Milo Rossi, also known as Miniminuteman, started gaining popularity on TikTok by debunking conspiracy theories and plain wrong assumptions about archaeology. Through his humour and calling people out for being dumb-dums who pray on other dum-dums, his viewership kept growing. He later moved on to YouTube, where he has been doing longer videos on archaeology, either presenting and explaining various findings as well as continuing to debunk misinformation.

Only recently, I discovered Milo through his YouTube channel and enjoyed his humour. He’s an archaeologist very enthusiastic and passionate about his work, and his excitement and eagerness to share his knowledge and to teach is contagious. So when I had the opportunity to read his book, I couldn’t pass it.

Disclaimer: Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for allowing me to read this book for free. All the thoughts and opinions here are my own.

Title: The Encyclopedia of the Weird and Wonderful Author: Milo Rossi Publication year: 2023 Genre: Nonfiction, Archeology, Anthropology, History

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I’m not used to buying this sort of book that is, in essence, a compilation of little facts. But to my surprise, these ones were not that little. The book is divided into ten chapters, spread over different stages of life. From birth to death. From food to love. Each chapter has various discoveries and fun facts about how our ancestors lived their lives. And these facts can go over thousands of years into the past or be from the last century.

Alongside the facts, sometimes there goes a little story to picture how it could have happened. Milo doesn’t do this very often since those stories are more speculative due to a lack of information. These stories are just a fun re-imagining of the stories that these lost items and marks left behind could tell. While we might never know why a pair of jeans was left inside a mine shaft, other facts and artefacts have been studied and concluded to have a specific purpose. Like baby bottles. I loved learning that millions of years ago, humans sculpted a vessel they could use to feed babies. The same way we do nowadays with baby bottles. It’s fascinating.

While reading, I could hear Milo speak those words out to me. His speech and his humour are still very much present in the pages the same way it’s in his videos. Although this can be a problem. Despite having a very accessible language that every layperson can understand, this speech-like writing can be confusing at times. And this is coming from me, someone who is familiarised with Milo’s way of talking. So, while I like to listen to Milo talk, reading it is a different story. Still, if I was imagining that he was reading the book out loud to me, it wasn’t a problem.

What I think needs the biggest improvement is the formatting of the pages. Every chapter is divided into different stories, topics, or artefacts that are explored. But in between, there are also notes referring to names, locations, civilisations and other things that might need more contextualisation than what appears in the main text. Although the placement of those notes didn’t line up with the text very well. Sometimes, the notes take a whole page, so the text on the previous page has already moved on to a different topic before you reach the note. This created a problem because I never knew when to read the notes between the text.

Overall, I enjoyed the book. I learned new things, and it sparked my curiosity, which is the best you can ask for in any book. The text was extensive at times when the topic needed to be, but reading it in small chunks made it easier to follow. And more than a book filled with facts, The Encyclopedia of the Weird and Wonderful is a way to bring us closer to our ancestors. To see that we aren’t that different from them. We all had to feed babies, go to work, enjoy playing games, and take well-deserved naps.

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