One of my favorite reference books, if it can be called that, is Schott’s Original Miscellany, published in 2003.
The best way I’ve seen to describe what’s in this tiny book is from the Amazon description:
Where else can you find, packed onto one page, the thirteen principles of witchcraft, the structure of military hierarchy, all of the clothing-care symbols, a list of the countries where you drive on the left, and a nursery rhyme about sneezing?
The beauty is that you can open it to any page and be informed and entertained.
Today, for the first time in a while, I picked it up and opened to page 11 which contains topics such as Cricketing Dismissals, the U.S. Postal Service’s Unofficial Motto, and the Flag of Guadeloupe.
My favorite topic on the page is Nouns of Assemblage. This list includes goodlies like a murmuration of starlings and a drift of swine. For my money, it’s hard to beat this one: a business of ferrets.
You can still get a hardback copy of the book on Amazon, but there’s no Kindle or Apple Books version.
Mike McClary 