1,339 QI Facts is another collection of facts from the creator of the TV panel game show. As with the previous book, the facts are all Quite Interesting. Whether they’ll make your jaw drop is another matter.
The facts aren’t organized in an obvious manner, such as facts on geography or biology grouped together. However, each fact is often connected to the previous fact in some way. So a fact about a tiger’s tongue is followed by a fact about the behaviour of big cats in Africa, for example, and the fact that babies have three times as many taste buds as adults is followed by the fact that squid taste with their tentacles.
Again, there is no context for the facts in 1,339 QI Facts. I would also take issue with the way the facts are presented. For example, we are told that Tutankhamun died of a broken leg. Further investigation reveals that he died of complications resulting from a broken leg. Similarly, we are told that whales have hip bones (true) and that this means they moved on to the land to develop legs and then back into the sea, which is not necessarily true. All we can say is that the ancestors of whales lived on land at some stage. Little niggles like this spoil what is otherwise an enjoyable book.
1,339 QI Facts is another good book to dip into and, as with the previous book, you can check the sources for the facts on www.qi.com/1339 This is more difficult if you have the Kindle version of the book. With the paper version you just enter the page number. Unlike 1,227 QI Facts, the Kindle version this book doesn’t give real page numbers.
