The Visual Miscellaneum: A Colorful Guide To The World's Most Consequential Trivia (2009) - Plot & Excerpts
I like the concept. In fact, I find the entire project to be impressive; these graphics seem to primarily be the creation of the author and his team. It feels like a lot of work. Unfortunately, in my eyes, only about half of the graphics are good. This is my personal opinion; I value information dense graphics. Some of them are. They're not top-top of the line work, but can be quiet interesting. Others involve clip art of babies scaled proportional to the baby related statistic. It may be visually appealing to some, but not to me.Anyway, it's a nice overview of different ways of expressing information. It really is impressive that they created all this content.One other problem...yes, this is politically motivated. The snarky comments embedded with the graphics tip the scales from the unbiased display of information into a political statement. This is unfortunate. The data stands on its own and the commentary makes it less trustworthy. Visually stunning and a few interesting things of note. Unfortunately, this book is VERY British which looses something in the translation as I am sure you will find out when reading. It also have several factual errors for a book that is this new. It also is VERY confusing and has left things out (i.e. a chart comparing diets has NO KEY to figure out WHAt they are comparing).If you are a trivia buff like I am there are numerous books better than this one unless you can find a copy in the dollar bin.
What do You think about The Visual Miscellaneum: A Colorful Guide To The World's Most Consequential Trivia (2009)?
An interesting read. Like the variety of subjects; makes for a good table top book.
—Noah
