PRINTKnowledge of power
Getting smart quick is as easy as reading these books
December 6, 2007 | 12:00 a.m. CST
Knowledge is power, right? That’s what the public service announcements say. So this holiday season, buy a book for someone. Vox compiled a list of informative books to stuff stockings and satiate the need to know. These recently published books work for everyone from Brian the Brain to Trivia Night Tom.
Shakespeare: The World as Stage
By Bill Bryson
Published: October 2007
What it’s about: Bryson engages his reader with historian George Steevens’ famous statement, “All we know of William Shakespeare is contained within a few scanty facts: that he was born in Stratford-upon-Avon, produced a family there, went to London, became an actor and writer, returned to Stratford, made a will and died.” Bryson concedes the validity of this assessment, yet he departs on a journey through caverns of texts in hopes of getting the real Shakespeare to please
stand up.
Power source: The book covers Elizabethan history as extensively as it does Shakespeare and illustrates a vivid portrait of a sin city — 16th-century London. Read this book if you are looking to impress an Anglophile, a promising playwright or an English professor.
Power fact: A gallon of beer a day was the norm for monks. Others, those better off financially, drank a quart of wine a day.
Don’t know much about anything
By Kenneth C. Davis
Published: July 2007
What it’s about: The latest addition to Davis’ series of more than 20 Don’t Know Much About ... books for adults and children, this book is for the learner in everyone. Davis examines everything worth knowing in just about every subject — from famous people and events in history to entertainment and the chapter titled “Everyday objects and remarkable inventions.”
Power source: In his introduction, Davis explains that he loves “learning and knowing ‘stuff.’” Don’t Know Much About Anything alleviates readers from having to wade through textbooks, and it’s a heck of a lot more fun than studying for a midterm exam. You can use the book to get a quick lesson on the U.S. highway system or the history of New Hampshire’s traditionally first-in-the-nation primary election.
Power fact: In 1904, St. Louis hosted the St. Louis World’s Fair as a celebration of the centennial of the Louisiana Purchase, which actually took place in 1803.
The book of useless information
By noel Botham
Published: July 2006
What it’s about: As the introduction states, useless information should not be confused with trivia or Guinness World Records. Useless information just needs to pass the not-a-lot-of-people-know-that test. The book is divided into 13 categories with subject matter spanning flamingoes to hockey pucks to redheaded Bible villains.
Power source: No longer do you need to sputter about the weather at boring holiday parties. You don’t need to use that lame pick-up line you read in this month’s Maxim. Memorize a few useless facts, and your powerful knowledge will transform you into the most wanted target to corner under the mistletoe.
Power fact: A regulation golf ball has 336 dimples. Most manufactured toilets flush in E flat. Pants was considered a dirty word in 17th-century England. Originally, Coca-Cola was green.
The Female Brain
By Louann Brizendine, M.D.
Published: August 2006
What it’s about: Dr. Brizendine follows the female brain from conception to post-menopause. She writes, “Hormones can determine what the brain is interested in doing.” The book morphs academic research and language into stories that people without Ph.D.s or M.D.s can understand and answers everything from why motherhood alters a woman’s brain to the function of the female orgasm.
Power source: This book helps decipher Missouri’s majority gender. (According to 2006 census estimates, 133,283 more women than men reside in the state.) The Female Brain reveals how hormones contribute to the invisible roller coaster females often ride. And don’t worry, Dr. Brizendine is already at work on her next book, The Male Brain.
Power fact: Included in the book is a 2005 study by Jan Havlicek, which concludes that women in relationships seek dominant men when they’re fertile even though they aren’t single.
More sex is safer sex: the unconventional wisdom of economics
By Steven E. Landsburg
Published: April 2007
What it’s about: Professor Landsburg explains the economic theory behind why it’s sometimes safer to have more sex and the real reason tall people get paid more. Landsburg also cheekily advocates ideas to remedy society’s ills. To fix the justice system, he suggests that jurors be charged if they get it wrong. To amend politics, he dreams up a system where congressmen and women are elected by alphabet rather than geography. Your frugal neighbor, he believes, is just as generous as the town philanthropist.
Power source: This book is good for people who want to empower counterintuitive arguments such as why they should be misers or have more sex partners.
Power facts: Ugly men suffer in the job market more than ugly women. “An extra 65 pounds typically cost a white women 7 percent of her wages.”
