- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
About this book
Delightfully nerdy and geeky, perfect water cooler fodder that's guaranteed to generate discussion. This quirky and unusual book of top 10's covers politics, language, history, pop culture and more - with a distinctive British slant.
This is NOT a fact-based compendium. It's purely opinion – the opinions of John Rentoul, his readers—and, yes, Twitter. Every week in the Independent on Sunday, John Rentoul publishes a top 10 based on suggestions from the great British public, covering a wide range of pressing issues, such as which are the books that people buy but never read?* Now collected together for the first time, and featuring previously unpublished lists, this is a book of open arguments that will ask readers to continue the discussion and contribute to the great debate online. It addresses essential topics such as: most overrated 1960s bands; meaningless words found on modern menus; great bands with terrible names; films panned as turkeys that are actually quite good; most beautiful British railway journeys; stupid car names; unsung villains; political heckles; words that ought to be used more often; British place names; best prime ministers we never had; visual clichés; political myths; anagrams; misquotations; worst Beatles songs; most interesting politicians.This bookis a compendium of the answers to such quintessential pub arguments. But who knows best? You, John, or Twitter? Pick up this book and join the debate. *Top answers: Long Walk to Freedom; A Brief History of Time; Ulysses; Life of Pi; Longitude; Spycatcher; Gravity's Rainbow; My Life by Bill Clinton; Living History by Hillary Clinton; anything by Jamie Oliver.
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Information
Table of contents
- Cover
- Title
- Contents
- Top ten reasons to read this book (or ‘The Introduction’)
- 1. Underrated family films
- 2. Plurals that have become singular
- 3. Footnotes
- 4. Malapropisms
- 5. Signs with double meanings
- 6. Surprisingly unrelated pairs of words
- 7. First sentences of novels
- 8. Last sentences of novels
- 9. Words that used to mean the opposite
- 10. Words with opposite meanings
- 11. Fictional villains
- 12. Upbeat songs that tell a sad story
- 13. Genuine shop names
- 14. Mixed metaphors
- 15. Lost positives
- 16. Tautologous abbreviations
- 17. Examples of journalese
- 18. Most interesting politicians
- 19. Spoonerisms
- 20. Tautologies
- 21. Translated tautologies
- 22. Songs that mean the opposite of what most people think
- 23. Unexpected etymologies
- 24. Most English remarks of all time
- 25. Misused fables
- 26. Palindromes
- 27. Words used only with one other word
- 28. English Monarchs 1066–1707
- 29. Unisex names of MPs
- 30. Ways of defeating the Daleks
- 31. Anagrams
- 32. Most beautiful British railway journeys
- 33. New clichés that should be banned
- 34. Phrases that ought to be off the menu
- 35. Words that ought to be used more often
- 36. Party conference speeches
- 37. Great bands with terrible names
- 38. Films panned as turkeys that are actually quite good
- 39. Political myths
- 40. Original titles of novels
- 41. Douglas Adams quotations
- 42. Questions to which the answer is no
- 43. Transpositions of sounds in words
- 44. Words that lost or gained an ‘N’
- 45. Stupid car names
- 46. Unsung villains
- 47. Laws of life
- 48. Political heckles
- 49. Best British place names
- 50. Most overrated 1960s bands
- 51. Best prime ministers we never had
- 52. Visual clichés
- 53. Useful words for which there is no English equivalent
- 54. Politicians not known by their first name 91
- 55. Books people buy but don’t read
- 56. American footballers’ names
- 57. Misquotations
- 58. Worst Beatles songs
- 59. Surnames that have died out
- 60. Everyday lies
- 61. Recurring news stories
- 62. Yiddish words
- 63. Elegant variations
- 64. Great unremarked changes of our lifetime
- Top ten lists that didn’t make it
- Top ten people to whom I am grateful (otherwise known as ‘The Acknowledgements’)
- Contributions and nominations
- Copyright