Title: The Mental Floss History of the World

Author: Erik Sass and Steve Wiegand

Publisher: HarperCollins 2008

Genre: History

Pages: 416

Rating:   5 / 5 stars

Reading Challenges: Support Your Local Library

I am such a sucker for history reference style books.  The entire "Don't Know Much About..." series is a real treat for a history/trivia master such as myself.  I saw this little gem sitting with the new releases at the library and I couldn't resist.  The factoid style trip through the entire history of the world combined with the snarky tone of Mental Floss magazine... a real winner in my book.

We know that 99% of "history," as they teach it, is mind-numbingly boring.  And we're sorry about that; we can't change what happened in your youth.

But this book is about to make history, by making history interesting.  Why?  because history is an edge-of-your-seat thrill ride with all the makings of a Hollywood blockbuster.  You want action?  We got action.  Sex and violence? Plenty of both. psychopathic mass murderers? Psychopathic mass murderers run history! And the best part is, it's all real.

Now that's my kind of introduction.  And it is all true.  I hope that I didn't teach "boring" history, but added all those fun little stories of history.  This complete (well fairly complete, at least the good stuff anyway) history of the world was a fun romp complete with asides and extra factoids.  I would definitely recommend to any history buff or history Buff (hee hee!) or anyone who thinks history is boring.  Sass and Wiegand will show you... it's really really fun!