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A number of large subjects (art, biology, chemistry, economics etc) are tackled though the device of constructing short (usually between 1 and 5 items, occasionally a few more) lists under rather self-consciously funny titles and then providing a paragraph or two on each item. Just for fun the odd list of facts and figures are thrown in.
Examples of typical lists include: Fantastic side effects of neutering, Religious mysteries solved by chemistry, Women who shaped world religions, Religious rituals that hurt like hell, Reasons that you are an unreasonable reasoner.
There is a fair amount of American student/schoolboy humour - your enjoyment of the book will be determined by whether this appeals or not.
Several reviewers have criticized some of the ways information is presented in this book for the sake of political correctness, as well as some of the opinions about works discussed. I think all the reviewers of this book make valid points. Everybody knows what AD and BC mean, there's really no reason at this point to reinvent the wheel.
The section on Art included a few prickly elements for me. I personally was annoyed by some of the superlatives used to describe many of the artists. The section on seeming like you know what you're talking about at an art exhibit is so funny, however, that it totally makes up for it. :) In all fairness, art is one of the hardest things to write about clearly since it's so personal for whoever is viewing it. Look up the artists listed so that you can see some of the pictures yourself and make up your own mind!
Those small picadillos aside, there's sooo much to enjoy here that the good far outweighs the bad. The sections are well organized, and the authors do a great job of bringing historical figures to life with great stories.
Many trivia books can be read for about an hour at a time. This is a trivia book that can be read for hours on end and still not make you feel overloaded. The bite-size bits of info are easy for anybody to swallow!
All in all, I HIGHLY recommend this book. If it were possible to give it 6 stars I would! Buy it, Read it, ENJOY IT!
I really sat on the fence on whether to give the book four or five stars. I would give it 4 1/2 if that were an option, but there were a few little thing about the book that bugged me enough to prevent a five star review (although I do give the magazine five stars.) The first (minor) error I noticed is in the chapter "Condensed General Science" under "Sexy Animal Facts", where the author states that "A goldfish has a memory span of only three seconds". I hold a degree in Biology, and can categorically say that is untrue. This is an urban legend and supposition, which has been disproved in several studies in animal behavior in which goldfish were taught to swim in elaborate mazes over the span of several days. If they only had a three second memory, they would be unable to complete the maze correctly with ever improving times day after day (which shows that learning occurs.) The television show 'Mythbusters' did a primitive version of one of these studies on one show, by the way. This isn't a big point, but is worth noting.
I object to the politically correct use of the terms of 'BC' and 'BCE' instead of 'BC' and 'AD'. Although the calendars are identical there is no valid reason to dispense with the terminology in place since about 525 AD just to be politically correct. It is annoying, reduces the comprehensibility of the dates in the book and in no way improves the calendar.
I find it a bit ironic in the chapter "Condensed History" that sometimes journalism professor Peter Haugen has a section called "Rotten to the Corps: Tyrants with Horrific Rap Sheets" in which obvious winners such as Stalin and Hitler make the grade, but so do three 'Pasas' from nineteenth century Turkey, due to forced relocations of peasants during wartime. They may well have been bad guys, but even historians disagree whether or not this was an unfortunate byproduct of war or genocide of a minority group. My point is that there is a lot of ambiguity here, and elevating them to the same plane as Hitler while leaving every single corrupt Middle Eastern despot off the list entirely is patently ridiculous. Bottom line: this list lacks historical objectivity.
In "Condensed Literature" the allegation is made that Chaucer's "The Canterbury Tales" is still 'fresh and funny' after 600 years. Everybody can have their own opinion, but I have read "The Canterbury Tales", and can say from personal experience that absolutely nothing could make "The Canterbury Tales" in any way fresh or funny.
Finally, under "Condensed Religion" there appears a box titled "The Problem of Evil" which attempts to refute religion as a belief system. The logical assertions are not well constructed, and most any individual dedicated to any monotheistic religion (that I know of, anyway) will have no difficulty recognizing the fallacies in the rather disingenuous arguments presented.
Overall, this is a credible, interesting book, though I don't think it is quite up to the quality of "Mental Floss" magazine. I recommend the book, but, as always, read skeptically, and let the arguments make sense before you change long-held beliefs. Having said that, the book is fun and irreverent. Despite my critiques, I am glad I bought it.
The big disappointment is that some of the "facts" are flat-out wrong. A section on antibiotics claims, "bacteria are at the root of diseases ranging from colds to tetanus," when colds are caused by rhinoviruses and do not respond to antibiotics. Another section claims, "A goldfish has a memory span of three seconds," an urban legend which has been disproved many times over. My personal impression of the book (others will probably disagree) is that it contains a bunch of facts that the authors rattled off the tops of their heads instead of researching to any degree.
So, read the book in good fun, and if you're going to use its contents to show off how smart you are, find another source to back you up first.
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