Customer Reviews

The Cultural Literacy Trivia Guide

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

While I appreciate and applaud Mr. Ferrill's unique effort, I must point out that within the first couple of minutes that I looked through this book, I KEPT FINDING ERRORS! For instance, the second American in Space was Gus Grissom, not Scott Carpenter. The first American to walk in space was Ed White, not Alan White. The Bismark was a German Battleship, not a Destroyer. The major rivers in Maine are the Penobscot, Androscoggin, and the Kennebec, not the KENNEBUNK. (The Kennebunk is a small river, significant only for its mouth's proximity to ex-Pres. Bush's estate.) Stonewall Jackson was killed at the battle of Chancellorsville in Virginia, not TENNESSEE. The trachea is not the "tube traveling from the mouth to lungs"-it connects the larynx to the lungs (or even more accurately, it connects the larynx to the left and right mainstem bronchi). Erythrocytes don't "carry" Red Blood Cells-they ARE Red Blood Cells, and they carry oxygen. Cartilage is not the "tissue that attaches tendons to bones"-tendons attach muscle to bones and insert directly into the bones. Tojo was a Japanese General, not an ADMIRAL. I won't even address the spelling errors. Again, I found these errors within a few minutes of picking the book up and randomly glancing through a couple of sections-and these are just the errors I could instantly identify. These errors may seem trivial, but afterall, this is a book about trivia! I suppose this book may have served some game show participants and viewers adequately, and I'm sure the vast majority of Mr. Ferrill's information is accurate. But, based on the number of errors I discovered in the first ten minutes, I sure wouldn't trust it as a reliable source to settle a bet or an argument.

I just started the book (randomly, at US Presidents), and, after looking at just three pages I've found an error. Not a typo, an error. This is bad. How can I possibly trust the rest of information in the book?

The most recent ISBN of this book is apparently 1893937038. There's an older version up on Amazon as well, which seems to have many more errors. The versions do not appear to be differentiated except by their ISBN numbers. After running into some mistakes on my own, I've been checking on some of the errors reported here and elsewhere and finding that many have been fixed in this edition, but some have not.

I would NOT, repeat, NOT buy this used! The older version claimed Miami was the capital of Florida, to name just the most ridiculous example. It kind of makes me think the author just wrote down every fact he could think of and never checked any of them because he thought he knew for sure. This version correctly lists Tallahassee.

Some errors and typos that remain:
p. 226 The Lighthouse at Alexandria is not named "Pharaohs" -- it's "Pharos". It should also be noted that the Hanging Gardens of Babylon are thought to not have actually existed.
p. 227 Comedy of Errors characters are named Antipholus, not Anipholus
p. 276 South Dakota listed as The Sunshine State; it's not. (That's Florida)

I would really like to see a web page gathering together all the errors people have found in this book so we could all make note of them in our copies. This book would be a great resource if only we could trust it.

This book is jam-packed with trivia that might be useful to someone like myself who is hoping for a shot at a big-money game show. However, its usefulness is greatly limited by the blatant errors that jump out from its pages. Some mistakes are laughable, such as calling the Japanese art of flower arranging "itchybonnet," and while that might not be fatal in a trivia game, other mistakes could put one out of the money. For example, under "Presidents," Woodrow Wilson is listed as "New Jersey President." If one were asked which state the 28th President was from, this answer wouldn't fly, as he was born in Staunton, VA. It seems the author has a real problem with giving Virginia its just due. In another section, "Civil War," we are told Stonewall Jackson was killed at the Battle of Chancellorsville TENNESSEE. Yeah, and Gettysburg was in Ohio? The book is rife with such incontrovertible errors, and I would advise anyone using this book as a study guide to be very cautious about taking it as gospel, especially in a high-stakes scenario. On the back cover, it claims Mr. Ferrill spent eleven years compiling the information that went into "The Cultural Literacy Trivia Guide." It's a shame he didn't spend a portion of that time checking those facts and proofreading his book.

This book will delight a certain kind of trivia buff, but not for any of the expected reasons. After all, you can spend just so many years on the couch yelling out the right answers ahead of the contestants on "Jeopardy" or "Who Wants to Whatever?"--right? At that point, some people find more fun in the WRONG answers. Boy, has Steven Ferrill got a book for YOU folks! It's FULL of wrong answers.

Okay, so most of the mistakes are spelling gaffes. To the Spell-check generation, spelling itself is considered trivial, and spelling mistakes can be brushed aside like pizza crumbs, can't they? Well, not exactly. If the Jeopardy answer is: "Shelley's elegy on the death of Keats" and the contestant says, "What is 'Adonis'?" (see Ferrill, p. 144), Alex will frown regretfully and move on. Likewise, don't try to palm off Ferrill's "Sicaly" (p. 231)(which would be pronounced "Sikaly") as Shakespeare's "Sicilia" (the setting for THE WINTER'S TALE). If I tried to pronounce Samuel Butler's masterpiece on the basis of its spelling in this book ("Aerowan," also p. 144), I don't think I'd get close enough to EREWHON to win a toaster oven. (By the way, it's not often you see a seven-letter word with six spelling mistakes.) And surely, no self-respecting trivia judge would accept, as the title of the classic Bogart-Mary Astor film noir, Ferrill's gem on p. 51: "The Faltese Falson." Now here's a gaffe that won't lose you any points but will give you a giggle: Ferrill's version (p. 124) of the Newton Minow quote tells us that television is "a vast waistland." Finally, on p. 42, you'll find a truly charming blooper: America's largest exporter is "Boing." There's something almost Zen-like about that one.

Yes, there are mistakes beyond the spelling slip-ups. If you have a single choice for "main character in Joyce's ULYSSES," go for Bloom, not Stephen Daedalus, as Ferrill does (p. 142). Do not, repeat, DO NOT identify Tybalt in ROMEO AND JULIET as "Juliet's nephew" (Ferrill, p. 230): the two teen-agers are cousins. Finally, and most gravely, never, EVER suggest within hearing of a University of Arizona alum (such as this reviewer) that that great institution is located in TEMPE!

Well, there are more , but I don't want to spoil anyone's fun. Oh, all right, but this is the last. In the category "Latin Phrases," Ferrill tells us that "a god out of a machine" is
"deux ex machina." Since "deux" means "two," perhaps he was thinking of "Two for the Seesaw." The traditional phrasing prefers the word "deus."

Well, thus warned, you may want to buy the book anyway. It packs a lot of information in a compact format, has functional categories, puts the answers right next to the questions where a serious trivia hound (as contrasted with a party dilettante) wants to find them, and never tries to be cute, unlike some trivia books one might name. Besides, you'll probably enjoy the howlers. I surely did.

I'd like to thank previous reviewers for pointing out some of the errors in this book. I'm sorry to say that there are many more. I now have numerous handwritten corrections throughout the book.

On a positive note, I think the format is excellent. There is certainly a wealth of information to be found here, and for the most part, it's presented in a way that makes studying easy. However, the numerous spelling errors, omissions, and outright mistakes are quite distracting. I've reached the point where I'm double-checking many facts on the internet.

Please note the following if you are using this book to prepare for a game show or other trivia contest:

1) Oliver Goldsmith did not write _Bestseller_ or The First Wives' Club_. They were written by OLIVIA Goldsmith. See pages 146 and 150.
2) Oliver Goldsmith did not write "The School for Scandal." It was written by Sheridan. See page 189.
3) South Dakota is not the Sunshine State. That would be Florida (page 276).
4) Miami is not the capital of Florida. It's Tallahassee (page 265).
5) The first woman to break the sound barrier was Jacqueline Cochran, not Janet Cochrin (page 282).
6) Will Durant did not found the Red Cross. It was Henry Dunant (page 182).
7) The author of _The Mammoth Hunters_ is JEAN Auel, not Jane Auel (page 155).
8) Uriah Heep is not a character from _Oliver Twist_. He's from _David Copperfield_. The thief from _Oliver Twist_ would be the Artful Dodger, or perhaps Fagin was the intended answer (page 143).
9) "Citius, altius, fortius" is "Faster, higher, stronger," not "Higher, faster, stronger." (page 139)
10) An obi is a kimono sash, not a sari sash (page 125).
11) Jocelyn Elders was the first black SURGEON General, not Attorney General (page 39).
12) Freon is not a chemical element. Fluorine, however, is an element, and its symbol is F, not Fr. Fr is the symbol for Francium. The symbol for Carbon is C, not Co. (page 225)

I haven't even gotten completely through the book yet, but I can see why it's better to give only a person's last name when answering on Jeopardy! Three of the errors mentioned above demonstrate why this is so.

I would love to see an updated version of this book, with consistent spelling and no factual errors. The author might also want to consider placing "Famous Names" *after* "Familiar Quotes," and "United Nations" *before* the various U.S. categories in the Table of Contents. Just my opinion. ;)

Mr. Richardson is wrong about Woodrow Wilson not being the New Jersey president. He served as governor of New Jersey and ran for president from New Jersey. He is also wrong abut ikebonnat not being Japanese flower arranging. His condemnation of my book has cost me dozens of sales. If he had a valid point I could live with it. The fact is he is wrong about the trivia. I wrote a previous rebuttal, but Amazon would not print it. Please either print my original rebuttal or remove his comment that is totally unfactual. I deserve the right to respond to his accusations.

This book is organized in a very useful way to help study trivia. It is in a concise format with just the essential information that is normally needed to answer trivia questions, omitting the superfluous. It is organized by subject and packs a tremendous amount into a reasonably sized package. I coach a high school academic team and find the book a nice study guide to help prepare students for academic competition. The one thing that keeps me from giving it five stars is the annoying number of errors. On what seems like a far too regular basis, there is either a spelling error or factual error. This creates difficulty if students are relying upon it as a source (others have already listed a number of errors - another example is that the book identifies Rupert Murdoch as the purchaser of the Washington Post, when he actually purchased the New York Post). I appreciate what the author has done in trying to compile all this useful information in a handy format, I just wish he could have had it checked more carefully for accuracy before he had it published.

I am a collecter of Trivia books and this one rates as #1. As a scholar bowl coach, I am always looking for material and the format of this book is excellent. All the material is in a very compact format, which makes for an easy study. The amount of material in the book is incredible, covering everything from A to Z, from pop culture to politics to literature. This book is a must for anyone considering trying out for a quiz show. The only negative that I have found is a couple errors (such as the first 5 members of the Baseball Hall of Fame). However, 2 of 3 errors out of thousands of questions is certainly worth it. I have purchased 1 copy for myself and many more for gifts to other triva buffs.

Yup Nat "King " Cole did not write "Unforgettable" It was written by Irving Gordon who also wrote the skit "whose on first" for abbott & Costello (page32) Also James Dean was in "Rebel without A Cause" but was NOT in "Bus Stop" (Cinema page 46) I already noted the Florida booboo..Talahassee NOT MIami...Other wise I love this book. Sincerely. Enjoy reading it again and again..Usually in bed to get sleepy enough to dive in under the covers. Keep up the good work ...but have some editors check and double check the facts.