By Ken Jennings Scribner, $19.99, 256 pages Chew each bite thirty times! Early to bed, early to rise. Don’t cross your eyes or they’ll stay like that! Sit up straight! We only use 10 percent of our brains. From catching …

By Nancy Reagin and Janice Liedl (editors) Wiley, $29.95, 328 pages The Star Wars universe is without a doubt the most elaborate and expansive fictional setting in pop culture history. It spans thousands of years, hundreds of planets, and an impossibly diverse …

By Craig Brown Simon & Schuster, $26.95, 356 pages I have a hard time believing in the prophecies of Nostradamus or anyone else, because history is so full of weird coincidences, lucky breaks, and opportune bumping-intos that it’s virtually impossible for anyone …

By Phil Cousineau, Gregg Chadwick (illustrator) Viva Editions, $16.95, 404 pages Fungible. Onomatopoeia. Sabotage. Chocolate. Hydrodaktulopsychicharmonica. You could spend your whole life studying the wild variety and incalculable complexity of the English language, and there would still be words both new and …

By Rob Salkowitz McGraw-Hill, $27.00, 304 pages Comic-Con is a global phenomenon. It has become a centerpiece of pop culture, a barometer for the film industry, and a launchpad for products galore. With superhero movies ruling the box office and the progression …