Review: Charming and Personal Touches Make InQUIZitive a Little Different
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 08 13, 2013
For anyone who likes reading the little factoids offered at the start of Wikipedia, or found in the little nooks of newspapers as filler, here's the book for you.InQuizitive III is just as much a delight asTrivia Quiz & Pub Quiz Book: InQUIZitive (Vol I)andTrivia Quiz & Pub Quiz Book: InQUIZitive (Vol II), and here's why: these volumes are full of lots of little facts that are not really arcane, but accessible and/or topical and/or fun and almost always pretty darn interesting. Additionally, they are just a little bit different from the standard Trivia Quiz books. Mr. Dhar really seems to enjoy the creation of these questions, and it comes across in the manner of his display. They have a charm, I think, and some of that can also be attributed to slight flaws within them. Take this question, for example:"After the success of his previous film, this director became obsessed with converting a novel on the life of American murderer Ed Gein into a movie. After acquiring the rights to Robert Bloch's novel, he also purchased all copies of the novel from the market to ensure that the viewers were not aware of the ending. Which movie?"When one reads this question, all indications are that the DIRECTOR is the focus here. Granted, the question is specific to one film, but I don't think I'm being too specific to point out that the question is awkward. But is that really important? I don't think so: I think it's only pointing out that Mr. Dhar is not using a "company" approach here, or a focus group. These are personally created, and I think if anything these slight oddities make it more quirky.I'm purposely not going to reveal the answer, as to do so would be a spoiler. (Hint: it's not hard to look up on Google).  Additionally, not only are his books inexpensive, but as he states in his introduction Mr. Dhar is making his previous books FREE to those who email him.Obviously, then, I never feel that these volumes are created just to satisfy a market or make money: instead, I feel they come from something that interests the author, and I think these little informational Q & A's are more like clever learning techniques--that is, they build up the interest in a tidbit of knowledge before they give it to you.Certainly, these offerings make great factoids...the kind of information that breaks up long car rides, or the kind of thing one lets out at the office coffee machine. They're almost always interesting, and though as one reads the question it's easy to scratch your head and think there is NO WAY I could solve it, but when the answer comes along it is usually extremely easy to see how it really DOES have something to do with us. Here's another example:"In poetry and music, the caesura denotes a break or silence in the composition. It is often depicted as // (in music) or ll (in poetry). It is believed that the caesura has inspired the design of something that we see and use very frequently. What?"I think it's fair to say that most of the book's readers will be assured they DO NOT know the answer here, but I also think it's fair to say YOU WILL. [Here I will give a HINT: look at your DVD player, or TV remote.]  The InQUIZitive series is like that: the author seems to have tried hard to make little tidbits of information fun to root out, and upon discovering the answers most people will learn something interesting in the process.And yes, occasionally this personal touch results in a question that might be better worded. Take the following, for example:"Stretching 22 miles, this famous street follows the path taken by the old cattle trail from Pueblo de Los Angeles to the Pacific Ocean. It is bounded by Figueroa Street at one end and Pacific Coast Highway intersection at the other end. What?"Sure, the question starts off by asking for a street's name, but the rest of the question is worded in such a way that one can't help but feel a little lost at the final directive: "What?" It's just not cleanly worded. [Hint: again, use Google to get your answer.] However, I feel these are minor points. As I said earlier, these questions give the book a kind of quirky charm.Mr. Dhar has done a fair job of creating questions that do not follow patterns. A question on literature may be followed by one on a scientific advancement, or a historical question, or one concerning a personality. There are a fair number that have to do with product origins-a category that is not only appealing but must itself be one of interest to Mr. Dhar himself.If I could give Mr. Dhar any well-meant words of advice, I would say that I am not a big fan of having the whole question repeated on their answer pages...it seems to me a waste of space. Again, a minor point.I really enjoy these books, and think you will too. They're a step above the "Trivial Pursuit" type of questions one usually reads, and I believe reading these are not only more personal but more enjoyable and fun.