Rating: 
Summary: Great Study Guide
Review: I coach a College Bowl team and this books is like one stop shopping. Quick reference to thousands of pertinant facts that are often used during the course of our competition. Thank you Mr. Ferrill for this treasury of knowledge.
Rating:
Summary: Great book
Review: I heard Mr. Ferrill on WGN the other night hyping his trivia book. I already own over 50 trivia books dating back over 20 years, so I ordered a copy of his book. I have to say this is the most comprehensive trivia book I have seen. It is not only interesting to peruse through, but is an excellent study guide for many of the trivia matches that I participate in. Like the author said in his interview with WGN, it is an excellent study guide for Jeopardy or Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. This is the first trivia book that I have ever recomended to my team mates.
Rating: 
Summary: bad bad bad
Review: I just started the book (randomly, at US Presidents), and, after looking at just three pages I've found an error. Not a typo, an error. This is bad. How can I possibly trust the rest of information in the book?
Rating:
Summary: Jeopardy Fan
Review: I listened to Mr. Ferrill last week do an interview on a Worchester, Mass. radio station. I was skeptical about his claim that many of the $800 and $1000 questions on Jeopardy were in his book. So I picked up a copy of the book and checked it for myself. On the first show nine of the twelve questions in this group were sure enough in his book and the second show I checked eight of the twelve were there. My congrats to the author. As a longtime Jeopardy fan, this is the best study guide I have come across.
Rating:
Summary: Great reference
Review: I live in Thailand. We have our own Who Wants to be a Millionaire on the TV here in mi country. When ever they ask a question about events or thing outside my country, I can alway find it in this book. My friend trying to get on the show. He lives with the book 24 hours every day. It is great the way everything is put in alphabet order. I hope this review is helpful.
Rating:
Summary: A few facts to check
Review: I LOVE this book (esp. the format), but with all due respect to Mr. Ferrill, readers might want to check a few facts that I'm not sure others have pointed out:
*Guy Fawkes Day is November 5, not November 3 (p. 133)
*The Samba is the national dance of Brazil (p. 79)
*Wolfgang Puck is Austrian. He does have a famous restaurant called Chinois, though (p. 118)
*Couscous is pasta, not rice (p. 98)
*"The Rite of Spring" is a ballet, not a symphony (p. 74)
*"Thus Spake Zarathustra" is a tone poem, not an opera (p. 73)*Broca's Area AND Wernicke's Area are speech centers of the brain (p. 113)
Rating:
Summary: This is the one you need
Review: I love this book. It is more than a simple exercise in memorization when I delve into it. One little nugget of info will often set me off down a path to new and fascinating knowledge I never had before. I got it because I am going on the game show Jeopardy, and in watching the show and noting what comes up, I would have to say the author does a great job of including very essential and relevant info. If you want a big book of arcane knowledge there are an abundance; this is not one of them. This book is reccomended if you already have a fairly broad knowledge base to draw on. Otherwise it is meaningless and gives you rote memory, which is a waste of your time. I reccomend this book to fill in the gaps of your knowledge. Take a few months to go through it and take a more extensive look at the items that interest you.
Rating:
Summary: Great study guide
Review: I took the test for Jeopardy for the seventh time last week and finally passed it, mostly because I have kept this book with me for most of the last two months. This is a wonderful study guide, perfect for studying for the material they use on Jeopardy. I wish I had it a long time ago.
Rating: 
Summary: More Errors
Review: I'd like to thank previous reviewers for pointing out some of the errors in this book. I'm sorry to say that there are many more. I now have numerous handwritten corrections throughout the book.On a positive note, I think the format is excellent. There is certainly a wealth of information to be found here, and for the most part, it's presented in a way that makes studying easy. However, the numerous spelling errors, omissions, and outright mistakes are quite distracting. I've reached the point where I'm double-checking many facts on the internet. Please note the following if you are using this book to prepare for a game show or other trivia contest: 1) Oliver Goldsmith did not write _Bestseller_ or The First Wives' Club_. They were written by OLIVIA Goldsmith. See pages 146 and 150.
2) Oliver Goldsmith did not write "The School for Scandal." It was written by Sheridan. See page 189.
3) South Dakota is not the Sunshine State. That would be Florida (page 276).
4) Miami is not the capital of Florida. It's Tallahassee (page 265).
5) The first woman to break the sound barrier was Jacqueline Cochran, not Janet Cochrin (page 282).
6) Will Durant did not found the Red Cross. It was Henry Dunant (page 182).
7) The author of _The Mammoth Hunters_ is JEAN Auel, not Jane Auel (page 155).
8) Uriah Heep is not a character from _Oliver Twist_. He's from _David Copperfield_. The thief from _Oliver Twist_ would be the Artful Dodger, or perhaps Fagin was the intended answer (page 143).
9) "Citius, altius, fortius" is "Faster, higher, stronger," not "Higher, faster, stronger." (page 139)
10) An obi is a kimono sash, not a sari sash (page 125).
11) Jocelyn Elders was the first black SURGEON General, not Attorney General (page 39).
12) Freon is not a chemical element. Fluorine, however, is an element, and its symbol is F, not Fr. Fr is the symbol for Francium. The symbol for Carbon is C, not Co. (page 225) I haven't even gotten completely through the book yet, but I can see why it's better to give only a person's last name when answering on Jeopardy! Three of the errors mentioned above demonstrate why this is so. I would love to see an updated version of this book, with consistent spelling and no factual errors. The author might also want to consider placing "Famous Names" *after* "Familiar Quotes," and "United Nations" *before* the various U.S. categories in the Table of Contents. Just my opinion. ;)
Rating:
Summary: Rebuttal
Review: Mr. Richardson is wrong about Woodrow Wilson not being the New Jersey president. He served as governor of New Jersey and ran for president from New Jersey. He is also wrong abut ikebonnat not being Japanese flower arranging. His condemnation of my book has cost me dozens of sales. If he had a valid point I could live with it. The fact is he is wrong about the trivia. I wrote a previous rebuttal, but Amazon would not print it. Please either print my original rebuttal or remove his comment that is totally unfactual. I deserve the right to respond to his accusations.
|
