Customer Reviews

Imponderables The Solution to the Mysteries of Everyday Life

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is the first of the Imponderables series of books. For people like me who love to accumulate useless but fascinating information it is a wonderful book. It asks the questions (Why do we itch, why are there holes in Swiss cheese, why does an X stand for a kiss, etc....) and then proceeds to answer them. If you ever wanted to be a know-it-all (or want your know-it-all to at least have the right answers) then read this book and become the authority on useless information with your family and friends. Much more fascinating than trivia books (after all you might want to know why cashews are not sold in their shells but who really cares who the runner up for the 1998 Ms America was?).
Each piece is a short question and answer so that you could pick it up and read one in a minute or two, but if you are like me then once you have read one you have to keep on reading the next and then the next until you have consumed an hour or more of fascinating reading.

I knew that the tenth book in the IMPONDERABLES series would be published soon so I kept an eye out for it. I kept track of new books by anyone named David Feldman. I saw "Why Don't Cats Like to Swim?" and almost bought it. I'm glad I didn't because this is just the original book (originally published in 1986 under the simple title "Imponderables") repackaged under a new title.

The book I was actually waiting for turned out to be "Do Elephants Jump?"

You can get "Do Elephants Jump?" in either hardcover or softcover.

(I suggest you get that book and consult the index before submitting an Imponderable to the author to be answered in the eleventh book. The index covers all ten books so that people will not send in duplicate imponderables.)

Imponderables 1 (aka Why Don't Cat's Like to Swim) is a really entertaining and informative book. It's definitely worth reading. And it's probably worth buying (instead of borrowing) so that you can RE-read it any time you want....

Just be careful not to buy the same book twice.

I would have given this book 5 stars (I might do so for the *original* edition), but I took a star away because the publisher pulled an underhanded trick, knowing that people expecting a *new* Imponderables-series book might be fooled by a new title.

Ok, let me say this- the IMPONDERABLES series of books, by David Feldman, is a great series. They offer answers to many of Life's odd question, the one you ponder over, but can't just look up somewhere. Well, until now.

"Why Don't Cats Like to Swim?" is a fine book, but it really is "Imponderables", the first in the series, published in 1986.

However, in 2004 it was republished with the new "Why Don't Cats Like to Swim?' It's a fine book, but not one that most of us would want to buy twice!

Reading the first of the Imponderables books certainly made me glad that there are more. If you are unfamiliar with the Imponderables series, I will explain: David Feldman puts together a list of questions ("Why do people look up when they're thinking?" or "Why do we tie shoes to the back of newlyweds' cars?") and then proceeds to answer them. The illustations are more amusing than what you are likely to find on the comics page of your local newspaper and the writing is very witty. If you have read the other Imponderables books, this one is not especially different from the others. Enjoy!

There are a number of these books out by this author and I had seen some adds that made them look very interesting. I found a number of problems with this book. There were items that only received a small paragraph that I would have liked to have seen pages, and items with pages that could have been a single paragraph. I also wanted more detail that was there, plus it would have been nice to have seen resources on where the information came from. I gave it a 2 as it was interesting to a very small point.

When I read the Amazon Customer Reviews on this little book,I noted that there were 2 of 6 submitted by Top Reviewers.Let me now make that 3 of 7.That is an unusually high percentage for any book and especially for such a humdrum little tome such as this. You'll not likely find it on the shelf with the great works of literature,in the how to section of your bookstore;and in fact it may be somewhat hard to locate.Miscellaneous or Reference may be your best bet.However; once taken home,it just might be left laying around for people to kill a bit of time.The cottage,the john or what an improvement for Waiting Rooms instead of those horrid magazines we usually see.Why not,is an improndable in itself.The obvious answer is ,that it would be swiped ,or as the British would say "nicked" at the first opportunity.(Don't you just love that word?)
This is not my first "Imponderable" by Feldman,and it won't be my last.There seems to be no end to the things he comes up with and seldom are any of them ,that one has not wondered about.
One thing that will drive you around the bend though,is if you read too much of this stuff;you'll never remember where you "heard it".
In this book ,which was previously published as "Imponderables" Feldman provides a Master Index to all those gems he has answered in his 10 books. For reasons of sanity alone,that makes this a "Keeper"
I consider these "Imponderables" in the same realm as Ripley's "Believe It or Not!" and find them irrestable to anyone who comes across them.
Of particular interest to book lovers is the 6 pages of info he gives us on the way books are set up,page numbering,etc.
After reading this section;I was wondering what the purpose of that piece of checkered cloth at the top of the spine was. I checked the Master Index;and Lo! and Behold !; the answer can be found in Book 7,pages 126-127.

I was extrememly disappointed when I saw the size of this "mini-book". I purchased it for a gift for my father-in-law and was almost embarrassed to send it.

Great book. I purchased this for my 12 year old nephew last christmas and he loved it, because that is how his mind works. Fortunatly, so does mine - I love to think about things so I had to read it first! What fun!

This was a great gift for my teenage boy who asks a million questions about all sorts of things!

This is an entertaining and quirky book for those of you who love to learn and are interested in useful trivia. I wish we had read the small print because you need a magnifying glass to read the tiny book we received. We were disappointed to say the least. This is one book in a series, all of which have been enjoyed by each of the members of our family.