Isaac Asimov – ‘Facts and Trivia’

I had intended originally to keep this to fiction but this bit of non-fiction has crept in. Perhaps more will...

Thousands of things you didn't know you needed to know. Not the very best of trivia books (and too Maerican a bias for me) but nevertheless good fun and a fine source of quiz questions.


ISAAC ASIMOV (January 2?, 1920 – April 6, 1992) was a Russian-born American author and professor of biochemistry, a highly successful writer, best known for his works of science fiction and for his popular science books.

Asimov was one of the most prolific writers of all time, having written or edited more than 500 books and an estimated 90,000 letters and postcards, and he has works published in nine of the ten major categories of the Dewey Decimal System (all except the 100s, Philosophy).

Asimov is widely considered a master of the science-fiction genre and, along with Robert A. Heinlein and Arthur C. Clarke, was considered one of the "Big Three" science-fiction writers during his lifetime. Most of Asimov's popularized science books explain scientific concepts in a historical way, going as far back as possible to a time when the science in question was at its simplest stage. He often provides nationalities, birth dates, and death dates for the scientists he mentions, as well as etymologies and pronunciation guides for technical terms.