Random Obsessions: Trivia You Can't Live Without - Nick Belardes
Genre: "Reference," but, please -- it's a trivia book.
While there are more books of weird facts, quirky stories, and mind-bending figures than there are dimples on a golf ball, Nick Belardes’ Random Obsessions leaves the rest of the trivia book genre looking puny and sophomoric by comparison. Divided into eight chapters covering such themes as weird scientific anomalies, freakish illnesses, the strangest jobs ever, and assorted tales of films, authors, inventions, and artists, the sections read more like an amusing free-association Mensa exercise than a run-of-the-mill book of random information.
Take Chapter 6: Eccentric Authors and Fantastic Art. A typical trivia book would list interesting factoids under clearly defined, encyclopedia-boring headings. Not Random Obsessions. The chapter starts with information about expatriate writer V.S. Naipaul, leaps to random expatriation facts, moves on to J.R.R. Tolkein, then on to info about famous art depicting war. Each chapter follows this setup: leaping from one topic to another, related, if off-beat topic, to still another. The entire book is like an intellectual and oddly fascinating playground. Goody, goody.
What to drink while reading Random Obsessions: I'd suggest a festive, yet sophisticated, cocktail for this one. My choice would be a Gimlet. As Julie Powell of Julie and Julia fame (and soon to be released bookish movie) says, Gimlets are "exquisitely civilized and not at all girly." Well said, ma'am. Although the traditional Gimlet recipe is about 2 oz. gin, 1/2 oz. Rose's lime juice, and 1/4 to 1/2 oz. simple syrup, that's sissy stuff, in my opinion. I'm with Terry Lennox from Raymond Chandler's The Long Goodbye when he tells Philip Marlowe that, "a real Gimlet is half gin and half Rose's Lime Juice and nothing else." Get thee behind me, simple syrup.
Verdict?: This is one trivia book that won't be relegated to Bathroom Status.
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