Rating: 
Summary: "The Faltese Falson " Flies Again! Oops--No, It Doesn't!
Review: This book will delight a certain kind of trivia buff, but not for any of the expected reasons. After all, you can spend just so many years on the couch yelling out the right answers ahead of the contestants on "Jeopardy" or "Who Wants to Whatever?"--right? At that point, some people find more fun in the WRONG answers. Boy, has Steven Ferrill got a book for YOU folks! It's FULL of wrong answers. Okay, so most of the mistakes are spelling gaffes. To the Spell-check generation, spelling itself is considered trivial, and spelling mistakes can be brushed aside like pizza crumbs, can't they? Well, not exactly. If the Jeopardy answer is: "Shelley's elegy on the death of Keats" and the contestant says, "What is 'Adonis'?" (see Ferrill, p. 144), Alex will frown regretfully and move on. Likewise, don't try to palm off Ferrill's "Sicaly" (p. 231)(which would be pronounced "Sikaly") as Shakespeare's "Sicilia" (the setting for THE WINTER'S TALE). If I tried to pronounce Samuel Butler's masterpiece on the basis of its spelling in this book ("Aerowan," also p. 144), I don't think I'd get close enough to EREWHON to win a toaster oven. (By the way, it's not often you see a seven-letter word with six spelling mistakes.) And surely, no self-respecting trivia judge would accept, as the title of the classic Bogart-Mary Astor film noir, Ferrill's gem on p. 51: "The Faltese Falson." Now here's a gaffe that won't lose you any points but will give you a giggle: Ferrill's version (p. 124) of the Newton Minow quote tells us that television is "a vast waistland." Finally, on p. 42, you'll find a truly charming blooper: America's largest exporter is "Boing." There's something almost Zen-like about that one. Yes, there are mistakes beyond the spelling slip-ups. If you have a single choice for "main character in Joyce's ULYSSES," go for Bloom, not Stephen Daedalus, as Ferrill does (p. 142). Do not, repeat, DO NOT identify Tybalt in ROMEO AND JULIET as "Juliet's nephew" (Ferrill, p. 230): the two teen-agers are cousins. Finally, and most gravely, never, EVER suggest within hearing of a University of Arizona alum (such as this reviewer) that that great institution is located in TEMPE! Well, there are more , but I don't want to spoil anyone's fun. Oh, all right, but this is the last. In the category "Latin Phrases," Ferrill tells us that "a god out of a machine" is
"deux ex machina." Since "deux" means "two," perhaps he was thinking of "Two for the Seesaw." The traditional phrasing prefers the word "deus." Well, thus warned, you may want to buy the book anyway. It packs a lot of information in a compact format, has functional categories, puts the answers right next to the questions where a serious trivia hound (as contrasted with a party dilettante) wants to find them, and never tries to be cute, unlike some trivia books one might name. Besides, you'll probably enjoy the howlers. I surely did.
Rating: 
Summary: Outstanding study guide
Review: This is far and away the best academic study guide on the market. Nothing else comes close. Very highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Outstanding study guide
Review: This is far and away the best academic study guide on the market. Nothing else comes close. Very highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Great Trivia Book
Review: This is one great trivia book. It has everything. I have several other trivia books and nothing else comes close to this one. How do I get this author for a lifeline?
Rating:
Summary: Great Book
Review: This is one great trivia book. It is very easy to study and includes almost too much interesting material. By far the best game show study guide I have seen. I bought one for my mother and uncle. Highly recommended
Rating:
Summary: Great Study Guide
Review: This is the best study guide I have found. The clues are short and to the point and you don't have to jump around all over the book t find the answers. Everything you need to study is in here. I wish I had found this a long time ago.
Rating:
Summary: Great Study Guide
Review: This is the best study guide I have found. The clues are short and to the point and you don't have to jump around all over the book t find the answers. Everything you need to study is in here. I wish I had found this a long time ago.
Rating:
Summary: Great book
Review: This is the most comprehensive academic trivia book I have seen. Highly recommended.
Rating: 
Summary: Fraught with Errors!
Review: While I appreciate and applaud Mr. Ferrill's unique effort, I must point out that within the first couple of minutes that I looked through this book, I KEPT FINDING ERRORS! For instance, the second American in Space was Gus Grissom, not Scott Carpenter. The first American to walk in space was Ed White, not Alan White. The Bismark was a German Battleship, not a Destroyer. The major rivers in Maine are the Penobscot, Androscoggin, and the Kennebec, not the KENNEBUNK. (The Kennebunk is a small river, significant only for its mouth's proximity to ex-Pres. Bush's estate.) Stonewall Jackson was killed at the battle of Chancellorsville in Virginia, not TENNESSEE. The trachea is not the "tube traveling from the mouth to lungs"-it connects the larynx to the lungs (or even more accurately, it connects the larynx to the left and right mainstem bronchi). Erythrocytes don't "carry" Red Blood Cells-they ARE Red Blood Cells, and they carry oxygen. Cartilage is not the "tissue that attaches tendons to bones"-tendons attach muscle to bones and insert directly into the bones. Tojo was a Japanese General, not an ADMIRAL. I won't even address the spelling errors. Again, I found these errors within a few minutes of picking the book up and randomly glancing through a couple of sections-and these are just the errors I could instantly identify. These errors may seem trivial, but afterall, this is a book about trivia! I suppose this book may have served some game show participants and viewers adequately, and I'm sure the vast majority of Mr. Ferrill's information is accurate. But, based on the number of errors I discovered in the first ten minutes, I sure wouldn't trust it as a reliable source to settle a bet or an argument.
Rating:
Summary: Oops Nat Cole didnt write..
Review: Yup Nat "King " Cole did not write "Unforgettable" It was written by Irving Gordon who also wrote the skit "whose on first" for abbott & Costello (page32) Also James Dean was in "Rebel without A Cause" but was NOT in "Bus Stop" (Cinema page 46) I already noted the Florida booboo..Talahassee NOT MIami...Other wise I love this book. Sincerely. Enjoy reading it again and again..Usually in bed to get sleepy enough to dive in under the covers. Keep up the good work ...but have some editors check and double check the facts.
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