Tuesday, August 11, 2015

The Five Star Trivia Book Volume 1 / Rich Meyer


Reviewed by: BigAl

Genre: Non-Fiction/Trivia

Approximate word count: 13-14,000 words

Availability
Kindle US: YES UK: YES Nook: YES Smashwords: NO Paper: YES
Click on a YES above to go to appropriate page in Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Smashwords store

Author:

The author of many quiz books aimed at trivia buffs, Rich Meyer’s interests are reflected in the focus of many of those books including comic books and old time radio. Each year Meyer and his team (dubbed “Collective Foole”) participate in the “World’s Largest Trivia Contest,” an event put on by his hometown radio station in Stevens Point, Wisconsin.

For more, visit Meyer’s blog. Indie author’s might also be interested in Meyer’s ebook formatting service.

Description:

Five Star Trivia is a family-friendly fest of forgotten knowledge for all ages! Every aspect of pop culture is here: Movies, television shows, sports, literature, music, cartoons, comic books, old time radio ... along with many more mundane topics like science, geography, history and politics! 600 questions + 600 answers = Hours of fun!”

Appraisal:

One time the boss walked into my office with a strange question (a trivial piece of information about one of the systems we were responsible for). I asked why he'd come to me looking for the answer and he responded, “because you know all kinds of useless, obscure crap.” Among my friends and co-workers, I've always been the person others would ask if they were trying to remember some long-forgotten tidbit of information. Rich Meyer's Five Star Trivia book proved I'm not as smart as they think I am.

With 600 questions running the gambit from pop culture, movies, books, and even some academic subjects like science, geography, and history, this book should challenge even the sharpest trivia buff. The questions are well formed, giving you more than enough information to answer, if it is something you know and can retrieve. (That last part, I found difficult at times, knowing the answer was on the tip of my brain and after giving up, having to kick myself for not being able to retrieve it.)

This is the second of Meyer's trivia books I've tried and, as with the first, my only complaint was not having an easy way to keep track of how I did. I knew I wanted to do this and rather than carrying a paper and pencil to make tick marks, I solved this by using the Kindle highlighting function to mark the correct answers, then counting them (in the Kindle's “My Clippings' document) at the end. Only 25% is a grade of F where I come from. I may be a failure, but Meyer's book is far from it, with excellent questions that should challenge everyone.

Format/Typo Issues:

No significant issues.

Rating: **** Four Stars

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