Strange-but-true stories, colorful characters, and big-league bizarreness for fans of America’s pastime! Why is baseball such a great subject for a Bathroom Reader? Because it’s steeped in history and tradition, it’s rife with scandals and controversy, and most of the men that dedicate their life to it are just a little bit . . . weird. Uncle John’s spirited take on the game takes you deep into that history to paint a detailed picture of where the game came from and where it may be going. You’ll go behind the scenes at spring training, listen in on pitcher’s mound conferences, and meet the players, coaches, fans, and broadcasters who make this the greatest game in the world! Swing for the fences as you read about . . . * Minor league mishaps * The violent history of umpiring * The true story of Lou Gehrig’s heroic rise and tragic fall * The man who pitched a no-hitter while tripping on LSD * The origins of gloves, baseballs, bats, uniforms, helmets, and more * Baseball’s most famous call and how it was saved for posterity * The best and worst teams of all time * Animals in the outfield * The birth of Little League * The Abner Doubleday myth * and much, much more!

From cannibals to conspiracy theories to the origin stories of candy, a compendium of thousands of fun facts to read behind closed doors! Our readers asked for it, and here it is: Uncle John’s first collection of his greatest short facts and quick reading material. Open up to any page of Extraordinary Book of Facts and you might find a list of, say, obscure words (“exocannibals” eat enemies; “indocannibals” eat friends). Flip to another page and there’s a whole bunch of facts about how long things take (a yak’s gestation period: 258 days). On another page: kid facts (the average four-year-old laughs 400 times per day; grownups, about fifteen). Get smarter and laugh a lot more with this amazing collection that features thousands of great facts, plus word origins, myth-conceptions, conspiracy theories, and much, much more. Arranged for simple and speedy reference, this book is the perfect companion for trivia buffs and knowledge junkies everywhere!

Bestselling book, fantastic new look! Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader got a FACTASTIC facelift for the 28th all-new edition of this beloved book series. Now with a fancy flexi-cover and slightly larger trim size on the outside, and a sleeker style on this inside! All of our fans’ Bathroom Reader favorites are packed into these glorious pages—from little-known history to the origins of everyday things—plus odd news, weird fads, quirky quotes, mind-bending science, head-scratching blunders, and all sorts of random oddities. Oh yeah, and thousands of incredible FACTS! Feel smarter (and a bit more dignified) as you settle into… • Weird Body Parts of the Rich and Famous • The Wild Man of Borneo • Cryptic Movie Titles Explained • "Pathological Generosity" and Other Real Medical Conditions • How to Perform CPR on Your Dog • When Postal Workers Go Rogue • Start Your Own Country! • Animals Under the Influence • Welcome to No Mans Land • The Mad Potter of Biloxi • Saved From the Trash: The “Lost Leonardo” • The Ten Longest Wars in History • Stomach-churning Food-Safety Mistakes • You Swallowed What? • Incredible Stories of Survival • The Case of the Stolen Bridge and Other Weird Crime Reports And much, much more!

This 34th annual edition of Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader offers an all-new collection of fascinating trivia, strange-but-true oddities, and the ever-popular stories of dumb crooks! Uncle John’s Hindsight Is 2020 Bathroom Reader is packed with tons of new articles from the worlds of pop culture, history, and science to help you get everything out of your system the next time you visit the throne room! Articles range in length from a single page to extended page-turners, each as entertaining as the last. From iconic television roles that almost weren’t to the origins of comic books, this 34th edition of fascinating trivia, hilarious lists, and notable quotes compiled by Uncle John and his team at the Bathroom Readers’ Institute will set your mind free to roam the world—and you won’t even need to leave the house!

From the Nobel Prize winner and acclaimed author of My Name is Red comes a portrait of Istanbul by its foremost writer, revealing the melancholy that comes of living amid the ruins of a lost empire. "Delightful, profound, marvelously origina.... Pamuk tells the story of the city through the eyes of memory." —The Washington Post Book World A shimmering evocation, by turns intimate and panoramic, of one of the world’s great cities, by its foremost writer. Orhan Pamuk was born in Istanbul and still lives in the family apartment building where his mother first held him in her arms. His portrait of his city is thus also a self-portrait, refracted by memory and the melancholy—or hüzün—that all Istanbullus share. With cinematic fluidity, Pamuk moves from his glamorous, unhappy parents to the gorgeous, decrepit mansions overlooking the Bosphorus; from the dawning of his self-consciousness to the writers and painters—both Turkish and foreign—who would shape his consciousness of his city. Like Joyce’s Dublin and Borges’ Buenos Aires, Pamuk’s Istanbul is a triumphant encounter of place and sensibility, beautifully written and immensely moving.

Grab some quiet time for yourself and enjoy hundreds of pages of the world’s most twisted trivia! The crackpot staff at the Bathroom Readers’ Institute has scoured the worlds of pop culture, politics, sports, history, and more to bring you Slightly Irregular, the seventeenth all-new edition in the best-selling series. As always, the articles are divided by length for your sitting convenience. So turn thine eyes away from the shampoo bottle, O bathroom reader, and let Uncle John pepper your brain with these absorbing articles . . . * Women in space * The origin of Kung Fu * The CIA’s secret coup * The great windshield epidemic * Spider eggs in the brain, and other urban legends * What went down at Woodstock * Freedom of McSpeech * How to kill a zombie, and much more!

A knee replacement guide written by an experienced Physical Therapist, with a twist - a bonus story told through family conversations, as the matriarch prepares for, and recovers after her surgery. 'Granny Gets A New Knee' is a multi-generational, highly accessible work of science/fiction to help anyone who would like to avoid, prepare for, or rehab after knee replacement surgery.