The Book of Origins: Discover the Amazing Origins of the Clothes We Wear, the Food We Eat, the Peoplewe Know, the Languages We Speak, and t

Trivia fans eager for a new resource will welcome Homer's compendium of firsts and originals. The book offers plenty of useful information in short bursts, providing, for instance, a three-page thumbnail history of the theater, and a rundown of the early telegraphing highlights: ""The first electromagnetic telegraph,"" the invention of Morse code, ""the first undersea telegraph cable,"" etc. Trivia junky Homer admits in his epilogue that ""much has been left by the wayside,"" but in fact more could have been pruned; the chapter on ""Famous People"" is simply too broad, resulting in a laundry list of names accompanied by a line or two of relevant info. With 19 categories of factual tidbits in just over 300 pages, readers might find themselves getting lost amongst all the crimes, inventions, ""massive steps"" and ""questionable origins""; fortunately, an index provides help for the trivially turned-around.