A One-Volume Educational Gem!

I am a Reality TV watcher, I confess. I recently rooted for Yau-man on "Survivor" and I'm pulling for Apollo on "Dancing with the Stars" and Melinda on "American Idol". These guilty pleasures are assuaged by the fact that I usually have a book in my lap while I watch this nonsense. I have irrationally convinced myself it's okay to peer at "Big Brother" (coming in July!) if I also read while I view. I have found the perfect book to complement television drivel.

It's called "The Intellectual Devotional: Revive Your Mind, Complete Your Education, and Roam Confidently with the Cultured Class" by David S. Kidder & Noah D. Oppenheim. Religious readings were often compiled in books called Daily Devotionals, read once each day for a dose of spiritual guidance. This book calls itself a secular companion in the same tradition. This is a marvelous collection of 365 entries from seven fields of knowledge (history, literature, visual arts, science, music, philosophy, and religion) and they're all things we should know about! Topics explored and explained, on one page each, include things like: the solar system, Gothic art, Catch-22, the placebo effect, the Magna Carta, and the Golden Ratio. Famous people summarized include Plato, Charlemagne, Chekhov, Verdi, Buddha, and Raphael. Classics such as "The Scarlet Letter", Ginsberg's "Howl", "Moby Dick", "Beowulf" and "The Divine Comedy" are given excellent sngle-page synopses.

You are invited to read one page per day for a year, or the reader can skip around and read just the ones that appeal or the ones for which you need enlightenment or review. I tried to read the whole book but admit to skipping even the short, painless explanations of photochemistry, chemical bonds, metalloids, batteries, and the electromagnetic spectrum. No one would ever suspect me of being a scientist!

Not since "An Incomplete Education" by Judy Jones and William Wilson (1st published in 1987 and now in its 3rd edition) has there been such a wonderful autodidactic volume. My one quibble is the book's very small print but even this is understandable. There is just so much information squeezed into this compact volume's 377 pages.

Be sure and read this book before you try out for another of my favorite TV shows: Jeopardy!