Now You Know: Big Book of Answers.

Gordon Turner is the author of Empress of Britain: Canadian Pacific’s
Greatest Ship and the editor of SeaFare, a quarterly newsletter on sea
travel.

Dipping into these books either at random or by theme is a pleasant way of passing a few idle moments. There is no doubt about it: Doug Lennox is a tireless researcher and he casts a wide net in his pursuit of answers to questions that may have exercised the minds of some people but may never have crossed the minds of others. Each book has about 50 chapters, whose titles include “Rock and Roll,” “Place Names and Nicknames,” “Medical Complications,” “Crime and Punishment,” “Show Business,” “House and Home,” “Pop Culture,” “Royalty,” and “Science and Technology.” Not all chapters receive equal treatment. For example, “War and the Military” has 29 entries, but “Death and Funeral Traditions” has a mere six. Many answers tell what, but others tell why, where, when, how, and who. Most of the entries come from the English-speaking world, with a fair sprinkling from Canada. Sample questions: Where is Canada’s only desert? Why are shopping centres called malls? Why do men wear neckties? The answers, along with many hundreds of others, can be found in the pages of Now You Know. For this reviewer, one of the most entertaining chapters—although not for the people involved—was celebrity split-ups. (Jennifer Aniston on the end of her marriage to Brad Pitt: “Give me a break. We’re married two years. In Hollywood years, that’s forever.”)

The author says he compiled his books to entertain, and in this he succeeds. They will appeal to anyone who wants to know more about language, customs, rituals, human foibles, statistics, and much else, all delivered in bite-sized and easily digestible chunks.