Book Review

I bought An Incomplete Education by Judy Jones & William Wilson the other day for the princely sum of $9.99. The book contains "3,684 things you probably should have learned but didn't". It's almost 700 pages long which violates one of my reading rules - no book longer than 500 pages - but this is more like an encyclopedia with just one volume. Kinda like the Readers Digest condensed version of an encyclopedia. It gives the high points and major players in history, art, music, literature, economics, philosophy, psychology, religion, science, and a chapter on lexicon. And who wouldn't want a chapter on lexicon?

My own education has been sorely lacking in many of these areas. My undergraduate reading was heavy on educational theory and teaching methods, while my personal reading was heavy on technical how-to and motorcycle magazines. Obviously, there are going to be some pretty big gaps that way. I do a daily crossword puzzle and it reinforces the incompleteness of my education pretty much on a daily basis. I don't mind being behind the curve on popular culture but I know it wouldn't hurt me to know a little something about opera. Especially if I didn't have to actually sit through it. I do know that the word opera is actually the plural of opus but I also know that Paul Goldsmith is the only person who won on the beach at Daytona with a motorcycle and a car.

In the chapter on American Studies, the book presents many of the writers of renown including the poets, some of which I've actually heard of. Instead of boring the reader with the actual poetry for which these people are famous, the book gives a short bio and a snippet of their work. So now I know something about Ezra Pound without having to actually read any Ezra Pound. And that's pretty much how the whole book goes down. It certainly won't make you an authority on any subject but will introduce you to a lot of them. It will also send you in the right direction if you want more info on any particular one of them. For ten bucks, I say it's a bargain.