Q and A Books

This book was required reading for one of my college classes. It proved to be interesting and not terribly difficult to read.

I'm an anglo-American who works at a U.S. company that includes thousands of Indian. Like everyone, I've found the more I know about a person's culture the better we work together. I think this stems both from better understanding values and thought tendencies, as well as good will from making the effort. While I've studied a lot about Japanese and European history and folklore, my knowledge of what an Indian child learns does not extend much past having watched the movie "Ghandi".

My 12-year-old son has been interested in Indian mythology and chose this book. I found it lying on the table one day, scanned the intro and got hooked. The fact that Ramayana is so pervasively known across the diverse states of India made it seem like an essential book for me.

As I enjoyed the adventures, romance and morality stories I kept wondering about what the original poem is like. Others reviewing here seem to agree that the while Narayan's adaptation is modern, accessible and abbreviated, it is faithful to the spirit of the original.

I plan to read it again, or perhaps another adaptation, in order to commit the character names to memory. It will be fun to discuss with my Indian friends -- especially if I remember it better than they do!

The story of Ramayana is in the blood stream of everyone from India. The original epic was written in the 4th century BC in Sanskrit, by Valmiki. Poets in every Indian language have retold this story. This present book relying on the Tamil Kamban version, presents before the reader the essential story of Ramayana. R.K Narayan, with the command of the English language and love for fast story movement, narrates the kernel of the epic poem in an engaging manner, for the sake of the English reader not familiar with the original version. Naturally, some of the elaborate details had to be left out and some narratives had to be condensed. This made the enormous epic into an enjoyably gripping story, in less than 200 pages.

As a fan of Narayan's work, I was fascinated to see how he would tackle the grand subject of the Ramayana, a work that runs through and certainly influences all of Narayan's stories. The result is one of his most delightful and beautifully written novels. I think it is important to approach this book not as "THE" Ramayana, but one storyteller's unique vision of the timeless epic--even as a variation on one of his Malgudi novels (the characters certainly bare a distinct resemblance). Narayan's writing is extremely sensitive, refined, yet full of humor and charm. Throughout he adopts the tone of a storyteller, openly acknowledging that he is only "retelling" a story by a much greater storyteller, and leaving out the juciest parts at that. His little asides where he explains, "And here the poet described the scene so touchingly..." are at once reverent and amusing, as Narayan wisely omits anything too excessive or poetic that might derail his narrative. But the story itself is wonderful, a colorful, full-blooded telling of the Ramayana, sparse, fast-moving, but with all the hallmarks of Narayan's style. This book is a must for any fan of Narayan's fiction, Indian writing, or mythology. Narayan effectively conveys the epic's timelessness, with characters and situations that echo throughout literature and film, full of profound human emotions. And this is always one of Narayan's chief strengths, to create believable, complex human characters. In his treatment, even Rama and Sita emerge as sympathetic individuals, not the cardboard cut-outs all too common given their extraordinary powers. In short, this is a magical and engaging work that I know I will read again and again in the years to come. I invite you to do the same!

I should say immediately that I have no background of any kind in Indian culture, myth or religion. So in reading this small volume I was a complete outsider and a complete beginner in the Ramayana epic. For me, this retelling (in prose) was an excellent first step into unknown territory. I was able to follow the thread of the story and at the same time get a good sense of the epic grandeur behind the myth. I learned about the inviolability and power of a promise, no matter how whimsical or ill-conceived it appears when given; the sacredness of all life, even that which appears lowly; the presence of gods among us in a great variety of forms; and at least one idealized view of the relationship between a man and a woman.

Oh, and it was a whopping good story, much deeper and more packed with meaning than the Greek and Roman myths I was raised on as a child. As I think back, I can recall the Greco/Roman mythology only as a collection of pleasant stories of gods who behaved like children, made decisions for petty reasons and who liked to interfere in the lives of men simply to cause trouble, fulfill sexual desire or seek revenge. I remember wondering when I read Greco/Roman myths how anyone could have "believed in" such gods or even taken them seriously in the way religion is taken seriously today.

The Ramayana conveys a completely difference sense of the divine which, although very ancient, is still significant in the modern world. In the Ramayana gods and humans are always seeking spiritual enlightenment, to do good in all the worlds and to honor each other. The Ramayana is inspiring in the best sense of word.

I also found the introduction by Pankaj Mishra very helpful in understanding the history of the epic and its continuing importance to Indians. There is also a useful Cast of Characters with name pronunciations and a small Glossary at the end explaining some important terminology that appears in the book. If you're new to the Ramayana, as I am, I highly recommend this book.

There are 2 "ins" in an inning and no outs. (in)n(in)g

Also, the doctor question seems to personify the pills. In this case, this patient is obviously a psychiatric one. The pills will last indefinitely, telling the patient every half hour, "take one".

Perhaps the test could be revised to correct these questions where there seems to be more than one correct answer. This way the intelligence of the more elevated thinkers might be more accurately assessed(smile).

I didn't get the score I liked on your test, so I resubmitted and got 12 of 12 after I saw your answers! Pretty cool, huh? Then I printed it out and will show it to someone who keeps calling me dumb!

By the way, what kind of prescription would a Dr. give that he would want you to take one every half hour?

There are 2 "ins" in an inning and no outs. (in)n(in)g

Also, the doctor question seems to personify the pills. In this case, this patient is obviously a psychiatric one. The pills will last indefinitely, telling the patient every half hour, "take one".

Perhaps the test could be revised to correct these questions where there seems to be more than one correct answer. This way the intelligence of the more elevated thinkers might be more accurately assessed(smile).

I don't know what the others here are reviewing, but it is not this book... To get on with the review, I like the idea of dividing intelligence into the factors that Azzopardi lists. I thought the tests covered an appropriate range of skills and I also like the idea of being able see where your true intellectual strengths lie. My only problem with the book is that it does not provide much more than problems and explanatory answers. Those looking for actual test-taking strategies are not going to find them.

This is a story of a naughty little squirrel name Squirrel Nutkin, who loves to tease Mr. Brown, an owl who lives on an island filled with nut trees, which fancy the other squirrels. Daily the squirrels came bringing gifts to Mr. Brown as to gain permission to harvest these nuts in return.

While they are being polite, Squirrel Nutkin is prety much very naughty. He teases him with riddles, mostly ignore by the owl but when too much is too much one day, Mr. Brown punished Nutkins by having his tail torn off!

This is a cute and enjoyable little story. It also teaches kids to not to tease people too much that they are out of line. The illustrations are beautiful. The riddles are cute. The plot and charcaters draws you in. Children would love to read or to be read to with this funny little "tail". Don't miss out inadding this book to your children's reading list.

This is a delightful timeless Tale about an misbehaving squirrel. The riddles are delightful, and the vocabulary exquisite.

Unfortunately, some of the reviewers have looked at this story with the eyes and wisdom of this present age. In time, we will see value in teaching that good can overcome evil, rather than pretending that evil simply doesn't exist. Owls do eat squirrels, impertinance is punished. That is life.

Also, to say that he gnaws his tail off is absolutely untrue and ridiculous. It breaks(gorelessly)in the struggle.

I love it, as does my daughter.

Squirrel Nutkin was one of the finest and most imaginative of Ms Potter's stories and the only one I place above it is the Tale of Peter Rabbit. Nutkin is the name of a cheeky and insolent squirrel who thinks far too much of himself until he is caught by an Owl who has both patience and wisdom as he endures many insults from Nutkin. At last he reacts and it appears that it is the end for the impudent squirrel. At the last moment he escapes from the owl's home when his tail breaks in two and he scurries off to safety. He is left with a partial tail as a reminder to mind his manners in the future. An important correction is necessary regarding this owing to an error in an above review. Nutkin did NOT chew his tail off to escape and I invite the reviewer to actually read the book so she understands this important point. This is a wonderful story for young children with many inportant messages. My own children greatly enjoyed these tales when they were young and still talk about them from time to time. There is a reason why Beatrix Potter's books remain among the best selling childrens books of all time. Her stories and the lessons therein are timeless and the moral absolutes are of critical value at a time when our anything goes culture is in chaos and espouses the worst behavior possible. It is truly refreshing and hopeful that brilliant childrens tales written in 1903 still have much to teach us in 2007.

This book (as do all of hers) captures the imagination of children completely. They LOVE to have this story about a very naughty squirrel and very scary old owl read to them. (who knew impertinent squirrels and creepy owls were so much fun!) Her words are only a well-chosen few, which makes it easy for small children to follow, but not simplistic, so that they learn to understand sophisticated vocabulary. The few words are augmented by exquisite watercolors that tell so much more of the story, and make the children crave to hear them again and again. For instance, I'll never forget the relief and also confusion i used to feel every time he got away -- mainly because of the picture that went with it, which is still in my mind today. Oh, and, one more thing -- the reviewer below who characterized this tale as rude, violent and gory, also said this about The Tale of Jeremy Fisher: "My own favorite thing about Jeremy Fisher is that he is eaten, then spit back out because his rain gear doesn't taste good to the fish who's swallowed him! How many books do you know where the main character is eaten? Good stuff." So, Leggo, it's ok to eat frogs but not squirrels?

This cute little book was written and illustrated by the great Beatrix Potter (1866-1943) in 1903, the second of her many wonderful stories. This book tells the tale of Squirrel Nutkin, who refuses to show respect for an important owl, and pays the price.

Overall, I found this to be a cute story, and a lot of fun to read to my little one. The "riddles" are obvious in their answer, but still a lot of fun to read. So, as with all of Ms. Potter's works, I highly recommend this book!

What a wild ride! Are we sure this author is a male??? He certainly seems to know the "inner workings" of a particular type of female mind! Interesting and compelling characters, subtle humor, and a great twist in the end. I look forward to a sequel soon!

I read this book in 2 hours. I couldn't put it down. Ian and Karen seemed so real that it was like I was watching their lives on a TV screen. They are real people with real problems. There are very few books that I can read over and over, but this is one of them. And every time I read it, I pick up on something else, some sarcastic joke that I missed the last time. Evan Ames has a way of writing that makes you feel like he's sitting there, right in front of you, telling you the story of your own life. You feel like you're Karen or Ian and YOU are feeling all their pain and joy. What an amazing book, espeically for a first time novelist. Every person that I know I've recommended this book to. A great read, an amazing story, and stunningly well written.

A well-written novel that spans genres. A combination of mystery, romance and human intrigue. At times it's Tom Clancy, minus the cloak and dagger. Ames creates a motif using a palette that combines the most proper of English, a bit of slang and the right amount of juxtaposed humor. A yarn that seems unbelievable yet leaves the reader with a resounding "what if..." and an indelible appreciation for life's twists of fate.

I enjoyed revisiting my own late-adolescent antics while reading this lively story with flashbacks to the late '60s. Main characters Karen and Ian demonstrate an amazing repertoire of behaviors through a complicated story line. While the conclusion may seem predictable, the narrator's wonder and surprise carried this reader through. I admire the creative and emotional work this first-time novelist invested in pursuing his passion, and hope he'll keep on writing.

This challenging story require some commitment and intelligence on the part of the reader, as it explores some dark and occasionally uncomfortable areas of the sexual psyche. At the same time, it abounds with subtle and understated humor. The ending is emotionally satisfying as the characters, who are honestly portrayed as humanly flawed, enjoy the rewards of true love. A story for disbelievers, to make us believe.

I purchased this book while I was 16 months pregnant. I'm a college educated woman who didn't know the difference between a crib and a cradle. I figured this book could help. The descriptions of the products were informative and the "must have" and "might want" labels were helpful. The problem I found was that the book didn't really prepare me when I dropped by my local baby store to register. The car seat models, crib models, etc. were old. The baby industry changes rapidly along with the number of recalls. I found the Baby Bargins book (and website) by Denise and Alan Fields a better consumer guide. Baby Stuff helped me decide which items were necessities, while Baby Bargins helped me decide which brands were top rated by both Consumer Reports and real life parents. If you buy this book, be prepared to keep looking for more information.

I found this book to be one of the best I've ever read on "baby stuff". I've bought copies for everyone I know. This book is definately worth buying!

When I was pregnant and trying to figure out how to prepare for the baby and what to buy, this book was a tremendous help to me. My husband and I live in a one bedroom apartment, and my friends and co-workers had been scaring me by constantly telling me that I just couldn't imagine all the things I was going to have to buy and how expensive it was going to be. I kept arguing with them, thinking, how much can a little baby possibly need in the first year? But I realized that I really didn't know, and decided to try to find out. In the process of educating myself I found this wonderful book. Some of the previous reviewers are right that this book lacks the detailed product comparisons that are available elsewhere. If you are looking for lists of different brands with ratings, this book is not for you (and most of it's recommendations of particular products are already out of date). However, it is wonderful if what you are trying to do is figure out how many little onesie outfits to buy, what on earth a "receiving blanket" is and why you need some, how to decide what kind of car seat you need, and what the difference is between one that costs $50 and one that costs $200. The book systematically goes through all of the many things you could buy and lists them as "optional", "might want", or must have" and goes on to explain why this is so. It also breaks things down into three different budget levels ("lotto winner", "lots of money", or "lots of love") and provides estimates of the total cost of everything you will need based on these different budgets. If you are planning for a first baby, this book may be for you.

I found this book to be far too general for my purposes. I was looking for much more detailed product reviews. I also found it annoying that Mr. Lipper was so heavily biased toward independent juvenile products stores (e.g. the store he manages in New York). He made himself out to be an expert, given his vast experience in selling baby products to expectant parents. However he doesn't have children of his own, so he has never really tested any of these products in real life experience. Don't bother with this book if you are a first time parent and need the nitty gritty details about baby products. Instead, I'd suggest you buy the book BABY BARGAINS by Denise and Alan Fields. They have two very young children and have actual experience with the products that they list in their book. Also, they are not biased toward any one type of store. They advise parents to shop around. I would rate the Fields book 5 stars and can't give more than 2 stars to Lipper's.

This book is somewhat helpful to a new mother. However, I found the book, Baby Bargains by Denise & Alan Fields to be more useful.

Wonderfully complex reading, the kind of thing if you grasp the concepts will make you smile at the brilliance of the science. Unfortunately, I'm not there yet and still struggle to understand it all.

More for the scientist in you, not for practical day to day use or, knowledge.

i read the block matching(video compression) chapter of this book, and was impressed by its clarity. the authors explained this topic neatly; the same convincing explanation i failed to find in 10+ other papers. the scope/depth of image/video compression covered in the book is sufficient for one or two semesters' study, or good as reference book.

the only regrettful thing is, the price is too expensive for a poor graduate student.

Learned a lot on video compression by reading this book. I give 3 star because I didn't get A in my course.

This book contains fundamentals as well as standards including
MPEG-4. A very well written book in this subject. Good to have it.

Throughout this book, there are many serious grammatical mistakes. This becomes increasingly frustrating for the reader when the book progresses to more advanced topics. Also, the reader should have a solid foundation in the topics covered because the book does a very poor job of explaining the material. This book should only be used as a reference or as a companion to a better book on this subject.

The book arrive as described. I thought the audio CD's were included but its still good.

easy to understand and learn from, it is a textbook so that's what you are getting. Good pictures and diagrams so far. I bought here because it had the best price.

I ordered this book/ cd set because it was required text for a college class. It is well organized and clearly written. I especially like the way the listening guides in the book refer to specific portions of songs which are recorded so that the entire work can be played seemlessly in its entirity, or specific portions can be accessed individually.
The only thing this work lacks is impossible for any work that attempts to offer a complete appreciation of music to achieve, complete scope.
I recommend this set.

This book does a good job of putting music in an overall historical context. For example, it notes how Baroque productions, whether sculpture or music, meant to "fill space." That accounts for elaborate melodies in music, and movement in painting and sculpture.

Music used to be written as much for the mind as the ear. In some vocal pieces, lyrics correspond to melody. For example, if the word "ascending" is used in the song, the notes of the melody also go up. Vice-versa for descending. If the song mentions one person, a single voice is used--three voices come in when three people are in the storyline.

The musical selections are varied and enjoyable to listen to.

would buy from again everything just as promised and recieved book fast

This book delivers exactly what it promises - an excellent overview of essential .NET Framework. Easy to read format, good chapters on IL,Framework,COM+ Interop. Unfortunately very little or no .NET serialization, memory management or threading. But a lot of information for the size of this book. Gives excellent foundation to learn upon.

I love this 300 pages book. Readers wrote a lot about this very good book.
I hope that other books having 500+, or even 1000+ pages, please be broken down to 1+ volumns in order for max of 300 pages/each volumn. That would help protect books when used by reader from itself damaged by its heavy weight & too thick. Readers don't have to take those "big guys" with them, rather than just the volumns that they need at that moment.

The .NET Framework edition of publisher O'Reilly® Essentials series is an excellent introduction to Microsoft's new software development framework. This book is suitable for any developer who wants to understand what this new initiative is all about without having to manually strip away the marketing hype. At no point will you come across the phrase "That's the power of .NET" while reading this book. Though the authors are understandably enthusiastic about their chosen subject, their appraisal of the technology is honest, and insightful. However, this is not a how-to book. Most of the practical subjects that are discussed, such as how to create Web Services and Windows Applications using the new .NET SDK, are kept at an intentionally superficial level. This is actually a good thing, since a more in-depth look would detract from the true subject of the book: the .NET architecture, and how it works.

For anyone who has ever developed with Java, .NET is going to seem awfully familiar. Both run on a virtual machines (though not exactly in the same way.) Both provide a garbage collector, thread management, exception handling, and a fully object-oriented programming paradigm. The class structures of their respective SDKs are eerily similar, and even the syntax of Microsoft's newly touted C derivative, C# (pronounced c-sharp), owes a lot to the Java programming language. There are some key differences that differentiate Microsoft's system from Sun's, but as a reader who has coded in Java, I appreciate the fact that the authors often make comparisons between the two. With this approach, Thai and Lam have helped me dismiss my initial suspicion that .NET is really just Java for Windows, and have properly explained why Microsoft's framework is in some ways even more ambitious than Java originally was.

.NET Framework Essentials is nicely broken up into eight chapters, each of which addresses the interests of potential software developers. The first four chapters give an overview of the framework's design goals and discuss software development issues such as how to program for .NET, and how to work with .NET components. The second half of the book deals with the four main services provided by .NET: data processing (ADO.NET and XML), Web Services, Web Forms, and Windows Forms. A chapter is devoted to each, and enough code examples are given to illustrate the concepts that you'll finish each topic with at least a general idea of how to approach a problem in that domain. Again though, this book is an overview, and is not meant to be a reference manual by any means.

One of the strongest points about this book is that it doesn't rely on the reader having access to a copy of Visual Studio.NET. Though it is mentioned several times, all code examples are given with instructions for building using the command-line compilers that come standard with the SDK. This allows readers to download the SDK from Microsoft and try the applications on his or her own computer for free. This book does a very good job of covering the comprehensive tools provided by Microsoft, and could actually be considered a good reference for the command-line arguments of these programs. An appendix is devoted to this very subject, in fact.

There are only a couple of topics that would probably be of interest to experienced developers that I feel were not properly covered in this book. The first is a distinct lack of discussion regarding interoperability between .NET programs and tradition ANSI C++ programs and libraries (or even Windows applications coded using the Win32 API.) .NET is multi-language, but for a language to be part of the club, it needs to conform to .NET's Common Language Specification, which traditional C++ does not do. Microsoft has produced Managed C++ as a possible gateway between the two, but it's not clear at all how well .NET will deal with traditional libraries such as the STL, or even with more specific packages such as OpenGL. This is an issue that should have deserved a few paragraphs in this book, at least.

The second issue I had was that given that .NET relies on a common SDK for all of it's languages, and given that this is a book that covers the essentials of the NET framework, it would be reasonable to assume that the SDK would be one of it's main topics. Unfortunately, that's not the case. Having read the book, I understand why that is so, but I could also see this as being slightly misrepresentative for anyone picking this book up off the shelf expecting a reference book on the .NET SDK.

All in all, .NET Framework Essentials is an excellent overview of the subject for someone who doesn't know much about it and would like to know more. It targets developers who have experience, and doesn't treat them like fools. In general, it's a read-once book that you might refer to later for it's excellent coverage of Microsoft's command-line tools.

I bought this book to get a more consistent overview of .NET in all of its aspects and I am satisfied with the content. It includes all important components of .Net framework including changes to existing technologies like ADO and ASP and brief and well written introduction in completely new parts of .Net such as web services, web forms, CLR.

I found very useful that all examples were in more than one language (C++, C#, VB.NET, VB6). The examples are simple but yet well prepared, so they illustrate the concrete matter of the chapter.

The book gave me a lot of practical ideas how to migrate our products and where to emphasize in future study of .Net.

I recommend this book to every IT specialist that still asks him/her self: What is all this .NET about?

It's really a great in-depth overview of .NET! I love it!

Concise, clean, logical, all things essential and right to the point. No extra-fat, no made-up bad jokes, no self-promotion, no GIGO.

There are only few minor errors in the book. All the examples downloaded from OReilly site work out-of-the-box like a charm!

This book clearly set a very good model for books introducing new technology essentials to the busy experienced developers.

Be warned: don't use it as your first .NET book if you are not already a somewhat experienced developer!

This is the first version of the play. Beautiful writing, incredible fluidity of speech. A must have between Peter Pan and Samuel Beckett.

He writes like a comedian, waving his fist at your face, all while enthronging you to read on!

Peer Gynt is a sort of folk tale character who we see go from being a young man to an old man and who gets in several different adventures. The play doesn't have much of a plot exactly. It starts of in a Norwegian village where Peer is a buffoonish character. He leaves the village, meets up with Trolls, gets in a shipwreck, wanders around the desert, and runs into the button moulder. All of this just happens, disconnectedly. He spends time in America also, but we aren't shown that.

There is a lot of talk about being your self, being authentic, etc. If the play has a theme, I am guessing that's it.

It's completely different from Ibsen's realistic works like An Enemy of the People or The Wild Duck. I'm more a fan of those works. Peer Gynt didn't really speak to me.

On a side note, in the movie Educating Rita, with Michael Caine, Rita takes a test where one of the questions was 'What are some of the difficulties in staging Peer Gynt?' A: It's long. It's not in prose. It has trolls and other fantastical creatures. It has a huge cast many of whom are only on stage very briefly. The main character goes from being a youth to a very old man. The settings vary from a Norwegian village to Egypt and the Sphinx. This is why it's rarely done on stage.

Few works of literature have inspired classical music that has broke into the popular press. One of these is Ibsen's Peer Gynt. Written in the late 19th century, Edvard Grieg wrote two Suites of music for the stageplay version of this Scandinavian classic a decade later. This poem / stageplay is actually a short novel, and tells the story of Peer Gynt, the ultimate ingrate of a son. Growing up raised by a single mother, he is the terror of his village, bullying younger ones and annoying older ones. Eventually he leaves his village and encounters a series of creatures and adventures bound to rattle anyone's cage. One memorable moment is when he finds himself in the Hall of the Mountain King, who happens to be a troll. This is the scene whose song of the same name by Grieg is a classic TV commercial tune. Life soon turns the young Peer into an older Peer. Near the end he reflects on his life with some characters he encounters. At this he realizes the waste his life has been. The moral of the story: don't waste your youth or any other moment of your life causing trouble for yourself or anyone else, for in the end you only isolate yourself and make life miserable for both you and those around you.

Peer Gynt is a piece of literature that, like Goethe's Faust Part II plays best on the stage of the imagination. It is too lengthy and costly to be performed on stage. Sometimes the first three acts are performed together, sometimes the last two acts are brought together to become a whole for a theatre production.

In terms of reading, this is a great fable piece. Peer is the Trickster with the mirror to his conscience. As a youth, he is Troll-like in his lusts, in his carousing. In his middle-age, he is Troll-like in his financial enterprises. At the end of his life, he is a folorn man, having given up possible true love to run around in search of his self. He is a fraud but we feel sympathy for him. He pursues life in search of distractions and power but ends up empty at the end, soon to be the vicim of the Button Moulder, soon to be nothing more than a button.

This work has many levels and open to numerous interpretations. Ideally, this is the book you read for a book club. There is nothing conventional about it. The conversations will be endless and the philosophy inspired, well, might be inspiring.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading the question and answers in this book. The author says it accurately at the start of the book: "Quizzing is not about the bland recollection of facts....Rather quizzing is about building an extensive knowledge base and using that to work out the answer to the questions. The questions themselves should be interesting and thought provoking". I found the book to be exactly that. I am looking out for more books of this type.

This book was a Christmas gift but was told he really liked it. Will order from Amazon.com again as the shipment arrived just like they said.

If you enjoy trivia games, you will want to have this book. No, it is not lengthy, but is does provide a few hours of enjoyment and fun. In addition, you will be amazed at what you can learn on a variety of topics from business, art, and mythology to math, sports and literature.

So, what is "keraunothnetophobia"? Believe it or not, that for me was one of the easy ones, learned from my studies in psychology. It is the fear of "falling man-made satellites." Actually, there are hundreds of known phobias (fears) but, needless to say, that is not one of the commonly known ones. However, when it came to sports, I completely bombed out in that category! The book is a real eye-opener in discovering just how little the average person truly does know! You may do exceedingly well in one category, but some of the other ones will really make your head spin. Hold onto your thinking cap; many of the questions are not easy.

If you are feel a need to challenge your knowledge and mental stamina, by all means buy this book. It is meant to be fun, and it is fun - enjoy!

This book contains many well-worn 'facts' that have circulated for years, and have been debunked long ago, including "the reason people say 'Cheers'" mentioned in the canonical review above, the origin of the word "posh," and "kings in decks of cards are based on historical kings."

Don't trust anything in this book, which seems to have been created by collecting and sorting hundreds of e-mailed lists of apocrypha.

This book has some really interesting trivia a passionate quizzer would like to know. I would probably rate it 4.5/5. Would have loved it if it had more because the quality of questions was pretty good. The bottom line, and all that matters is its worth the money!!!