Review: Entertaining but Short Trivia Quiz Book
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 01 15, 2014
Sumit Dhar's Trivia Quiz is a highly entertaining but very short collection of interesting trivia questions on a variety of subjects. Instead of merely presenting lists of short questions and answers (such as What is the capital of France?), he usually spends a lengthy paragraph setting out each individual question, providing a series of clues along the way (one question in the first quiz to identify someone who was (a) named after the author of a West Indian bird guide book, (b) whose family motto is "Non Sufficit Orbis," (c) majored in Far Eastern Studies at Cambridge, (d) was married to Teresa Di Vicenzo, and (e) works for Universal Exports).Obviously, the more clues the author gives, the easier it is to figure out the answer. However, Dhar has another stated purpose: to increase people's knowledge of trivia for the future. You may or may not have been able to guess the person from the five clues listed (I won't spoil it here). But, once you know the answer, you'll probably remember it again if you're ever prompted by any of the clues in the quiz. Many of the questions provide fascinating tidbits of information about famous people and places, and readers will take their time digesting each question instead of merely trying to rush through the quizzes.The only drawback to this book is the price. It might be available as a free book, in which case I highly recommend it. However, it's not always free, which means readers will have to decide if a book containing 100 questions is worth the price. That's correct; the book contains 20 quizzes with five questions each, and, to pad the length, each question is repeated in its entirety in the answer section. Further, the author has written a second book with another 20 quizzes, and readers can purchase a combination volume that contains all 40 quizzes from both books and may provide better value.Because there are a lot of trivia books out there that may provide more value for the money (including this author's combination volume), and because the book's structure, which repeats each question in the answer section, is a bit annoying, I'd rate this volume 3 1/2 stars.