The Trivia Lover's Guide to the World by Gary Fuller: book review

The Trivia Lover’s Guide to the World: Geography for the Lost and Found (2012) is written by an American geography expert and Teacher of the Year recipient (awarded by the National Association for Geographic Education).

The book is separated into 46 sections with 150 “reasonably difficult” trivia questions and their detailed answers. It also includes 52 maps to illustrate the responses.

Examples of questions include: (1) Which continent contains 70 percent of the world’s freshwater? (2) Where is the longest canal? (3) Where was the first traffic light used? (4) What country has fewer people today than it did 160 years ago? And (5) What country was the Titanic closest to when she sank?

The questions and their interesting facts cover a range of areas, such as oceans, canals, rivers, lakes, mountains, parks, buildings, people, populations, agriculture, secession and unity, borders, medical geography, sports, cities, outliers, and more.

It’s designed for the trivia fan, and can be dipped into on an ad hoc basis. Or it can be used as a reference guide, albeit at a basic level.

Answers: (1) the Antarctic continent, (2) the Grand Canal in China, (3) London in 1868, (4) Ireland (both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland), and (5) the Titanic sunk close to Newfoundland (which is not a country), and it was not part of Canada in 1912 – it was part of the British Empire, so technically the Titanic sank closest to France.

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