Despite having never heard of Nerd Nite, this compilation of fun facts by regular contributors was catnip to me. These texts include information from many different fields, by experts in each matter. My favorite were the ones about animals and bodily functions in space, but I discovered other fascinating subjects that helped my dinner conversation. In general, I enjoyed this book, despite being a little uneven sometimes. Some of the articles were a little too scientific and went over my head, while others were very political and not what I usually enjoy. All of the pieces are obviously well written and exhaustively researched. They are also brief enough to read as you have time. Full of interesting facts.
I chose to read this book and all opinions in this review are my own and completely unbiased. Thank you, #NetGalley/# St. Martin's Press.

This was a fun assortment of essays from people on so many different topics it was a little like whiplash at times. I think this is the perfect coffee-table book and gift for any inspiring nerd or geek interested in learning more about their world. 4.5/5 stars

This book is so fun! Each chapter is made up of a series of pop science essays, connected by a theme, full of interesting, weird, or amazing things about the world. Some of it is pretty damn unbelievable and most of it is hilarious.

This book is AWESOME!

I wish I had it as an audiobook too because it would be awesome to listen to these stories told in the way/ tone they were meant to be told.

Anyway, I love science but had not heard of nerd nite before! I think I may need to reach out to the organizers to get one in my city.

I can’t wait for the next volume!

This is the best kind of non-fiction - fun, quirky, and accessible to nearly everyone. The chapters are short, making it perfect for those with limited understanding. It also would work well as a coffee table or bathroom book for those who are into that, as you can easily just read a single chapter and come back to it later without issue.

Many of the authors were funny. Some were political, which will alienate some readers, which is unfortunate because of the great information and perspective about humans as just a small piece of an enormous world that has been around for a long time.

I shared some of the information with friends (clown fish, civil war amputations, our future in space). I really think there's something for everyone.

Some of the drawings were odd or confusing. I supposed they were intended to be funny but maybe they just didn't go well in the e-book version.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an eARC. I will purchase for my library.

As with any book written by a host of authors, the material is uneven. Some leave me wondering why I'm wasting my time such as a piece which could best be described as a two page summary of half the self-help books ever written. Others are mind blowing like the piece on the sexual development of clown fish. (I'll never be able to watch Finding Nemo again without thinking about it.) In short, some pieces are great and some are not making the overall effect - OK.

‘How to Win Friends and Influence Fungi’ by Chris Balakrishnan and Matt Wasowski is a collection of quirks of science, tech, engineering and math.

The co-founders of Nerd Nite, a global science organization, collected intriguing STEM short essays to create this book. Section topics range from Creature Features to Pathogens and Parasites to Space, the Big and the Beautiful. With this range of topics, among many others, the essays are just 2-3 pages and provide a short glimpse into the topic. Many of the topics provide humor and intrigue. I personally really enjoyed the chapter on Pathogens and Parasites. I’ve learned more than I would have imagined from this book – senseless knowledge, but interesting nonetheless.

My educational background is in STEM so I enjoyed this book and imagine others would as well. This book could be a great gift to the inner nerd who is interested in random facts and stories. It is a bit senseless, but with the essays only being a few pages – the reading would be easy before bed and would allow you to fall asleep without thinking of anything deep before bed.

I’m interested to look into the Nerd Nite further and see if there are any specific topics I would enjoy reading about more.

Thank you #NetGalley and #StMartinsPress for the opportunity to read this book early in exchange for a review. All opinions and thoughts are those of my own.

Drop a message of your favorite essay/article, I’d love to see which ones you liked!

3.5 stars

A fun compilation of Nerd Night presentations. These explain different science-related topics in a fun, accessible, entertaining way. And the topics - everything from the scatologically related (how astronauts poop in space, for example), to bugs, the science of datings apps, genetics, weird biological and zoographical facts, and why sexual development is about more than just the body parts, to name just a few.

Did you always wonder how birds have sex? Do you have concerns about zombies or brain eating parasites? Or possibly a morbid curiosity about amputations? This might be the book for you

Everything is presented in a lively, straightforward manner. Excellent to pick up and read through or just browse for topics that interest you. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

"How to Win Friends and Influence Fungi" is a collection of short scientific essays on a wide variety of topics, often with a humorous, irreverent, or raunchy tone (depending on topic). The format is from a previously heretofore unknown to me event, Nerd Nite, where science types present their studies to an audience that is encouraged to drink. It's like Comedy Central for nerds! (Is there one in Tampa or Orlando? I need to look more into this...)

Some of the essays seemed too short for me! I wanted to learn more, and then - BAM! - it's done. Is that rushed feeling the result of the Nerd Nite format? I'm not sure.

My thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity for the book.

My thanks to both NetGalley and the publisher St. Martin's Press for an advanced copy of this new book of essays on science, strange creatures, strange human behaviors, and the amazing world we inhabit.

The world is a many-splendoured thing, full of mystery and behaviors, phobias and diseases, creatures, thoughts and beliefs. For a people who claim to do our own research, many of us are ignorant about the world, as shown by the rise of click-bait sites, Facebook rants, and the late lamented Twitter. Much of this not by people wanting to control their narrative, it is just that many things have become accepted facts and we choose not to look further. Thankfully there are people who are passionate about things, say spiders that love to talk about them and say, no they won't poison you, or eat your body like you have been told. And share this information in a fun narrative way with science, personal experiences, and some humor. How to Win Friends and Influence Fungi: Collected Quirks of Science, Tech, Engineering, and Math from Nerd Nite by Dr. Chris Balakrishnan and Matt Wasowski with illustrations by Kristen Orr, is a collection of essays dealing with science, biology, human behavior, hangovers and dealing with annoying noises.

Nerd Nite started over twenty years ago, by Dr. Chris Balakrishnan and Matt Wasowski, as a way of reaching out to people, in personal ways by people speaking about things they were passionate about. Not experts per se, but people who felt strongly about dolphins in the military, or how astronomy is being used in current film effects in movies. Or synesthesia, the effect where the brain takes in stimuli, and passes it through many different senses, along one to taste the letter a, and hear the color blue. Similar to the Moth, but more about something, than personal stories. These personal essays might go into why a person cares about the subject, why they became interested, or obsessed, and why aren't you. The essays have facts figures, pictures and illustrations to prove or disprove the meaning. Everything is pretty well grouped, with a bit on biology, the human brain, human waste, and how humans recover from being wasted.

This is sort of an Uncle John's Bathroom Reader only longer in length for people who want to know more about the world we find ourselves in. The essays are all about the same length, and the variety of the subject matter, though drinking, sex, and again human wastes are covered. The essays are all interesting, one learns quite a bit, and none of the essays make one think they are back in school waiting for the sweet release of the classroom bell. Sometimes the humor seems forced, but that is few and far between, and the rest of the writing more than makes up for it. Quite a few of them will make one think, one or two stopped me in my tracks and wouldn't leave my mind for the rest of the day. I enjoy when that happens.

Recommended for lovers of trivia who like to read. Or for precocious who want to know more about the world, and wants to read books before they are all banned. This would also be a good prompt book for many writers, fiction, fantasy and science fiction, with great ideas for plots and character development. Even nonfiction writers might learn style and also get some ideas. . A very enjoyable collection that I look forward to more of.

So I badly want a bunch of copies to give out as gifts. As other reviewers have pointed out, this is not a book you pick up and read from cover to cover. Every entry is basically a short talk about a specific subject, and there is a short blurb about the expertise of the person behind each one.
The thing that made me love this so much was the ENTHUSIASM about every single topic. And the topics were widely varied, from a specific biology topic to a linguistics topic.
Reading this is so much fun.
Thanks to NetGalley for letting me read this

I really enjoyed the science facts in this book, it had everything that was promised in the description. I thought it had a well-researched book and had fun with this.

Toilet bowl reading for the overeducated. That's a sincere endorsement. Why miss a moment when you could be improving yourself?

Also, a paper copy of this book by the commode would be more sanitary than doomscrolling on your phone.

It is only a few days before Christmas as I write this, which is a shame, because this book seems to be ideal for a stocking-stuffer or perhaps a Christmas gift exchange for a book club or an office. My apologies to the publisher (who gave me a free electronic copy for review) for not getting on the stick sooner with this endorsement.

In case you missed it: Nerd Nite is a nightclub-based activity that started in the early 2000s. They are like Ted Talks without (1) sitting in rows in an auditorium, (2) high production values, and (3) utter seriousness. (Like Ted Talks, however, there is a Nerd Nite YouTube channel.) Nerd Nite is an improvement on Ted Talks in the following ways: there is beer (or other poison of your choice), you can make comments (unkind or otherwise) to your friends during the talks, (unlike music-centric nights at most nightclubs) you don't need a set of earplugs to protect your ability to hear, and you could (sometimes you had to) stand (or lean against the bar) during the presentations (or step out, temporarily or permanently, if you wanted).

Even if you do not read this book while using the toilet, this is not one of these books where you start at the beginning and read through until the end. You can open it anywhere at random and start reading. It is a series of Nerd Nite talks in book form. Even the longest chapters can be read in less than ten minutes. I think it is normal that some of the chapters will appeal to you more than others, depending on your interests. Chapters that I particularly enjoyed included: “Monarch the Bear”, “A Tea Test Tempest”, and “Wildlife Detectives”. I thought the talk about hangovers and the talk about your gut biome were not so interesting. Don't read the chapter about human parasites while you are eating. I did not understand the chapter entitled “From Bach to Tool: the Secret Math Behind Music Theory”, but then again I'm a little tone deaf.

Some of the talks are by and for people with the same sense of humor as junior-high school boys, not that there's anything wrong with that. If that is you, I recommend the chapter on the problems of controlling human solid waste in space, and also the chapter on the male insect that, as an evolutionary adaptation, has developed the ability to do reverse somersaults after sex, which has prevents him from being eaten by his insect mate post facto.

Pointless carping: I think that whoever chose the title chose poorly. It implies that there is a talk entitled “How to Win Friends and Influence Fungi” somewhere in the book. There is not. I know at least one person who is so obsessed with mushrooms that they would likely buy the book on the basis of the title, and be disappointed. Both mushrooms and fungi are mentioned in passing in some of the chapters, but they are not a focus. The title, it is explained in the introduction, refers to the authors, who are “fun guys”. I suppose dopey puns like this are completely in the spirit of nerd night, but still I thought the title was an example of inadvertent false advertising.

All of the chapters are print versions of science-based talks. I look forward to a book of Nerd Nite talks on non-science topics. I particularly remember a very interesting talk at DC9 years ago in which the speaker contended that today's reality TV programming was the 21st-century’s answers to Victorian-era freak shows, which now seem intolerably cruel and barbaric to modern sensibilities. I’ve thought about that talk whenever I see the Kardashians and their ilk once again tugging at the public's attention.

I received a free electronic advance review copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley.

I read this book as a pre-release e-book obtained through NetGalley, provided by the publisher.
This book was fun! It consists of numerous informally-written short articles on scientific or technology-related topics, which can be read in a few minutes. Some are referenced, so if you want to read more of the “properly” written material, it’s available. The individual articles are best read one at a time, and do something else in between them to “digest” it.

I’ve never heard of “Nerd Night”, but I want to go to one now – even if they are far away. I plan to attend one when I get near one on another trip.

🤓 I was not familiar with Nerd Nite, but apparently it has been going on for 20 years! Nerd Nite is a monthly, live presentation to worldwide audiences that discusses STEM topics, as well as history, pop culture, and more. But these aren’t dry, boring lectures. They are creative presentations - sometimes funny, sometimes snarky, but always informative.

🤓 Here are some of the titles of the presentations in the book –

✔️ The Mathematics of Gossip
✔️ Sky Rockets in Flight, Asteroids Delight: Asteroid Mining for Science, Profit, and Fun
✔️ Zombies are Real and You Might Be One
✔️ Dating as a Data Nerd
✔️ Microbes Can Save You, Kill You, or Just Give You the Poops
✔️ Lost: Bladder Control. Reward for Safe Return
✔️ Dealing with Poop and Pee in Space
✔️ Lessons from the Oregon Trail

🤓 There are MANY more fun topics to read about as well!

🤓 The discussion is about 20-minutes long when presented live, so each topic is a quick read in the book. And the information isn’t presented by just anyone – these are experts in their fields with some pretty amazing credentials.

🤓 The title drew me in, and the content kept me reading! Some topics were more interesting to me than others, and some got a little technical, but most of them were absolutely fantastic. If you have a “nerd” in your life, this would be an amazing gift for them!

Thank you @netgalley and @Stmartinspress for an eARC of this book, which I have read and reviewed honestly and voluntarily.

This book is a collection based on live presentations given at Nerd Nites, which are described as “informative presentations accompanied by alcohol.”

Everything seems funnier when you’re drunk. I read this while sober, so maybe that's why a lot of the "humor" missed for me. Additionally, I found it infuriating that there was an excessive amount of pseudoscience and theories presented as fact. I won't even mention how annoying I find the glorification of alcohol use.

I guess with any anthology, there will be hits and misses, and I did enjoy reading some of these essays. However, the sections that interested me seemed too short, while the ones I found boring or annoying seemed to go on too long.

I'm actually shocked by how much of this book was not enjoyable to me. It reminds me of the time someone told me to check out the TV show Big Bang Theory. "You’ll love it," they said, "because you’re smart." I guess I’m not smart.

I had no clue this was written by a longtime event hosting team NerdNite. I’ve never heard of it before but I love learning a little bit about a lot of things and this book is perfect for that!

If you’re even remotely interested in stem, this book is a lot of fun! Each chapter is short and written by a different researcher and are not your boring papers you had to read in school. I thoroughly enjoyed this book.

I loved this book. This anthology covers various areas of science and the stories are well-written and concise. They cover less well-known areas of science, not the usual garden variety. The subtitle of the book, “Collected Quirks…” is a perfect description. The tone is conversational and humorous. The explanations are great as are the illustrations. I also enjoyed the biographies of the contributors. Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for the advance reader copy.

Light and pithy, the very short essays on scientific topics in this collection are (mostly) fun to read. Some of the humor that worked on stage at Nerd Nites--where these essays got their starts--doesn't translate well to the written page, but most are fine. Several could have benefitted from further expert advice, like the ones on music theory and cryptography, which have significant errors in them, which makes recommending the book as a whole problematic.

A collection of bite-sized scientific essays from Nerd Nite, grouped together in broad umbrellas of topics - animals, brains, bodily fluids, sex, health, death, space, math, tech, etc - and all with a humorous bent. It's...fine, and is an example of not really knowing how to translate one medium to another. For a live show, in a room of people, with presentation aids and drinks and laughter, these would all hit quite well as 10-ish minute talks, and the differing styles of the presenters all trying to hit the same notes of humor would be charming. In a book form, each essay is jarringly short, with an odd mix of explaining basic concepts and including topic-specific terms without explanation in the same piece that leaves you feeling like you aren't really sure who these are for. There's also no real feeling of consistency in the depth of each essay across the collection - again, something that feels more acceptable for a live show than a book.

The length of the essays also mean that the information has to be quick, and a lot of the room is sacrificed to make sure the humor is intact. It keeps each piece light, but almost frustratingly so; I wish there had been fewer pieces picked, but the author got to expand a little more into their topic. I think a lot of people don't realize how few words actually come of a 10-15 minute talk and how different presenting with interaction is from writing an engaging piece. Some of them come off as if they were written to be a YouTube video (again, probably a more effective format)

This would be great for someone with a general interest in science or as a lobby book where people are meant to have time to read one, maybe two pieces, but in my opinion, most science nerds will know the majority of this information already, and the pieces are too short to be engaging enough to make up for that.