you wind up reading about the most unlikeliest of topics.
Quill says: Dig into The Gigantic Reader and soon you’ll be able to impress your friends with all sorts of random facts.
