Whether interested in Scoville units, cloud types, martini recipes, phobias, holoalphabetic sentences, how to tie a Windsor knot, Navajo code talkers or Hamlet in Pig Latin, Schott's Original Miscellany is a necessary read (or general skim) for any information junkie. There are countless delightful and droll nuggets of knowledge that you never knew you never knew!

The true joy of this book is that you can read it straight through, or hop around erratically. Randomly compiled information, thoroughly indexed, this compendium of witty and wayward facts will wow your friends and confound your critics. WARNING: This book is one to buy and not just borrow. Teasing your brain with these facts (unless you can recall like Johnny-Five) without having the reference book on your shelf would be torture. Check out http://www.miscellanies.info/ for a more formal introduction.

So, who is Ben Schott and why should we trust him? Well, it's not a pen name for Ben Stein. But his books have been thoroughly researched and he has a forum on his website in case you do have any arguments based on the information in the book(s). This book would make a wonderful gift for your nerdy friend. It is also the first of a trilogy (the rest are Schott's Food & Drink Miscellany, and Schott's Sporting, Gaming & Idling Miscellany) so you are covered for a few holidays in a row.

Like many great books, the Daily Show with John Stewart first introduced me to The Areas of My Expertise. John Hodgman is now a regular guest on the program and has earned the distinction of becoming their Resident Expert. If you are unfamiliar with this television program, this means - "Don't read this book without a healthy sense of humor." An emaciated sense of humor would choke and die on such rich fare.

Hodgman's Areas of Expertise include, but are not limited to, What Will Happen in the Future, Jokes That Have Never Produced Laughter, Hints on Building Snow Forts, A Brief Timeline of the Lobster in America, Short Words to Use on Submarines to Conserve Oxygen, All Kinds of Squirrels, Cycles of the Werewolf Moon, Nine Presidents Who had Hooks for Hands and last, but certainly not least, Hobo Matters.

This book is shockingly and forthrightly hilarious. In fact, I would not recommend reading this book in public, bursting out with laughter and giggling until you have hiccups is best done in the privacy of your own home.

This book also comes with the best warning label I have ever read, "The almanac that contains no weather information and, once placed on your shelf, will secretly replace all neighboring books with its own text."