The Book that keeps on giving....

When I first started to take quizzing seriously and sought to expand my knowledge by building a useful library of reference books, one of the first books recommended to me was the Pears Ultimate Quiz Companion. I knew this book was going to be useful the minute it dropped through my letter box from amazon (£1.29 including p and P) but over recent weeks it has proved its weight in gold. 

A lot of reference books fall into the trap of overload, giving uninteresting, repetitive and unnecessary information that tend to distract rather than promote retention.

This book though takes a more plain approach and whilst I would not describe it as a book of lists per se, it provides information in short sharp "lists" of sort with two columns on each page crammed with facts. Its actually set out really rather real and works a treat for keeping information in.

At Around 690 pages and coming in standard paperback size you would imagine the book misses out a lot of areas and doesn't cover as much group as rivals. Well it does and the reason for this post about it today is simply because the more my quizzing goes on the more useful this has proved....

Whatever the occasion knowing the contents of this book has served me many purposes.

4 points at the World Quizzing championships were gained from knowledge I only knew from this title, the same goes for the Mastermind audition questions and GP questions the BQA issues. Week in week out pub quizzes are won by points based on knowledge I have learned from this book and it has won me jackpots and drinks rounds as well.

Although by no means the be all and end all of reference books (What book can be?) for anyone who is in a similar position as I was, simply looking to improve the basics of all areas of knowledge quickly and to improve performance on any level of quiz this should be an essential starting point.

In fact as a starting point I think this is hard to beat. Of course Trevor Montagues books go further into details but as a starting block, before getting stuck into some of the more weightier tomes, this is hard to match!


Here is a link to purchase for a pittance on Amazon

Pears Ultimate Quiz Companion (Penguin Reference Books)