In publishing, the run-up to Christmas is the silly season. More books are bought now than at any other time of year, so publishers make the most of our search for Christmas presents, and release a variety of frivolous books that will appeal to a range of recipients, catering for all tastes.

One of the funniest types of books in this category is based on the ridiculous things people say. They X-Rayed My Brain and Found Nothing (Headline, £9.99), by Mike Haskins and Clive Whichelow, is a wonderful collection of stupid things that very famous people have said. It's the sort of book that it's impossible to pick up for just a minute - you just can't help having a look at one more saying, 'and one more' You Certainly Couldn't Make it Up (John Blake, £7.99) is Jack Crossley's version of the above, but in printed form: a collection of daft things published in newspapers. Whereas Narrow Escapes and Lucky Breaks, by Irene Thompson (John Blake, £7.99), is the antithesis of the Darwin Awards - true stories of those who cheated death against the odds.

More instructive books include What are the Odds? (Orion, £9.99), in which Graham Sharpe and Roger Schlaifer ask a whole load of bizarre questions, such as "In 1962, what odds were given by a bookie on a human being walking on the moon before 1970?" or "How many times was the word crap' uttered in Parliament from January 2002 to June 2006?." All fascinating questions, and all answered, of course.

The Book of Origins (Portrait Books, £8.99), by Trevor Homer, has all the answers to the questions about where things come from - apart from the chicken on the front cover. The first tunnel under a bridge (under the Euphrates in 2180 BC), the first ear trumpet (mentioned in The Iliad), the first instant coffee (1901), and so on.

And, for pure amazingness, Potty, Fartwell and Knob (Headline, £9.99) is Russell Ash's collection of extraordinary but true names of British people: Caractacus L. Habakkuk (born 1857), Enema Bottomley Wood (1855), and Lotta Rump (1902), to select just three.

So, plenty of crazy books to choose from this year. Yet there'll always be room, this time next year, for more.