Best Selling Books by John Lloyd

On March 6, 1945, after hearing rumors that his son, John, was writing a book about their stormy past, Frank Lloyd Wright wrote a note asking him, "What is this talk of a book? Of all that I don''t need and dread is more exploitation. Can''t you drop it?" John assured his father that he would like the book and sent him a copy on its publication--March 29, 1946. A few days later, Frank Lloyd Wright returned it with numerous comments penciled in the margin, responding to what his son had written, and with a request that a new, second copy be sent to him. John complied with the request but first transcribed not only all his father''s comments into the clean copy in black pencil but also his own answers to them in red pencil. He also transcribed all these comments into a third copy, again using colors to differentiate his comments from those of his father. This third copy is the basis for this new edition of John Lloyd Wright''s book. The main text of this volume is a reprint of the 1946 edition along with marginal notes, comments, and corrections made by John Lloyd Wright and his father, as well as explanatory notes and an introduction by Narciso G. Menocal. In the postscript, Elizabeth Wright Ingraham, John Lloyd Wright''s daughter, remembering her grandfather and father, says that in this edition "what was a son''s book becomes a father and son book."

Charming memoir, by his son, of Wright as genius, father, and family man. The book also includes the complete text of William C. Gannet''s The House Beautiful, a work designed by Wright. 10 halftones.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A shockingly counterintuitive book of trivia that cuts through the misconceptions that most of us call “facts” to show how wrong we are about . . . well, everything. “Trivia buffs and know-it-alls alike will exult to find so much repeatable wisdom gathered in one place.”—The New York Times Think Magellan was the first man to circumnavigate the globe, baseball was invented in America, Henry VIII had six wives, Mount Everest is the tallest mountain? Wrong, wrong, wrong, and wrong again. Challenging commonly held assumptions in areas like history, literature, science, nature, and more, The Book of General Ignorance is a witty “gotcha” compendium of verifiably true answers to seemingly easy questions, like: Who was the first American president? Peyton Randolph. How long can a chicken live without its head? About two years. How many legs does a centipede have? Not a hundred. How many toes does a two-toed sloth have? It’s either six or eight. Check out The Book of General Ignorance for fun entries and complete answers to these and many more questions. You’ll be surprised at how much you don’t know!

The Third Book of General Ignorance gathers together 180 questions, both new and previously featured on the BBC TV programme''s popular ''General Ignorance'' round, and show why, when it comes to general knowledge, none of us knows anything at all. Who invented the sandwich? What was the best thing before sliced bread? Who first ate frogs'' legs? Which cat never changes its spots? What did Lady Godiva do? What can you legally do if you come across a Welshman in Chester after sunset?

Reprint of the original, first published in 1841.

Just when you thought it was safe to start showing off again, the bestselling authors of The Book of General Ignorance and 1,277 QI Facts To Blow Your Socks Off are back. With a foreword by Stephen Fry, this parcel of unimaginable information is here to solve a few common misconceptions, mistakes and misunderstandings. Octopuses have six legs, oranges aren''t orange, bats aren''t blind, napoleon wasn''t short, vikings didn''t wear horned helmets, there is no such thing as a fish. QI: The Second Book of General Ignorance is the essential set text for everyone who''s proud to admit that they don''t know everything, and an ideal stick with which to beat people who think they do. John Lloyd and John Mitchinson are the bestselling authors of QI: The Book of General Ignorance and 1,277 QI Facts To Blow Your Socks Off. Here they present a wonderful collection of astonishingly interesting facts, perfect for pub quiz lovers, trivia buffs and general knowledge experts alike.

The Third Book of General Ignorance gathers together 180 questions, both new and previously featured on the BBC TV programme''s popular ''General Ignorance'' round, and show why, when it comes to general knowledge, none of us knows anything at all. Who invented the sandwich? What was the best thing before sliced bread? Who first ate frogs'' legs? Which cat never changes its spots? What did Lady Godiva do? What can you legally do if you come across a Welshman in Chester after sunset?

''I love these books ... the best books ever. Brilliant'' Chris Evans QI is the smartest comedy show on British television, but few people know that we''re also a major legal hit in Australia, New Zealand, Israel and Africa and an illegal one on BitTorrent. We also write books and newspaper columns; run some (frankly thriving, if we do say so ourselves) social media pages; and some of us appear on The Zoe Ball Breakfast Showon BBC Radio 2 every week to answer your questions. At the core of what we do is the astonishing fact - painstakingly researched and distilled to a brilliant and shocking clarity. In Einstein''s words: ''Everything should be as simple as possible, but not simpler.'' Did you know that: Cows moo in regional accents. The entire internet weighs less than a grain of sand. Tintin is called Tantan in Japanese because TinTin is pronounced ''Chin chin'' and means penis. The water in the mouth of a blue whale weighs more than its body. Under the Wildlife and Countryside Act of 1981, it is explicitly illegal in Britain to use a machinegun to kill a hedgehog. 1,227 QI Facts To Blow Your Socks Off will make you look at the universe (and your socks) in an alarming new way.

A dazzling third installment of astounding new facts from the New York Times best-selling authors of 1,227 Quite Interesting Facts to Blow Your Socks Off and 1,339 Quite Interesting Facts to Make Your Jaw Drop. 1,411 Quite Interesting Facts to Knock You Sideways is a gold mine of wide-ranging, eye-opening, brain-bursting nuggets of trivia that''s impossible to put down, another "treasure trove of factoids" (National Public Radio, Weekend Edition). Did you know? Orchids can get jet lag Lizards can''t walk and breathe at the same time Frank Sinatra took a shower 12 times a day Ladybug orgasms last for 30 minutes There are 177,147 ways to tie a tie Traffic lights existed before cars The soil in your garden is 2 million years old

QI: The Pocket Book of General Ignorance is an illuminating collection of fun facts, perfect for general knowledge, trivia and pub quiz enthusiasts. This number-one bestseller is a comprehensive catalogue of all the interesting misconceptions, mistakes and misunderstandings in ''common knowledge'' that will make you wonder why anyone bothers going to school. Now available in this handy pocket-sized edition, carry it everywhere to impress your friends, frustrate your enemies and win every argument. Henry VIII had six wives. WRONG! Everest is the highest mountain in the world. WRONG! Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone. WRONG! QI: The Pocket Book of General Ignorance is the essential set text for everyone who''s proud to admit that they don''t know everything, and an ideal sack of interesting facts with which to beat people who think they do. Perfect for trivia, pub quiz and general knowledge enthusiasts, this is a number-one bestseller from the authors of The Book of General Ignorance and 1,277 Facts To Blow Your Socks Off, packed with weird, wonderful and really quite interesting facts.

Fast on the heels of the New York Times bestseller The Book of General Ignorance comes The Book of Animal Ignorance, a fun, fact-filled bestiary that is sure to delight animal lovers everywhere. Arranged alphabetically from aardvark to worm, here are one hundred of the most interesting members of the animal kingdom explained, dissected, and illustrated, with the trademark wit and wisdom of John Lloyd and John Mitchinson. Did you know, for instance, that • when a young albatross takes wing, it may stay aloft for ten years • vampire bat saliva—unsurprisingly, when you think about it—is the source of the world’s most powerful blood thinning drug, appropriately called draculin • bombardier beetles fire a boiling chemical spray out of their rears at 300 pulses per second • a bald eagle’s feathers weigh twice as much as its bones • a giant tortoise recently died at the documented age of 255 • octopuses are dexterous enough to unscrew tops from jars • spider silk is so light that a strand long enough to circle the world would weigh as much as a bar of soap? So meet the water bears that can live in suspension for hundreds of years, the parasite carried by your cat that makes men grumpy and women promiscuous, and the woodlouse that drinks through its bottom. Marvel at elephants that walk on tiptoe, pigs that shine in the dark, and woodpeckers that have ears on the ends of their tongues. If you still think a pangolin is a musical instrument, that hyenas are dogs, or that sheep are pointless and stupid, The Book of Animal Ignorance has arrived just in time.

The ultimate compendium of crisp one-liners, knockout jokes, droll asides and universal truths collected over the years by the creators of QI. ''You know ''that look'' women get when they want sex? Me neither.'' Steve Martin; ''You cannot prevent the birds of sorrow from flying over your head, but you can prevent them from nesting in your hair.'' Chinese proverb; ''The Beatles are dying in the wrong order.'' Victor Lewis-Smith; ''Cauliflower is nothing but a cabbage with a college education.'' Mark Twain; ''Depend on the rabbit''s foot if you will, but remember: it didn''t work for the rabbit.'' R.E. Shay; ''If it were not for quotations, conversation between gentlemen would be an endless series of ''what-ho''s!'''' P. G.Wodehouse

A liff is a familiar object or experience that English has no word for. Afterliff, its long-awaited sequel, corrects this disgraceful oversight by recycling the names found on signposts. This brilliant successor to Douglas Adams'' and John Lloyd''s 1983 classic The Meaning of Liff features over 900 essential new definitions, including: Anglesey n. Hypothetical object at which a lazy eye is looking. Badlesmeare n. One who dishonestly ticks the ''I have read and agree to the Terms and Conditions'' box. Caterham n. An overwhelming desire to use the Pope''s hat as an oven glove. Clavering ptcpl v. Pretending to text when alone and feeling vulnerable in public. Eworthy adj. Of a person: worth emailing but not worth phoning or meeting. Kanumbra n. The sense that someone is standing behind you. Ljubljana interj. What people say to the dentist on the way out. Loughborough n. The false gusto with which children eat vegetables in adverts. Sorrento n. The thing that goes round and round as a YouTube video loads. Uralla n. A towel used as a bathmat. In 1983, John Lloyd and Douglas Adams authored The Meaning of Liff, a bestselling humour classic which went on to sell hundreds of thousands of copies. John Lloyd''s other books include 1,411 QI Facts To Knock You Sideways and The Book of General Ignorance.