Flip van Doorn & Jonah Kahn - How Many Tentacles Does an Octopus Have?

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Flip van Doorn & Jonah Kahn / Flip van Doorn & Jonah Kahn – How Many Tentacles Does an Octopus Have?

Flip van Doorn & Jonah Kahn – How Many Tentacles Does an Octopus Have?

Read our sample translation of How Many Tentacles Does an Octopus Have?

About the book

The importance of useless knowledge can hardly be overstated. Bellybutton fuzz migrates upward; the longest marathon took fifty-four years, eight months, six days, thirty-two minutes and twenty seconds; and the first motorist in history was a woman. These are fascinating morsels we can turn to when we want to escape a world that relentlessly bombards us with serious information. Useless knowledge doesn’t just come in handy during a pub quiz, game of Trivia or game show. It offers us a look under the hood of society.

This wonderful collection of such facts says more about humanity than many dissertations. And at the end of the day isn’t all knowledge useless?

‘Flip van Doorn and Jonah Kahn have turned the collection of useless facts into an art form.’ AD Magazine

‘The question of whether useless knowledge has any use leads sooner or later to the question of whether knowledge has any use at all. Those who aren’t careful will then quickly land at the essence of life. It’s then wiser to read a colorful catalogue of useless knowledge, which is relaxing and might even conjure a smile on your lips. In these stressed out times that itself is already useful.’ Trouw Letter & Geest

Authors

Flip van Doorn (b. 1967) has previously published The First Hiker and A Fictive Kingdom at Thomas Rap. Jonah Kahn (b. 1971) works as a copy editor at the daily newspaper Trouw. The authors are members of the Trouw-bound Dutch Association for the Promotion and Dissemination of Useless Knowledge.

Additional book information

Short Essays
ISBN 9789400404182
Number of pages: 336
World rights: Thomas Rap
Price: €22,50
English sample available