WEIRD BUT TRUE!

Heaping helpings of facts and photos on natural and manufactured oddities, with a sprinkling of new material scattered over previously published fare.

Continuing to cater to short attention spans, this lightly massaged version of the previous edition offers the same crowded mix of bright color photos and equally flashy backgrounds and graphics—tailor-made for random dipping and compulsive sharing. There is an index that few, if any, readers will ever consult, and there are no source notes, aside from the obligatory photo acknowledgments. But if the blocks of commentary accompanying the pictures go for hokey wordplay (it “pays to be cassowary-wary!”) and cranking up the pitch, a few factual bits are smoothly folded in, and each chapter does feature a rudimentary pop quiz. Following an opening chapter with select upcoming weird holidays and events (2024 will have two solar eclipses, fewer than usual), the contents are grouped by continent, with a final chapter on seas and space. The book sweeps through a sprawling menu of topics: records such as the world’s longest hot dog and largest hamburger, glimpses of the annual bog snorkeling championships and other less well-known competitions, and wildlife from the ever-popular tongue-eating louse to a millipede named after Taylor Swift. Readers are invited to marvel at a porcine painter named (inevitably) “Pigcasso,” any number of oddly shaped buildings, and the “gigantic butt-shaped nut!” of the coco de mer palm.

The bee’s knees for browsers, if not much different from last year’s version.