Customer Reviews

The Cultural Literacy Trivia Guide: The Ultimate Quiz Show Study Guide!

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Even if it were only the spelling errors and typos, I would say that this book is unforgivably sloppy; when writing a reference, especially one detailing trivia, it is essential that one proofreads carefully. One should not have typos such as "The designer of the TWA airpost" (rather than airport) being Eero Saarinen; the "probably pioneer" (rather than probability pioneer) being Blaise Pascal; a Japanese gangster being a Yasuka (rather than a Yakuza, I think); the Aztec god being Quetzaquadl (rather than Quetzalcoatl, unless that's an acceptable alternate spelling or a more recent transliteration of the spelling than I learned, which I suppose is possible); Kim Dae Jung did not win the "Noble" peace prize, but the Nobel; the Korean War Armistice Site is Panmunjon, not Panmunjom; the long wooden Swiss horn is an Alpenhorn, not an Alpinhorn; J.P. Morgan was a banking magnate, not a banking magnet; Lauasia was a "Northern" supercontinent, not a "Nouthern" one; Gneiss is "coarse" grain rock, not "course"; the author of "The Last Days of Pompeii" is Edward Bulwer-Lytton, not Edward Buliver-Litton; the Indians of Southern Florida are the Seminoles, not the Semiloles; Dave Barry is (was) the columnist for the Miami Herald, not Dave Berry; it is, shall we say, somewhat sloppy to say of James Knox Polk that "He was a ran on the platform of 'Manifest Destiny'..."; to say of Theodore Roosevelt that "he was the first president to travel outside the USA during his presidency to dedicate the Panama Canal" leads to the question, "did other presidents travel outside the USA during their presidencies for purposes OTHER than dedicating the Panama Canal?"; the ending year of Victoria's reign (1901) is left out of the table, although it is deducible by the fact that that is the year listed as the beginning of the reign of her successor; Eleanor of Aquitaine was "The Crusader Queen", not "The Cursader Queen"; Oberon is the king of the fairies, not the king of the faireis; the Democratic presidential nominee in 1984 was Walter Mondale, not Walter Monday; Marberry vs. Madison was declared unconstitutional, not "declaired" unconstitutional; the Territory bought from Mexico was the Gadsden Purchase, not the Gadsden Purchas; the Montana Freemen is a Militia, not a Malitia (although I'm sure their opponents consider the "mal" prefix appropriate); the 20th century Secretary of State from Maine was Edmund Muskie, not Edwin; the nickname of the sports teams from Wake Forest University is the Demon Deacons, not the Deamon Decons; the Senator from Texas is Phil Gramm, not Phil Grahm; Amelia Earhart was a pilot, not a pilor (whatever that may be); "Swashbucklers" is one word, not two (Swash Bucklers); Mount McKinley's native name is Denali, not Danili; the Battle of Leyte Gulf is "The largest sea battle in history; off the coast of the Philippines" NOT "The largest sea battle in history of the coast of the Philippines"; but the biggest error I found, the most truly unforgivable because it was unarguably an error of fact and not a typo or misspelling or grammatical error (as though those errors in a reference book were acceptable) was the identification of Alan Alda as "the Same Time Next Year & Catch-22 actor"; Alan Alda DID appear in "Same Time Next Year", but the Alan in Catch-22 was Alan ARKIN". Alan Alda did NOT appear in Catch-22, not even in a minor role.

Some may claim that this is picking nits, but how can you trust the information in a reference book that is so sloppily edited and proofread? It's ridiculous.

Within my first evening glancing though this book, I noticed several errors. The most obvious error is stated in the title of this review. I attribute this to very poor editing, as some of the incorrect facts were stated correctly in other portions of the book.

The format of the book is good, and the information is categorized well and it is a good reminder of things you might already know but need to brush up on. But what good is a trivia book if you can't be sure the "facts" are presented accurately?

I LOVE this book (esp. the format), but with all due respect to Mr. Ferrill, readers might want to check a few facts that I'm not sure others have pointed out:

*Guy Fawkes Day is November 5, not November 3 (p. 133)
*The Samba is the national dance of Brazil (p. 79)
*Wolfgang Puck is Austrian. He does have a famous restaurant called Chinois, though (p. 118)
*Couscous is pasta, not rice (p. 98)
*"The Rite of Spring" is a ballet, not a symphony (p. 74)
*"Thus Spake Zarathustra" is a tone poem, not an opera (p. 73)*Broca's Area AND Wernicke's Area are speech centers of the brain (p. 113)

Every Jeopardy winner wants to cash in , and by and large this is a decent volume, but there are too many errors that I caught for it to be truly reliable. I wouldn't use a question from it without checking one other source. Clearly not all of these were carefully checked.

This book purports to offer information necessary to do well on game shows such as Jeopardy!, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, and so on. So of all things, such a source must be RELIABLE. This book is not reliable at all. It is fraught with so many errors that it's really not worth buying. Apparently Mr. Ferrill couldn't find anyone willing to edit his book. I could enumerate the errors that I found after carefully looking through the text, but I don't see what that would accomplish. Others have listed some errors that they found from quickly skimming it. That should tell you something.

I bought the book to prepare (cram, really) with about three weeks' lead time for my Jeopardy appearance. I can't say enough about the value of a reference like this when you have limited time. My friend and I used it over lunch and flipped through different categories each day. In turn, the things we went over gave us a springboard to look into other sources.

Remember, too, that if you're on a game show you most likely won't get questions so cut-and-dried as they appear in the book. ("Here's a fact; here's its location or date.") If you're studying with someone else, have them make up questions that use the info from the book.

The most helpful parts of the book involved frequently recalled figures and events of countries or eras. If you're asked about a Norwegian composer, you'll most likely answer, "Grieg." The author focuses on this level of information so that you know no more and no less than what you'll need in this situation.

But what good is easily accessible information if it's just plain WRONG? Other reviewers have noted the errors they found; for me, it came when he listed the director of Sunset Boulevard as Cecil B. DeMille... and then listed it correctly (Billy Wilder) on the very next page. And the director of Scarface: Jonathan Demme? Please. These are bush league facts that many non-trivia-geeks could recall at a moment's notice. Unacceptable.

I also noted some slightly odd choices for lists of "notables." Maybe it's just my perspective, but in some cases I'd never heard of a particular film or book that the author listed as a major work.

It's not expensive, so I'd recommend the purchase. However, keep your skepticism handy.

The idea behind this book is great; it is a collection of all the most important trivia that may show up on TV gameshows and Trivia Bowl competitions. I can't recall seeing an episode of Jeopardy or Who Wants To Be A Millionaire since I bought this book that didn't go over information covered in this book. With episodes of Jeopardy, you can bet that half the questions are covered. I started to make a similar collection of information (which I called the "Book of All Knowledge") when preparing to tryout for some gameshows this year, but when I found this book I quit, because someone else had already done it.

The unfortunate thing is that the book has an egregious amount of errors. The vast majority of the information is correct, but there must be on average at least one error per page. Most of the errors are typographical in nature, and often it appears that the author simply can't spell and tried to list the words phonetically. If they came out with a 3rd edition that actually was edited well and had all the answers checked for accuracy, now that would be a truly great study aide.

I bought this book to help me study for my upcoming test and audition for the t.v. game show Jeopardy! It came highly recommended by some who have appeared on quiz shows. While it does cover the material thoroughly that regularly appears on such shows, there is one downside: so many typographical errors! Many of the errors are obvious, but one that nearly tripped me up was a misspelling of the capitol of Belize. Luckily I double checked my information and caught it, but if I didn't, that could have thrown me off and cause me to miss a critical question.

Overall, I recommend this book, but with a caution that you need to double check facts and not use this book as a foolproof reference for quiz show study.

I used this book to help me prepare for appearances on "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" and "The Weakest Link" and also to study for the "Jeopardy!" exam (which I passed). One of my questions on "The Weakest Link" was even something I had specifically seen in the book the night before the taping! I have since used the book as a handy reference numerous times.

I would perhaps ruefully suggest the addition of a certain piece of (in my opinion, obscure) information that was my downfall on "Millionaire" - that the lead singer of The Sugarcubes was Bjork. For the record, the "Millionaire" audience didn't know that either.

I highly recommend this book and am grateful to the author for his work in painstakingly cataloging so many facts.

I agree with the other reviewer who said that another edition should come out with the errors fixed. In defense of Mr. Ferrill, this is a wonderful, well-organized, comprehensive, interesting book; and there are always going to be a few disputed "facts" in any book, news show, encyclopedia, documentary, historical account, and especially the intangible compendium of community "general knowledge". However, Mr. Ferrill, I'm sure you take great pride in your work..... so proofread your book YOURSELF for spelling errors and typos, and inaccuracies before publication if necessary. Don't allow sloppiness and poor attention to detail deter from the powerful impact of your otherwise excellent finished product.