The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Titanic

Most books about the sinking of Titanic go out of their way to honor the somber occasion, but somber is not the style of the Complete Idiot's Guide series. This is one perky account of calamity, with hundreds of punning headlines ("Cruisin' for a Bruisin'"), a "riveting" account of the ship's construction, and cartoons such as one depicting Death examining a cargo checklist: "2,000 people. 1 iceberg (to be picked up)." It's a treasure-trove of trivia (and significa), with a zillion bite-size bits neatly organized in sensible categories: historical overviews, wreckage exploration, entertainments inspired by the disaster. Strewn throughout the book like orderly flotsam are boxed items featuring fun facts grouped under five rubrics: "Blow Me Down!" (bizarre coincidences and other eyebrow raisers), "Catch the Drift" (definitions of specialized terms), "SOS" (various problems faced aboard the ship and after the fact, including myths and fallacies), "Ahoy There!" (firsthand accounts), and "Lifesavers" (upbeat items--acts of heroism and good things that came out of the wreck, such as Bob Dylan's allegedly Titanic-inspired tune "Desolation Row" on Highway 61 Revisited).

And that's just a drop in the bucket of the lore in this book. Did you know that the wreck launched the career of a New York high school dropout and 21-year-old nobody who beat all the newspapers to the story via the newfangled technology of wireless radio? The kid, David Sarnoff, became president of RCA and the patriarch of television at NBC. For a book smaller than a steamer trunk, the Complete Idiot's Guide packs an impressive load. (For a booklike object literally shaped like a steamer trunk, try The Titanic Collection: Mementos of the Maiden Voyage.) --Tim Appelo