Get your trivia on the go with this Uncle John’s anthology of fun fast facts, includes over twenty-five pages of new content! Uncle John’s New & Improved Briefs is chock-full of thousands of great facts and hundreds of quick hits covering history, origins, blunders, sports, pop science, and entertainment plus a sprinkling of riddles, puns, anagrams, and other classic wordplay. Read about . . . The secrets of top-secret spy lingo The monkey that got a head transplant . . . and lived Bizarre recipes: jellied moose nose, steamed muskrat legs, and haggis The worst movie bloopers from Best Picture Oscar winners The little-known story of the best deal in sports history The man behind Death Valley’s “Castle in the Desert” How to decipher the hidden codes on a dollar bill Sinister left-handed facts Earth’s greatest hits And much, much more!

The Complete Language of Trees is a comprehensive encyclopedia providing the meanings, powers, facts, and folklore for over 400 types of trees--now in a pocket-size edition for easy, on-the-go reference. Along with a stunning visual depiction, each entry provides the tree's scientific and common name, characteristics, and historic and hidden properties from mythology, legends, and folklore. Discover the lore of trees, including: Hackberry Tree - encourages someone to continuously do their best Manchineel Tree - it is so toxic that the smoke from a burning tree can cause blindness, and it is not even advised to inhale the air around the tree Bark from the Bird Cherry Tree was placed on doors during medieval times to ward off plague Washi paper is created from the inner bark of the Paper Mulberry Tree. Pando is a Quaking Aspen colony that is 108 acres wide (about the size of 83 football fields!). It is technically one tree. Imagine developing a spiritual connection with a tree in a way that exceeds visual perception; where learning its meaning and value simultaneously improves your own mental and physical wellness. Throughout history, floriographies--flower dictionaries--have gained notoriety for regulating human emotions and giving depth, symbolism, and meaning to extremely delicate aspects of nature. Following the success of The Complete Language of Herbs and its predecessor The Complete Language of Flowers, author S. Theresa Dietz continues this custom with The Complete Language of Trees. Coupled with two indexes, one for searching by common tree name and the other organized by meaning, Dietz cleverly connects quality time in nature with the overall improvement of mental health by developing a stunningly depicted dictionary for gardeners, environmentalists, and nature lovers alike.

The beloved bathroom reader series returns with this twenty-sixth edition that’s flush with weird facts on a wide array of topics. The twenty-sixth annual edition of Uncle John’s wildly successful series is all-new and jam-packed with the BRI’s patented mix of fun and information. Open to any page and you may find an interesting origin (like the origin of the snow globe) or a piece of obscure history (like the true story of the man who tried to repeal the law of gravity). You’ll also find weird news, urban legends, brain teasers, classic riddles, bizarre headlines, and of course, the incredible factoids at the bottom of each page. Here are a few of the perpetually pleasing articles awaiting you: · The Lamest Excuses of All Time · How to Survive on . . . Roadkill · Astronauts Who Got Kicked Out of Space · The Woman Who Was Her Own Twin · Foiled by Technology: Dumb Crooks Edition · The History of the Teleprompter, the Police Car, and the Fly Swatter · “Jogging Makes You Dumber,” and Other Real Study Results · The Lost Fortune of Abraham Lincoln · Boxing Lingo · And much, much more 2014 IBPA Benjamin Franklin Award Silver Winner in Humor!

Got a minute to spare? That’s all you’ll need to get a quick hit of great bathroom reading! After hearing from our fans that they’d love an edition with all our best short stuff, we pored through more than 100 past editions to bring you the all-time greatest one- and two-page articles we’ve ever written. Result: Uncle John’s Briefs is chock full of thousands of great facts and hundreds of quick hits covering history, origins, blunders, sports, pop science, and entertainment--plus a sprinkling of riddles, puns, anagrams, and other classic wordplay. Just open up to any one of these 288 pages. Who knows what you might find? Read about… * The secrets of top-secret spy lingo * The monkey that got a head transplant…and lived * Uncle John’s all-time favorite “Stall of Fame” winners * Bizarre recipes: jellied moose nose, steamed muskrat legs, and haggis * The worst movie bloopers from Best Picture Oscar winners * The man who built Death Valley’s “Castle in the Desert” * The little-known story of the best deal in sports history * How to decipher the hidden codes a dollar bill * Sinister left-handed facts * Earth’s greatest hits And much, much more!

Liberal, conservative, independent, or just plain nuts--no one in the public sector gets a free pass in this funny and informative look at the world of politics. No one skewers public servants of all political stripes like Uncle John! Here’s a no-holds-barred look at the history and lunacy of our govern-mental machine. Starting with the birth of democracy in the western world, you’ll learn how today’s political landscape was shaped and get an inside look at how government works (and doesn’t work)--from Main Street to Wall Street to Pennsylvania Avenue to the world stage. These 288 pages consist of the most eye-opening political articles from the BRI’s 25-year-history, plus a few all-new pieces ripped from the election-year headlines. So do your civic duty and read about… * Toilet diplomacy * Gingrich vs. the Glitterati * Why a donkey? Why an elephant? * Animals that ran for office…and won * The island election that was buried by a volcanic eruption * The birth, death, and rebirth of America’s major political parties * Why the first U.S. congresswoman had to hide in a phone both * The rapper who (nearly) took a swing at Romney * The Russian czar who taxed the human soul * The secret plot to take down FDR * Poisonous pundits And much, much more!

The Complete Language of Food blends the realms of food and folklore in a beautifully illustrated encyclopedia of ingredients, including for each entry the food’s unique properties and the facts and folklore behind its use.

Find out what millions of trivia lovers already know: Uncle John is your #1 source when it comes to throne-room reading entertainment. This book celebrates the very best articles from the BRI’s first ten years--plus 150 all-new pages! As always, the contents are divided by length: short articles for the reader on the go, medium articles if you have a few minutes to spare, and the extended sitting section for those truly leg-numbing experiences. Read about . . . * The origin of Twinkies * Who invented the Hula Hoop * The untold history of the Three Stooges * Space toilets: where no man has gone before * 1876: the year they stole the presidency * The FBI’s "Ten Most Wanted" list * How to start your own country * Celebrity imposters And much, much more!

New from the Bathroom Reader: a grand slam, hole-in-one, hat trick collection of sports lore and trivia. Hey, sports fans: Sports Spectacular is bigger and better than ever! The not-so-dumb jocks at the BRI have packed in all the best sports and games articles from the wildly successful Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader series--and then bulked the whole thing up with more than 50 fan-tastic new pages. So place the ball on the tee, square up to the basket, and make sure your laces are laced tight, because it’s time to throw the dice through the goalposts for a home run! You’ll feel the thrill of victory and laugh at the agony of defeat as you read about… * The origins of all the major sports (and a bunch of minor ones) * Classic games, from poker and pinball to Monopoly and Donkey Kong * How to play bathroom blackjack * The world’s worst matador * The Goodyear Blimp * Mascots gone wild * Olympic scandals * NASCAR’s illegal origins * Dodging the cow pies when you play pasture golf * Finnish wife-carrying, gerbil racing, flagpole sitting, and other bizarre sports And much, much more!

It’s one of Uncle John’s most popular editions! More than 500 pages of absolutely absorbing material are at your fingertips. Divided for your convenience into short, medium, and long articles, this book has it all: humor, history, pop culture, politics, wordplay, quotations, blunders, facts, and more. Settle in and read about… * The world’s rarest rock ’n’ roll record * The secret history of the lava lamp * Da Vinci’s unfinished masterpiece * Famous unsolved disappearances * Animals famous for 15 minutes * The world’s luckiest accident * The birth of the T-shirt * Big, bad Barbie * Cereal flops And much, much more!

Uncle John’s latest compendium of the most bizarre and entertaining information imaginable: a Worldwide Weird-opedia! Good news: It’s not you, the world really is going crazy! And Uncle John is barely sane enough to guide you through it all in this whirlwind tour of all things strange and weird. Yes, loyal Throne Room readers, these 432 all-new pages of pure crazy will shock and confound you . . . and make your side split open from laughing. (Uncle John takes no legal responsibilities for split sides.) So fire up your egg-beater, strap on your tinfoil hat, and plunge on into . . . * The secret government plot to poison Earth’s skies * Animal-human hybrids and what role they’ll have in society * “Sexy Finding Nemo” and other inappropriate Halloween costumes * A cow that eats chicken, therapeutic snake massages, and killer kangaroos * The lady who married the Eiffel Tower, and the man who hugs and kisses his car * Enjoying the world’s craziest festivals, where you can eat fried lamb testicles, ride on a ship through the desert, or pierce your skin with a bicycle * Jackasses who copied Jackass and barely lived to tell about it * How to tell if you have Exploding Head Syndrome * Decoding the Mayan Prophecy * Clergy gone wild, and much much more!