The Intellectual Devotional: Revive Your Mind, Complete Your Education, and Roam Confidently with the Cultured Class [Hardcover]

David S. Kidder (Author), Noah D. Oppenheim (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 3, 2006

This daily digest of intellectual challenge and learning will arouse curiosity, refresh knowledge, expand horizons, and keep the mind sharp

Millions of Americans keep bedside books of prayer and meditative reflection--collections of daily passages to stimulate spiritual thought and advancement. The Intellectual Devotional is a secular version of the same--a collection of 365 short lessons that will inspire and invigorate the reader every day of the year. Each daily digest of wisdom is drawn from one of seven fields of knowledge: history, literature, philosophy, mathematics and science, religion, fine arts, and music.

Impress your friends by explaining Plato's Cave Allegory, pepper your cocktail party conversation with opera terms, and unlock the mystery of how batteries work. Daily readings range from important passages in literature to basic principles of physics, from pivotal events in history to images of famous paintings with accompanying analysis. The book's goal is to refresh knowledge we've forgotten, make new discoveries, and exercise modes of thinking that are ordinarily neglected once our school days are behind us. Offering an escape from the daily grind to contemplate higher things, The Intellectual Devotional is a great way to awaken in the morning or to revitalize one's mind before retiring in the evening.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

DAVID S. KIDDER is an entrepreneur with a wide range of technology and marketing experience. Kidder and his companies have appeared in articles in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and other publications. He lives in Westchester, New York, with his wife Johanna, their new baby, Jack, and Bella, their charismatic dog.

NOAH D. OPPENHEIM, a producer of NBC's Today show, has extensive experience in television and print journalism. He has produced and reported for Scarborough Country and Hardball with Chris Matthews, and his writing has appeared in Esquire, the Wall Street Journal, Men's Health, and the Weekly Standard. He lives in New York City with his wife Allison.

From AudioFile

Two voices--one male, one female--read short essays on 365 topics in seven fields of learning. Both narrators are competent, but the contrast between them is too great. Helen Litchfield's voice is sharper and louder than Oliver Wyman's. Further, the information is superficial and untrustworthy; there are frequent errors of fact and interpretation. The book's "daily" format is an uncomfortable match for audio. Audiobook consumers rarely listen for just a few minutes, the length of one of these entries. As a result, this is like listening to a substandard encyclopedia. Like the writers, the narrators can't be experts on every subject--as their pronunciation of many foreign and classical terms, or even "difficult" words, shows--they are off, or simply wrong, often enough to chafe. Both book and recording exhibit a lack of seriousness and care. W.M. © AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 375 pages
• Publisher: Rodale Books; Rough cut edition (October 3, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1594865132
• ISBN-13: 978-1594865138
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.6 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (162 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #15,545 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

191 of 197 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Growing Knowledge, One Page at a Time, October 28, 2006

By 

William Holmes "semloh2287" (Portland, OR USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Intellectual Devotional: Revive Your Mind, Complete Your Education, and Roam Confidently with the Cultured Class (Hardcover)

"The Intellectual Devotional" is an intriguing concept and fairly well executed. Each day of the week features a brief, one page article about a given subject, followed by a smattering of "additional facts"--Monday's topic is history, Tuesday's is literature, Wednesday's is the visual arts, Thursday's is science, Friday's is music, Saturday's is philosophy and Sunday's is religion. I've been reading the book for a couple of weeks now, and I've found the brief essays to be informative, up-to-date and (on topics with which I'm already familiar) accurate. I read each daily "devotional" at breakfast over a cup of coffee, and it's a pleasant way to start the day (and certainly less painful than the newspaper).

Several of the reviews on Amazon have criticized the book's small type, and this is in fact something to be wary of if you have vision problems. The first paragraph on each page is in what appears to be a regular-sized font, but subsequent paragraphs are quite a bit smaller. The "Additional Facts" (which set out some of the most intriguing ideas on each page) are quite small indeed.

45 of 47 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars LEARNING AND LIKING IT: KNOWLEDGE TIDBITS, December 21, 2006

By 

Dorothy Weiss (ORLANDO, FLORIDA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Intellectual Devotional: Revive Your Mind, Complete Your Education, and Roam Confidently with the Cultured Class (Hardcover)

Do you frequently find yourself at a loss for words? Are you the constant listener to someone else's mindless chatter simply because you can't think of anything interesting to say?
Authors Kidder and Oppenheim offer factual options in this cleverly written book to enliven your conversations and broaden your knowledge on a variety of subjects. Their compilation offers History, Literature, Visual Arts, Science, Music, Philosophy and Religion explained in brief one page summaries. Each day you read one page only, absorb it. By the end of the week you will have explored each field of knowledge at least once a week. As your knowledge expands, so does your confidence and your conversations have more interesting substance.

Each day, while reading the book, I shared the information I had learned with my husband and friends who were delighted to discuss Ernest Hemingway, Cloning, illusion vs reality, Hammurabi's code of Laws, Noah, Plato, The Solar System, Vaccines, Albert Einstein, the Solar system, Da Vinci, Plato, Handel, atoms, Aristotle, Mozart, and Vermeer's "Girl with a Pearl Earring" painting, just to mention a few passages. Actress Scarlett Johanssen portrayed "the girl" in a recent film based on Vermeer's life, so we gained more insight into how that portrait, "Girl with a Pearl Ear-ring," manifested, then our conversation strayed naturally to the quality of current motion pictures like "The Horse Whisperer" and " Island," in which Scarlett Johanssen was also featured, and that is exactly the purpose of this book, "to wake up our brains," enliven our thoughts, enhance our communication skills so that we become more confident and knowledgeable and stop hesitating to engage in diverse and dynamic conversations.


No need to be a hesitant, shy, silent observer. After reading this book, step into life armed with more knowledge and facts!

27 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Daily food for the mind, December 15, 2006

By 

C. G. La Ferle "Columnist and reader" (Midwest, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Intellectual Devotional: Revive Your Mind, Complete Your Education, and Roam Confidently with the Cultured Class (Hardcover)

What a fabulous concept! As a fan of daybooks and devotionals, I love the idea of this book. Covering seven key areas of knowledge, one for each day of the week, it delivers what it promises in the title and subtitle. I would have given the book FIVE stars if it weren't for the incredibly SMALL TYPE that makes reading very difficult for middle-aged readers like me -- especially at the end of the day. I am hoping that the publishers will release a "large print" version for anyone past 50. I will look forward to more editions of this wonderful book. Other than the typesize, it's highly recommended.