What are the Seven Wonders of the World?: And 100 Other Great Cultural Lists--Fully Explicated

The primary question I asked myself when buying this was that what could I get from this book that I couldn't get from searching things on the internet?After reading the book, I know that it has a certain value that the internet does not replace.First, it compiles hundred of interesting answers to questions that I might not have posed in the first place.Second, it presents information through thoughtful essays. These essays allow me to absorb information better than most Wikipedia articles would since they are very well written and to the point.Third, the questions are ordered by length. For example, question nine is "Who were the three sons of Noah?" and question 89 is "What are the 12 main branches of the Indo-European language family?". You can slowly build up the number of items you remember in this way.I would recommend this book for any fan of trivia looking to carefully absorb new information.

This is a clever little volume which, for the most part, I enjoyed. Essentially, it is 101 questions (see the title for an example) with answers provided in short, generally engaging essays. For a triviophile like myself, it provided a lot of interesting stuff, though it's not really a book to be read straight through. Instead, taking a few questions a night should prevent information overload.In addition, the book does have a few weakness. First, there is the unavoidable one of the selection of questions. Depending on your tastes, some questions will likely be less interesting than others. Also, the authors have the occasional tendency to throw in a judgement with their answers which can rankle, especially in the religious realm. Finally, there is the feeling that some of the questions are a bit of a stretch, shaped to fit the format the authors have chosen.Still, I don't get the sense that the book is meant to be a reference work. It is meant to be an engaging exploration of a potpourri of interesting questions. In that respect, it works quite well.

This fun book contains a hundred and one lists organized by number. For example, the chapter known as "Four" includes the following: What are the four voyages of Lemuel Gulliver? What are the four conic sections? What are the four sections of a symphony orchestra? etc.Chapters are: Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, Eight, Nine, Ten, Eleven, Twelve, Thirteen, Fourteen, Fifteen, Eighteen, Twenty and Twenty-Four. What makes the book more than just a quiz generator is the lengthy explanatory text, anywhere from three to eighteen pages. These pithy essays entertain and inform, and add greatly to the volume's enjoyment. Some questions are really obscure -- what were the five rivers of the classical underworld, anyway? -- but even the easier ones can leave you scratching your head and cursing your memory. Didn't I used to know all this stuff? Then, after you knock yourself on the head and shout "Of course!", you will have the pleasure of reading a well-written essay by a co-author or one of a small number of contributors.There is also a fourteen page suggested reading list, organized by subject, that includes music and URLs. Rounded out with a good index, this is very nicely done and lots of fun.

I love this book. It contains short, succinct explanations for questions about topics that you may have missed in your formal education. I've found it to be a great coffee table book. Not only does it lend itself to fun discussions with guests, it often gets picked-up when there's a spare moment with a glass of wine.

I currently own 3 copies so I can always have one on hand. Excellent choice for learned league, quizbowl, or trivia aficionados! Trivia geeks, rejoice!

I ended up donating this book, it wasn't what I expected. fast shipping, and a great price.

Very interesting!

This is one of those books where you can pick it up and learn something about a specific topic no matter how many paragraphs you read. For me, it's too easy to keep flipping pages and forget about how much time is going by. Anyone who likes trivia of a historical, scientific, religious, or geographical nature (to name a few categories) is likely to feel satisfied that a particular topic of research was not glossed over simply to provide "the list." Authors Peter D'Epiro and Mary Desmond Pinkowish seem to have done their homework, and their writing style is straightforward and always engaging.To give an example of how much information and detail can be found, question #49 asks "What are the 6 ranges of the human voice?" Aside from simply naming the categories, the ensuing four pages cover a description of the anatomy of singing, voice characterizations and harmonic structures, before continuing in great detail about the specific vocal ranges (upper and lower frequencies), noteworthy singers, and even a history of which operatic pieces were written for which voices. You can read as much detail as you want; there's certainly lots of information to learn about.There are 101 lists (i.e., questions), ranging from "3" to "24." The most common groups are "3" and "7," each of which has nineteen lists. Five of the groupings contain only one list (e.g., "What are the 20 regions of Italy?"). Probably like most people, I was hoping to learn about some subjects that don't happen to appear in this book, for instance, the Four Horsemen of Notre Dame and the fourteen Stations of the Cross. Still, there's enough interesting subject matter and good reading to keep anyone happy for quite a while. Definitely worth a 5-star rating.

Brilliant book, very informative and to the point...... Strategically placed in our guest bathroom.

This book presents dozens of «cultural lists», organized not by subject but by the number of elements in each list.Contrary to the far superior «Sprezzatura: 50 Ways Italian Genius Shaped the World» by the same authors, there is no overall thematic link between entries except that all are finite lists.All this of course makes the book difficult to read at length.Consequently, it appears best to browse through it occasionally or to keep it handy as a reference.Naturally, depending on anyone's preferences, some topics are more interesting than others. The book's treatment is somewhat cursory for someone who has practically no prior knowledge of a subject (such as Greek and Roman mythology as far as I am concerned). But then again, it provides an encouragement to find out more, what is so easy to do nowadays on the Internet.Overall, this book is a very worthwhile investment in time and money.