The Book of General Ignorance - John Lloyd and John Mitchinson

If you've never seen the splendidly know-it-all panel game QI, then I strongly suggest you get yourself over to YouTube and sample its delights. As UK readers will know, this is the hugely successful tie-in book, full of seemingly easy questions with entertainingly improbable, but doubtless true, answers.

An example will suffice to give the general flavour of erudite amusement:

Q: What colour is the universe?
A: Beige