Customer Reviews

Don't Know Much About Anything Else: Even More Things You Need to Know but Never Learned About People, Places, Events, and More!

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Having read all of Mr. Davis' other (adult) books including Don't Know Much About Anything, I was a bit disappointed in this one. It seems like he put together some of the leftovers from the latter mentioned book just to publish something, and it didn't contain nearly as much interesting trivia as its forerunner. While it still included some interesting tidbits and was an incredibly quick read, I would recommend any of his other books before this one.

Everyone has a dream. For some it is performing on Broadway, writing the Great American Novel, or running a marathon. For my son it has been to be a contestant on Jeopardy. Like a moth to the flame whenever tryouts for Jeopardy are announced in a nearby locale my son is one of the first in queue.

And like any good parent I have spent a small fortune on books spanning the physical sciences to the arts in furtherance of the Jeopardy quest. After reading Don't Know Much About Anything Else by Kenneth C. Davis, the latest installment in the Don't Know Much Series I might have been better off if I had restricted my purchases to those penned by Davis. The book is comprised of series of one page quizzes on subjects ranging from Japan to the paths of the post-breakup Beatles and almost everything in between. The quizzes are well crafted and easy to read.

While I don't know if Don't Know Much About Anything Else is the magic key to the Jeopardy kingdom, my son will at least have a few laughs while absorbing, for example, the history of Leap Day. As Davis puts it, "fun and education can mingle."

Don't Know Much About Anything Else is highly entertaining and should be required reading for any would be Jeopardy contestant.

What you might have missed in school, you can find it here. Want to know about Clara Barton, Ansel Adams, Nostradamus, famous spies, etc., it's all here and written in an "easy reading" style. It is also probably a good reviewer when you expect to go on a quiz show and win a million dollars, or when you want to throw out some trivia that no one knows about or maybe doesn't care - remember Cliff on "Cheers?" It's fun reading and definitely worth a few shekels. It's also a good way to stimulate memory enhancement and reach back into the hidden recesses of your brain for something you once knew but it got lost...and then you found it again.

I bought this book for my adult son who didn't seem to learn much growing up. He loved it and read it all the way through. Afterward he told me he did know a lot after all. He is now thinking of going to college ??? Wow.