Order, I say!

This was a great collection of completely random facts. My favorite is the one about the jury in the elevator. The narrator does a good job of using inflection to keep the narration moving. However, I really didn’t like that there is no order to any of the facts. It would have been nice if they would have been categorized and put into different sections. There are different chapters, but there is no rhyme or reason as to the division, other than they are all about 30 minutes long. I feel this would have been much more useful if it were categorized and ordered.

I was provided with a free copy of this audio book for my honest review. The views expressed here are entirely my own.

1 person found this helpful

However, it turns out that…

Other than one or two mistakes, the facts are interesting and informative. However, it turns out that Australia and Italy don’t share a border and that Princess Anastasia didn’t take the first ever selfie. It seems that this book needed a bit of an edit, some proofreading and fact checking. If you thought that I checked all of the facts, you would be wrong.

My only real gripe is the ENDLESS use of phrases like “it seems that”, “it turns out that” and “it appears that”. And I do mean endless. A runner up for overused phrase would be “if you thought that, you would be wrong”

The narration was good and the narrator made the book his own in his reading

This book is very insightful

I now know about the border between Italy and Australia! 🤯 there are some fun facts too!

Great Read

The Fun Knowledge Encyclopedia Volume 3: The Crazy Stories Behind the World's Most Interesting Facts (Trivia Bill's General Knowledge) was a great read by Bill O'Neill. This book consists of many great facts that many people don't know. This is a great read for anyone who loves interesting facts. I can't wait to read more by the author.

I enjoyed the varied and interesting information

This is my third book by Bill O'Neill narrated by Scott Miller; I like Bill's books and the way Scott narrates. I like listening to them while driving, working around the house and even at work when appropriate. I recommend this book to anyone who likes learning varied and interesting facts as well as those who like history.

I am very grateful that I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request ; I have voluntarily left this review.

Really fascinating trivias

I just love how this book is packed with really random, yet, fun and interesting trivias. Of course there are some that are familiar, but I always end up learning something new everytime I listen. Great stuff.

I was given this book for free as a review copy. I am glad for it, and this review is solely based on my own experience.

Fun and informative

Lots of facts told in an entertaining way. Filled with tons of fun knowledge. I was hooked from the start.

Fun Fast Facts

On a note to parents- There is some mature content so you may want to listen with your kids. There's a fact section that goes into how sex was invented... we skipped it since I was listening with my kids. Beyond, that it's been quite entertaining and informative on random fun facts and the short stories behind them. It is well narrated and a fun listen, it easy to listen in small sections during quick car trips.

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

In need of an editor!

I really like to learn strange facts and miscellaneous general knowledge, so this book should have been right up my alley. I was already aware of several of the facts presented, but there were several facts in there I genuinely hadn't heard before. The book consisted of a collection of random facts, randomly arranged, which is exactly what I expected based on the title. So those are the good things about this book.

The subtitle for this book is "The Crazy Stories Behind the World's Most Interesting Facts," so discussing each fact with a few supporting paragraphs is to be expected (whether the facts are the world's most interesting is subjective though). But in this book the author has the most roundabout, awkward way of writing I've ever seen, and ends up using a lot of fluff sentences to add bulk to each fact without adding much of value. There are lots of "there's more to this than you might ever have imagined" and "scientists decided to go ahead and find out whether that was true", and that sort of thing. To me, it seems almost written as if each fact were a clickbait article, and the author wanted to put enough fluff in there to stretch three sentences of information into twenty clicks. I was continually frustrated by the writing style, although, by the end of the book, I was starting to find it somewhat comical.

On the other hand, there is a lot of information that I wish the author would have added. Most of the facts given are lacking on specifics, reasons why, and some kind of reliable source. These are the kinds of things one would expect in a "fun knowledge encyclopedia". I think just 10 minutes of research on each topic would have given the author plenty of interesting supporting information. And maybe I've spent too much time on Wikipedia, but I am skeptical of a lot of "facts" that aren't backup up by a trustworthy citation.

I was given this complimentary copy of the audiobook by the author himself, so I really wanted to like it and give it high praise. Bill O'Neill has a pretty large list of trivia books available on Audible, and maybe some of them are more a list of facts, without all the fluff and awkward prose. But I just can't recommend this book.

Despite any shortcomings of the book itself, the narration of this book was top notch. Miller's speech was always clear, and he kept up a level of excitement through the whole book that wasn't brought down by the frustratingly meandering prose. It was a very professional production. My preferred playback speed was around 1.20x, but a good thing about the Audible player is that you can adjust the speed to whatever is comfortable for you.

Disclaimer: This audiobook was given to me for free at my request and I provided this voluntary review. I have done my best to keep this review completely unbiased.

Wonderfully done!

Oh my goodness, we love this one! Great facts, some that you will be surprised to hear! My teens enjoyed this as much as I did. I received this book free, and am leaving this unbiased review voluntarily!