encyclopedias

The thing I most remember from ALL my college courses is this book. AN INCOMPLETE EDUCATION is truly a wonderful supplement to any person's knowledge.

This book is basically an intellectual history overview with a lot of helpful charts and guides. It's written in a very humorous tone, and it hits the humor target more often than not. If you feel that you lack knowledge, this is the book for you. It's not in depth, but it does tell you what you SHOULD know in all areas, including history, philosophy, music, art, and even film. My personal favorite features are the Latin abbreviations and the "Words you pronounce wrong but if you pronounced them right, you'd be considered a pretentious snob" feature.

For a good time (and to increase your IQ), read this book. It's tongue-in-cheek, but it's a wealth of information.

I think those who are critical of this book would benefit from reading the introduction. If they did so, they would find that it is not really meant to replace an in-depth knowledge of the topics covered. On the contrary, this book is meant as something of a sampler: it gives just enough to pique the reader's interest, and the reader is then expected to research further the topics in question on his or her own. To criticize the discussions in this text for being shallow is thus completely misguided, I think. I believe that it's similarly unfair to criticize the authors for not covering every topic under the sun -- it is an 'incomplete' education, after all. I also am surprised at the level of annoyance other reviewers have expressed at the tone of the writing in this book. Unlike these reviewers, I found the book humourous and the writing suitably light, considering the stated aims of the authors. I highly recommend this book.

I first flipped through this book my sophmore year of college, and I immediately fell in love with the immense breadth of it's scope. The best sections by far are "Philosophy" and "World History" sections, since most people forget their history 10 minutes after the last bell rings in high school and get little exposure to philosophy at all beyond the name Freud. Reminded me why I went to college in the first place with discussions of Art, Religion, Film, and even Economics! Many people may be put off by what they percieve as a flippant tone, but to many of us in college, this was how we really talked about and discussed the subjects we studied, "Holding Forth" dialogue, is what I call it. The absolute best way to introduce this sort of material to the layman, since it's often discussed by such drydrydrydry and boring lecturers who have no sense of presentation or keeping their audiences awake. This book isn't meant to be a textbook, so LAY THE FRELL OFF THE AUTHORS FOR NOT WRITING IT LIKE ONE!! If my organic chemistry texts had been written with half as much intelligence and wit, I'd probably be working for the Centers for Disease Control by now.