Schott’s Original Miscellany appeared in the UK in 2002 and became a bestseller. Ben Schott created a bizarre collection of useless facts, but the collection didn’t seem forced or twee or self-conscious. What sounds like a more self-conscious German equivalent appeared in August 2004, Ankowitschs Kleines Konversationslexikon. Meanwhile, Schott has been translated into German, and the translator adapted some of the lists to German, but if one is to believe ‘Welt am Sonntag’, not very convincingly (the number one German Christmas pop song being an unmeaningful category). It is in this German adaptation that Ankowitsch excels. Links all to amazon.de – might be worth looking at as a Christmas present – and the original might be useful for translators – it does have an index):
I realized the translation had been adapted when I watched that strange TV programme, Elke Heidenreichs ‘Lesen!’.
I had to go to the Berlin Verlag website to find who was responsible for translating / adapting Schott into German:
bq. Aus dem Englischen unter Mitarbeit von Matthias Strobel u. a.
Thanks for this tip Margaret. Have added it to my Xmas “wishlist”…
Paul