Don't believe everything you hear, at least not until checking it out in The Book of Myths & Misconceptions. This book, from the popular Armchair Reader series, shines new light on hundreds of topics, setting the record straight on urban legends, old wives' tales, misattributed quotes—all the so-called facts we picked up from any number of less-than-reliable sources. The Book of Myths & Misconceptions presents the origins and the truths about history, pop culture, health and medicine, science, and the paranormal, to name just a few subjects.

• Check out the Table of Contents.
• Check out some Sample Articles.

Here are some topics in the book:

• Two bloody blockbuster movies, the Texas Chain Saw Massacre and Fargo, were based on real-life events.
• People use only ten percent of their brains.
• A penny dropped from the Empire State Building can kill a pedestrian.
• Ronald Reagan, not Humphrey Bogart, was the first choice to play the role of Rick Blaine in the iconic movie Casablanca.
• If you consume Pop Rocks and soda together, your stomach will explode.
• Walt Disney was cryogenically frozen, and his body is buried beneath the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disneyland.
• Wolves howl at the moon.

From the absurd (lemmings commit mass suicide) to the misinformed (Thomas Edison invented the light bulb) to the seemingly logical (cats purr when they're happy), The Book of Myths & Misconceptions sets the record straight on hundreds of topics.