ALTHOUGH JUST AS MEAN-SPIRITED as the recent spate of Bush-bashing books, Paul Slansky’s George W. Bush Quiz Book redeems itself from its author’s intentions by being, well, oddly amusing.

Though I couldn’t summon the keen appetite of a real Bush-hater when I dug in, I share Slansky’s weakness for puns (“Boy George,” “Bush Men,” “Bush Comes to Shove”) and picking out Slansky’s hobby-horses and secondary obsessions was entertaining in its own right. Imbedded in the answers to the multiple-choice questions that make up the book, one learns of the many evils of Ralph Nader’s 2000 campaign, about Paul O’Neill’s blunders, and that Slansky is an adherent to the Bush-as-dyslexic theory. Which, actually, starts to look pretty plausible about halfway through the book when you’ve read the 200th gem in the “I know how hard it is for you to put food on your family” category: “What kind of expert did George W. Bush say was coming to his ranch to identify the different types of trees? Correct answer: (B) An arbolist.”