Among his devoted fans, his pieces were known simply as McGs. With a "genius for illuminating that sometimes ephemeral apogee in people's lives when they prove capable of generating a brightly burning spark" (Columbia Journalism Review), Robert McG. Thomas Jr. commemorated fascinating, unconventional lives with signature style and wit.The New York Times received countless letters over the years from readers moved to tears or laughter by a McG. Esch...

A Curious Man is the marvelously compelling biography of Robert “Believe It or Not” Ripley, the enigmatic cartoonist turned globetrotting millionaire who won international fame by celebrating the world's strangest oddities, and whose outrageous showmanship taught us to believe in the unbelievable.As portrayed by acclaimed biographer Neal Thompson, Ripley’s life is the stuff of a classic American fairy tale. Buck-toothed and cursed by shyness, Ripley turned his sense of bei...

Take a seat and settle in—it's a gigantic treasury of trivia and humor for our twenty-fifth (is that porcelain?) anniversary!IBPA Benjamin Franklin Award Gold Winner in HumorForeWord Reviews Book of the Year Awards, Honorable Mention in Humor"Fully Loaded" is putting it mildly. This behemoth of a book is overflowing with incredible stories, surprising facts, weird news, little-known origins, forgotten history, fun wordplay, and ever...

**A revelatory biography of Robert Redford, written in close collaboration with the extraordinary actor and director himself, revealing the complex man beneath the Hollywood façade.“As incisive a biography of Redford as there is ever likely to be.” —The New York Times**Among the most widely admired Hollywood stars of his generation, Redford has appeared onstage and on-screen, in front of and behind the camera, earning Academy, Golden Globe, and a multitude of other...

New Enhanced Digital EditionHenry Ford an American folk hero to many was a man with several faces. He was a genius who revolutionized the automobile industry irrevocably altered American culture and commerce developed mass production and helped the middle class emerge in America. He was also an anti-Semitic autocrat who hated Wall Street bankers and financiers with unmitigated passion. Ford paid the highest wages but was zealous in his opposition to unions. He was exceptionally hard on his on...

Lots and lots of lists of quick and quirky historical facts, from the Stone Age to the Internet Age!Leave it to Uncle John to find a new way to make history fun and exciting! This quirky collection of lists is the latest volume in the Bathroom Reader's bestselling history series. Over 500 fact-packed pages will breathe life into history's most famous (and most unusual) stories. History buffs, trivia hounds, and readers looking for an educational snack will love lea...

With this volume filled with thousands of bizarrely fascinating facts, we're on a roll!Is there any other single book in the universe with this many awesome tidbits of bite-sized information? Nope. And that's a fact! At nearly 400 pages (with a handy index for your fact-seeking convenience), Wise Up! is a must-have for anyone who likes their information on the go. It's organized into hundreds of topics—everything from sports and entertainment to word origi...

Long ago, Bathroom Reader fans everywhere cried out in terror when Uncle John’s legendary 5th, 6th, and 7th editions were taken out of print. But then they rejoiced at the release of this ginormous book: Uncle John’s Legendary Lost Bathroom Reader! Weighing in at a whopping 673 pages, the entire texts of those long-lost editions have been reanimated into one of the BRI’s all-time best sellers. You’ll be rewarded with thousands of amazing facts, hundreds of incredible quot...

Ahh…what a relief it will be to hold this most entertaining, informative, and amusing tome in the palm of your hands. Hours of great bathroom reading await you!Uncle John’s Ahh-Inspiring Bathroom Reader, Uncle John’s all-new 15th edition, sheds a light on everything under the sun and over the moon. From obscure history to classic wordplay to dumb crooks to inspiring quotations, you never know what you’re going to read next! Where else could you learn how t...

One of Uncle John’s all-time bestselling editions, Supremely Satisfying is everything a Bathroom Reader should be: informative, funny, surprising, thought-provoking, weird, and a little bit gross.Supreme satisfaction awaits you in Uncle John’s 14th all-new edition, which covers a whole host of topics—from the silly (a branding iron for hot dogs) to the bizarre (an exploding whale) to the profound (the rise of the Democratic and Republican parties)...

Look beneath the surface of the world’s most interesting people--past and present--to uncover what makes them tick. Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader Plunges into Great Lives looks beneath the surface and uncovers fascinating but little-known stories behind the famous, the near-famous, the infamous, and the should-have-been famous. You’ll meet child prodigies, spies, traitors, celebrities (and sidekicks), gossips, hermits, humanitarians, and zealots. There are incredible stories here, and every...

One of Uncle John’s all-time biggest sellers, Great Big is overflowing with everything our fans have come to expect: urban legends, forgotten history, myth-conceptions, business blunders, strange lawsuits, weird politics, amazing origins, dumb crooks, celebrity gossip, brain teasers, short facts, and more! Divided by length into short, medium, and long articles, Great Big is sure to be a hit with readers of all ages. A few standouts from these 460 pages:* The firs...