Rating: Summary: Sorta Helpful Review: I first learned about Incomplete Knowledge way back when, when I was on the academic competition (aka, "Quiz Bowl") team at university. Fellow players swore this book helped them win more competitions than any other. Cetainly something to consider! I've always liked the idea of a "font of all knowledge", the one place where anyone could go to find out something. Incomplete Education is something like that. The key problem here is that the authors go out of their way to be "witty", and occasionally their witticisms fall flat. Overlook that, and you have a great little addition for your student's (university or high school) library.
Rating: Summary: An Incomplete Education by Judy Jones and William Wilson Review: Pretty much sums up the feeling you get after paying for thousands of dollars in "higher" education - useless. A good short summary on the facts of a liberal arts education (although you might disagree with some of the conclusions). I would recommend it more so for curious high school students or those that didn't have the opportunity to attend college. But regardless of your education level, it is an entertaining read.
Rating: Summary: Fun and fascinating! Review: The people here who gave this book a negative review clearly just didn't get it. This book is not intended as an education itself (hence the title), but as an introduction and overview that will hopefully send you off to learn more. But the best thing about this book is its wit. Saying that the authors should have dispensed with the comments and gotten down to information misses the whole point! I love this book, and recommend it to all my friends.
Rating: Summary: There are better ways to fill the gaps in your education. Review: Like reading books (PLURAL), for example. I bought this book because I was a programmer and didn't have much in the way of a liberal education. Christopher Lehmann-Haupt is right when he says there's "an astonishing amount of information." There is. The research for this book must have taken ages. And it is presented in a witty and sardonic manner, presumably to make it fun and palatable to the layreader. Yet, I got the sense that I was just kind of learning trivia. The book felt like a crash course and all I felt was that if a conversation about Shakespeare came up, I could pass on an interesting bit of information and look informed. Well, instead of looking informed I advise people to actually READ Shakespeare. He's not that bad. There are plenty of fun, readable books on every conceivable subject out there. Want to learn about religion? Read Huston Smith's "The World's Religions." Want to learn about physics? Read "A Brief History of Time." Want to know something about philosophy? "From Socrates to Sartre" is a good place to start. "An Incomplete Education" fancies itself as some sort of panacea for ignorant souls but it just doesn't deliver. A good reference book but that's about it.
Rating: Summary: This book gets an A+! Review: This book had all the information I needed to fill in the gaps of my education.
Rating: Summary: Entertaining and Educational. Outstanding reading. Review: I'm buying this book to replace the 2 copies that were "borrowed" by "friends" who "forgot" to return them. I've learned my lesson -- I'm going to hide this copy. Simply put, I love this book. I don't understand the customer reviewers who didn't appreciate the fact that this isn't simply a dry compendium of facts. There are plenty of books out there (can you say encyclopedia?) that fit that bill. In fact, this book is specifically designed for people who don't like to read serious books full of dry information because, well, think about it; if you liked serious books full of dry information, you wouldn't be reading this book because you'd already know all the stuff that's in it. Does that make sense? No? O.K, try his: buy the book. You'll like it.
Rating: Summary: Interesting facts - Annoying presentation Review: Reading this book reminded me of dining at a fine restauraunt with an excellent menu and, unfortunately, extraordinarily annoying waiters that buzz about my head like flies - filling my tea at every sip, dragging on endlessly about the soups of the day, and continually checking on my status. Urghhhhhh! Just give me the food and shut up already! The authors of this book eventually wore me down with the presumtion that I would be more entertained with their apparent whit and comical sarcasm than with broadening my extent of knowledge. In fact, if one were to edit out the exra author-only-pleasing chatter, An Incomplete Education would be a surprizingly short read. However, in all fairness, I did find the mere girth of this volume to be an excellent support brace for a broken passenger seat in a 1975 Toyota Corona. So, I suppose if you drove a make and model such as this, and if your passenger seat, too, was broken, then I would have to recommend this book highly. Make sure you wedge it with authority between the frame edging and drive shaft hump - it seems to work best that way.
Rating: Summary: A painless way to learn Review: This book was given to me by a friend who hoped to beef up my recollection of all things philosophical. I ended up cancelling evening engagements all week so that I could pour through it. Irreverent and insightful and intelligent, I could barely bring myself to put it down, and caught myself quoting from it on a regular basis. I am going to send copies to all my non Liberal arts siblings and I look forward to more lively Holiday dinner table discussions!
Rating: Summary: Wonderfully witty and informative Review: Though some may find the tongue-in-cheek presentation too light for a "complete reference", the authors have found a good mix of information and whimsy that gives you a chuckle or two while discovering just how many mathematical "infinities" there are and how many of them are worth more than a passing note to the common man. It is probably a good thing it is not more dry or complete, as the amount of material you can ingest between whiticisms seems very conducive to maximizing your basic (but usable) knowledge of many art and literary subjects we engineers missed in thermodymics classes and the practical physics missed by those who studied dead poets to earn their sheepskins.
Rating: Summary: So Good It Was Stolen! Review: I bought this book about 2 years ago and couldn't put it down! I could always refer back to it to find something that isn't in a regular encyclopaedia, but not since I told my mother about it!! She borrowed it 6 months ago and still won't give it back, though it's good enough I might just buy another copy. If you buy this book you won't regret it for a minute... unless you lend it out!
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