Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Schott’s Original Miscellany | 2002 | Ben Schott | Buy |
| 2 | Schott’s Food and Drink Miscellany | 2003 | Ben Schott | Buy |
| 3 | Schott’s Sporting, Gaming, and Idling Miscellany | 2004 | Ben Schott | Buy |
| 4 | Schott’s Almanac 2006 | 2005 | Ben Schott | Buy |
| 5 | Schott’s Almanac 2007 | 2006 | Ben Schott | Buy |
| 6 | Schott’s Almanac 2008 | 2007 | Ben Schott | Buy |
| 7 | Schott’s Miscellany 2008 | 2007 | Ben Schott | Buy |
| 8 | Schott’s Almanac 2009 | 2008 | Ben Schott | Buy |
| 9 | Schott’s Almanac 2010 | 2009 | Ben Schott | Buy |
| 10 | Schott’s Quintessential Miscellany | 2010 | Ben Schott | Buy |
| 11 | Schott’s Almanac 2011 | 2010 | Ben Schott | Buy |
| 12 | Schottenfreude: German Words for the Human Condition | 2013 | Ben Schott | Buy |
Schott’s Original Miscellany appeared in 2002 and became a cultural phenomenon in Britain before spreading internationally. Ben Schott had been working as a photographer when he assembled a dense, witty reference book organized around the principle that interesting information needs no particular justification beyond being interesting. The book sold around 2.5 million copies across 21 languages, including an edition in Braille.
The success of the original Miscellany led to a series of themed follow-ups, Schott’s Food and Drink Miscellany, Schott’s Sporting, Gaming and Idling Miscellany, and then an annual almanac series, Schott’s Almanac, which ran from 2003 through 2013 and compiled the year’s notable events, facts, and cultural markers in the same dense format as the original.
The books occupy an unusual space: too idiosyncratic to be straightforward reference works and too factual to be humor books in the conventional sense. They work best as browsing material, the kind of book that rewards picking up and opening to any page. Schott’s Quintessential Miscellany, published in 2011, collected highlights and new material in a final themed volume before the annual series concluded.