Just the facts!
December 6, 2014 6:36 AM Subscribe
I'll be appearing on a tough UK based TV based quiz show soon. I was looking for a book that is a compendium of useful general knowledge, quizzing type facts for revision! Categories such as all the US presidents in order, British monarchs , periodic table, UN secretary-generals, winners of Nobel prizes, state capitals, breakthroughs in science, Booker prize winners etc etc..?
Things like Schott's Miscellany are great but some of the content is trivia that's deliberately obscure. Want to find a more general tome... thanks Mefites!
Things like Schott's Miscellany are great but some of the content is trivia that's deliberately obscure. Want to find a more general tome... thanks Mefites!
I've got some links somewhere, will try and dig them out but you might like Quizballs for self testing.
If you wanted to share the broadcast date/time info we could have a MeFi cheerleading section across the UK! Europe-wide if it's on the beeb!
posted by humph at 7:31 AM on December 6, 2014 [6 favorites]
If you wanted to share the broadcast date/time info we could have a MeFi cheerleading section across the UK! Europe-wide if it's on the beeb!
posted by humph at 7:31 AM on December 6, 2014 [6 favorites]
The NAQT recommended references and the NHBB guide to quiz bowl resources may help. When I did quiz bowl, the folks who were really serious about it had some old school looking cram books that seemed ridiculously not fun too. No idea what the title was or if it's on one of these lists.
posted by Monsieur Caution at 9:11 AM on December 6, 2014
posted by Monsieur Caution at 9:11 AM on December 6, 2014
If you were in the US, I would have the perfect recommendation! As it is, it is still a decent recommendation, just skip over the super American-specific items. The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy
posted by cessair at 9:22 AM on December 6, 2014
posted by cessair at 9:22 AM on December 6, 2014
Aha, I think Campbell's High School/College Quiz Book (PDF online here) was the cram book I recall quiz bowl folks using. The NAQT "You Gotta Know" lists are vastly more digestible, and from their reference book list, I'll second What are the Seven Wonders of the World?: And 100 Other Great Cultural Lists--Fully Explicated as one that I personally found pleasant to read. Each article is fairly short, and the strange organization (by number of things on the list) keeps it from being a long grind through a single subject area.
posted by Monsieur Caution at 11:05 AM on December 6, 2014
posted by Monsieur Caution at 11:05 AM on December 6, 2014
Response by poster: Thanks all, will have a peruse of all the suggested references. Appreciate the support humph. Won't be filming until next year but may well keep mefites posted on broadcast dates, if anyone's interested!?
posted by Rufus T. Firefly at 5:23 AM on December 7, 2014
posted by Rufus T. Firefly at 5:23 AM on December 7, 2014
If you don't mind clicking/typing rather than reading, Sporcle has quizzes on basically any topic you could want (e.g. history, geography, etc.) Good luck!
posted by eponym at 12:07 PM on December 7, 2014
posted by eponym at 12:07 PM on December 7, 2014
Brewer's phrase and fable is an enjoyable bag of grab for somewhat ancient-and-mellowed obscurities of all sorts; the CIA World Fact Book can also be of interest for matters geopolitical, whilst Whitaker's Almanack is fairly astonishing in the amount of current knowledge and facts it manages to cram in. A skim through the Grove Encyclopaedia of music will perhaps be of use in cementing some of the Western traditions in your mind. Pretty much all of the stuff in the Oxford Reference online resources features some form of useful browsing or topic breadcrumb-ing or thumbnail essays. Excelsior!
posted by aesop at 7:48 AM on January 21, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by aesop at 7:48 AM on January 21, 2015 [1 favorite]
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posted by Dr. Grue at 6:40 AM on December 6, 2014 [2 favorites]