H ere is another thoroughly distasteful yet utterly compelling book from the author of the New York Times (extended list) bestseller Why You Shouldn’t Eat Your Boogers and Other Useless (or Gross) Information About Your Body. In Why Fish Fart and Other Useless (or Gross) Information About the World, Francesca Gould sifts through the world’s most unpleasant creatures, diseases, physical deformities, culinary delicacies, ritual practices, and hideous torture tactics to uncover every horrifying and stomach-turning fact under the sun. This book is full of questions you never thought to ask—and perhaps will wish you’d never had answered—including:

—What exactly is maggot cheese?

—How did anal hair help to lead to the conviction of the Great

—Train Robbers?

—What is the job of a “fart catcher”?

How exactly do “crabs” cause such intense itching around one’s private parts?

—The real story behind why the toilet is often referred to as “the john.”

—Why you might want to steer clear of some coffees. (Hint: If poo isn’t exactly your idea of appetizing . . .)

Why Fish Fart and Other Useless (or Gross) Information About the World is sure to delight any and all hard-core fans of the obscure, esoteric, and—last but not least—grotesque.