Trivia Books – Interesting Literature

More Misinformation and Misconceptions

In this week’s Dispatches from The Secret Library, Dr Oliver Tearle reviews a forty-year-old book debunking various widely held beliefs

Last year, I reviewed a fascinating book, The Dictionary of Misinformation, written by a professor of English named Tom Burnam and published in 1975. Although it’s now out of print, you can pick up a second-hand copy of it online for a few quid (my copy cost me less than £2.50 including postage). And I’d strongly recommend doing so.

Who Wrote the First Novel in English? And Other Surprising Literary Firsts

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

We recently wrote a book, The Secret Library: A Book Lovers’ Journey Through Curiosities of History, which aims to uncover the best hidden facts and stories about classic and not-so-classic works of literature. One of the most fascinating things we discovered was how wrong we’d been on the topic of ‘firsts’. It seems there are a fair few origin myths out there, which are often taken as fact.

Happy December, Everyone!

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

This month, we’re celebrating our fourth birthday as a blog. Interesting Literature began life on 1 December 2012 (41 years, to the day, since Project Gutenberg was launched; though needless to say we’ve yet to match that site for popularity or sheer usefulness!). Since we began blogging about some of the more curious aspects of literature, this blog has grown to include a Twitter feed, a Facebook page, and – this year – a book, The Secret Library: A Book-Lovers’ Journey Through Curiosities of History.